Based on the NIT projections and Coach Forbes' post-game radio comments last night, the season is complete. Now that we've had a night and day to decompress, I'm curious about your thoughts on the season. What are your comments, evaluation, surprises, whatever?

Although the last couple of weeks, especially last night, was disappointing, the season went much better than I expected. We lost a lot of talent last year, but had a great 16-game run and really turned around some disappointing outcomes in the non-conference portion. The fan base stepped it up a notch this year. Although we lose a lot again this year, I'm looking forward to next season.

(03-06-2018 06:48 PM)frankenheimer Wrote:  Based on the NIT projections and Coach Forbes' post-game radio comments last night, the season is complete. Now that we've had a night and day to decompress, I'm curious about your thoughts on the season. What are your comments, evaluation, surprises, whatever?

Although the last couple of weeks, especially last night, was disappointing, the season went much better than I expected. We lost a lot of talent last year, but had a great 16-game run and really turned around some disappointing outcomes in the non-conference portion. The fan base stepped it up a notch this year. Although we lose a lot again this year, I'm looking forward to next season.

I will be interested to find out what happened the last three weeks or so of the season. We were playing really well and then something happened. We beat bad teams like WCU and UTC during that period but overall played at a lower level. Still I think next year will be better with more talent and will play for the championship again.

In my opinion this year's team was far inferior to last year's team. But with hard work they achieved similar results. We had ZERO consistent 3-point shooters and still played very well. I know the 3 losses at the end of the regular season bummed us all out, but we exceeded my expectations overall.

(03-08-2018 01:34 AM)Meanmike0001 Wrote:  We had ZERO consistent 3-point shooters and still played very well.

I think we had *great* 3-pt. shooting from about mid-December to early February. I'm not gonna break it all down by time frame, but here are some shooting percentages that, *for the year* are very good, at worst:

Williams - 48.0%
Jurkin - 41.2% (yes, only 17 attempts, I know)
ManMan - 39.1%
McCloud - 38.8%
Reppart - 40.0% (5 attempts)

But your point isn't really incorrect. Those percentages came way down late in the year from where they were a month earlier. "Consistent" is the key word. I would argue that it was a case of reversion to the mean, which I believe I predicted way back during the hot streak.
Importantly, both DBs (31.1% for Bradford, and 27.3% for Burrell) really lost their distance stroke this season compared to last, especially Burrell.

During that time I felt the 3 pointers were taken in the flow of the offense and the percentages were higher. At that same time, the post game and the "drive and dish" or "drive and shoot" were more effective. Funny how the inside offense and 3-pt offensive work off each other.

I think that the team was simply worn out by the last couple of weeks of the season. Their style of play, even with the numbers that they were able to run in and out, finally took a toll on them. They were able to summon two great efforts in the tournament, but the third was just that much too much. Sometime early in the second half of the championship game Armas was leaning over clutching his knees. I thought for a second he was injured. I realized that he was just tired. But he looked as if he couldn't move. He was that worn out. It seemed an indicator of the level of tiredness of the whole team.
A good season, none the less. Not great. But exciting and engaging. It is hard not to speculate what the season might have been if Rodriguez and Edwards had played.

Spot on post Big Island Buc. we were flat worn down and out coming down the home stretch, especially our bigs. Jurkin wasn't even attempting (maybe wasn't physically able) to jump for rebounds it seemed during the last 8-10 games. Armus was gassed as more and more was asked of him. Burrell, Bradford and then Hodges were all banged up. Sure would have been helpful to have had J Rod and Edwards available as we approached the finish line. Still great effort by the guys and a good season - just not the outcome we and more importantly the team wanted I'm sure.

(03-08-2018 07:27 AM)BigIslandBuc Wrote:  Sometime early in the second half of the championship game Armas was leaning over clutching his knees.

Ditto for McCloud.

(03-08-2018 07:27 AM)BigIslandBuc Wrote:  I think that the team was simply worn out by the last couple of weeks of the season. Their style of play, even with the numbers that they were able to run in and out, finally took a toll on them. They were able to summon two great efforts in the tournament, but the third was just that much too much. Sometime early in the second half of the championship game Armas was leaning over clutching his knees. I thought for a second he was injured. I realized that he was just tired. But he looked as if he couldn't move. He was that worn out. It seemed an indicator of the level of tiredness of the whole team.
A good season, none the less. Not great. But exciting and engaging. It is hard not to speculate what the season might have been if Rodriguez and Edwards had played.

This sounds very much like what happened. We lost two bigs early and it wore down the others.

(03-08-2018 09:26 AM)bucfan81 Wrote:  

(03-08-2018 07:27 AM)BigIslandBuc Wrote:  I think that the team was simply worn out by the last couple of weeks of the season. Their style of play, even with the numbers that they were able to run in and out, finally took a toll on them. They were able to summon two great efforts in the tournament, but the third was just that much too much. Sometime early in the second half of the championship game Armas was leaning over clutching his knees. I thought for a second he was injured. I realized that he was just tired. But he looked as if he couldn't move. He was that worn out. It seemed an indicator of the level of tiredness of the whole team.
A good season, none the less. Not great. But exciting and engaging. It is hard not to speculate what the season might have been if Rodriguez and Edwards had played.

This sounds very much like what happened. We lost two bigs early and it wore down the others.

Another "what if" was coming very close to landing Darius Thompson, 6-4 190 transfer from UVA. Rick Stansberry snatched him away to WKU where he averaged 14.2 points on .393 from 3, 4.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.5 steals. You can see him play tonight against UAB in CUSA. He would probably have taken the place of Jalan McCloud. Hate to say it, cause Jalan fought hard and was tremendously valuable for us. But at a physical, rangy 6-4, Darius was at a whole other level of talent.

Yes, Darius would have been a game changer I believe. I watched him play a few times this year and he sort of reminded me of Gelawn.

(03-08-2018 07:27 AM)BigIslandBuc Wrote:  I think that the team was simply worn out by the last couple of weeks of the season. Their style of play, even with the numbers that they were able to run in and out, finally took a toll on them. They were able to summon two great efforts in the tournament, but the third was just that much too much. Sometime early in the second half of the championship game Armas was leaning over clutching his knees. I thought for a second he was injured. I realized that he was just tired. But he looked as if he couldn't move. He was that worn out. It seemed an indicator of the level of tiredness of the whole team.
A good season, none the less. Not great. But exciting and engaging. It is hard not to speculate what the season might have been if Rodriguez and Edwards had played.

I don't know if this is how this is done, replying to one's own post, but I should have said that I am genuinely looking forward to next season; anxious to see who Coach Forbes brings into the program and how they mesh with what I believe to be good returning corps.

Watching all these conference tournament scores run along the bottom of the screen, it reminds one that ETSU is one of the 351 schools playing this game in 32 conferences. And, of course, the vast majority of these teams that will be in the NCAA tourney are little more than fodder as the one-and-outs. Just getting to the dance is the goal for an ETSU, but winning the thing is the goal for a Duke. To me, this makes the regular season premier for an ETSU. And, ETSU had a really good season relative to the other 350. So, keep it up Bucs and keep providing local excitement for the locals with EVERY regular season game played.

GO BUCS!

I thought that this year was Forbes' best coaching job. Burrell and Payne did not have the years that I thought they would, we switch our best player from the point guard that he played last year to make room for McCloud, and play the entire season with Jurkin (who couldn't get off the bench last year) and a true freshman at center. I have no idea how we won this many games.

We started off very poorly, the Northern Kentucky and Troy games were awful as we tried to find our identity. We started playing very well during the Christmas break, peaking in early January and exceeding everyone's expectations. We then started to lose our edge even as we were still winning. With the loss of the losing streak, we lost all confidence and went away from what was successful earlier in the season.

Not one of the better teams we have had, but one that overachieved, provided us all with some good memories, and has set us up for what might be a special season next year.

Your post got me thinking a little more critically (not as in negative, as in academic) about the team and coaching. I underappreciated Coach Forbes' performance. Bradford was really the only dependable player the entire year. Every other player seemed to have multi-game stretches they simply did not contribute. Unfortunately, some of those stretches occurred at the end of the season.

He allotted significant minutes to the younger guys to get experience. Williams, Armus, Obi-Rapu, and Hodges got lots of minutes in significant stretches that should help a bunch in next season.