Is it me or does Mason Faulkner seem just like an average player this year?

(01-21-2021 07:50 AM)etsuBucsFan1988 Wrote:  Is it me or does Mason Faulkner seem just like an average player this year?

I made that same observation when we played them earlier. He doesn’t seem to have the “fire” we saw from him at times last year.

(01-20-2021 09:24 PM)etsuBucsFan1988 Wrote:  

(01-20-2021 09:01 PM)DaBuc Brass Wrote:  

(01-20-2021 08:55 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  Wow. VMI just beat Furman.

Yes! Sole possession of 1st place can be ours Saturday! Let's go BUCS!

Assuming Wofford beats WCU Saturday, they will be 6-1. So even with a win over Furman, we won't have sole possession of 1st., if I am reading up to date standings correctly.

VMI is an extremely dangerous team.

You're correct. Read it wrong, but here's to hoping Wofford loses

(01-21-2021 08:24 AM)seagrove10 Wrote:  

(01-21-2021 07:50 AM)etsuBucsFan1988 Wrote:  Is it me or does Mason Faulkner seem just like an average player this year?

I made that same observation when we played them earlier. He doesn’t seem to have the “fire” we saw from him at times last year.

It's "something" different, I agree. He's averaging nearly what he did last year, and his shooting percentage is actually higher(!). And his rebounding is nearly the same. Yesterday was only the second time all year he was held below 10, and that other game was also at 9. What I *think* I see is that he's lost a tiny bit of the extraordinarily quick first step and the handle that goes with that. Last year he could beat virtually any defender off the dribble more times than not. That just doesn't seem to be happening this year. Oh, yes, he can do it at times, but last year, whenever he got the ball, we as ETSU fans would tense up wondering what he was going to do *this* time. He was clearly one of the, if not *the* best player on the court. That simply can't be said right now.
Could it be that ETSU is in his head? Is he wishing he had put himself in the portal?

(01-21-2021 06:15 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  

(01-20-2021 04:54 PM)shampoo Wrote:  WCU may be scrappy, but they don’t have an “it” factor.

I think that's 'it'. (And a nice follow-up to your pithy "all cannon and no fort" comment for VMI.) One could *almost* say they have equal talent to ETSU - depending on how one measures that. It's kinda mysterious how they lose games that they have no business losing - yesterday being a great example. We could have lost that game by 15-20 *easily*. But the Bucs responded, and Catamounts couldn't respond back. Yesterday, watching............I was thinking, "poise" in reference to them, but I don't know that that's it. They didn't seem to lose their poise, as much as not exploiting their advantages properly. Their execution failed moreso than even ours (often) did. We got lucky; but it's also true to say it's somehow easy to get lucky against WCU. I don't know if that's Prosser's fault, or maybe the type of player they've recruited, or what. We've all been realizing the potential of this WCU team, and theorizing that they're better than they were with Dotson - which I think is *potentially* true - but they're just not making it happen. Quite mysterious, actually.

Thanks, doc. Just callin’ ‘em like I sees ‘em. There was lots of fight but no kill in WCU against ETSU in regular conference this year.