Well, it's that time of year where teams start to put together plans for next spring and, for everyone except Jim Calhoun's UConn squad and Gary Blair's Texas A&M side, figure out where they went wrong in 2010-11. With that in mind, I think this is the best time to put out my evaluations of this year's ETSU squads. We'll start with the women, who were unceremoniously bounced from the conference tournament in the semifinals this year, ending a dream of four straight championships.
Personally, I think this was a team capable of much more than it achieved this year. This team could have won the conference title with ease; granted, they would have gone nowhere in the NCAA tournament, but they could have at least gotten one last title ring for Davis and Belcher. Their dependence on streaky outside shooting, lackluster defense in key situations and propensity for high volumes of turnovers proved to be their undoing. But were the parts greater than the whole? Have a look:
Tara Davis
33.7 MPG, .330 FG%, .299 3FG%, .818 FT%, 15.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 4.7 APG, 5.2 TOPG, 0.5 BPG, 2.3 SPG
10.64 EFF, -9.80 VAA, 3.69 VAR, .480 TSP, .382 EFG, .284 AST%, .198 TO%, .047 TRB%
When it was first announced that Tarita Gordon would miss the 2010-11 season with a knee injury, the weight fell on TD's shoulders to run the point. If you looked at the basic statistics, you'd say that she did just that; however, the more advanced numbers tell a much different story. Davis gave the ball away at nearly a 20% clip, which is an absurd number, even for a point guard (who is expected to get more touches and, thus, turn the ball over more frequently). Her .382 Effective Field Goal Percentage is deplorable, ahead of only Iesha Robinson among the players that qualified for this evaluation. Not unlike Allen Iverson (or Briana Williams, if you want a more relevant comparison), she scored so many points because she took so many shots; she had 108 more field goal attempts than her shooting guard, Natalie Pickwell.
It's funny that I say that now, because Davis would have made for a very effective shooting guard with Gordon at the point, and with all of her raw productivity, maybe that's where she should have been anyway. C
Destiny Mitchell
30.4 MPG, .518 FG%, .736 FT%, 14.5 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 1.6 APG, 2.5 TOPG, 2.2 SPG
21.42 EFF, 13.03 VAA, 25.19 VAR, .550 TSP, .518 EFG, .126 AST%, .145 TO%, .164 ORB%, .118 DRB%, .135 TRB%
I picked Destiny Mitchell over Briana Williams as my freshman of the year for more than a few reasons, none of which were related to our chosen university. Mitchell had the ability to completely take over a game in the way that very few other players in this conference can. She held on to the ball well, had active hands in the back court, and had the speed to take the ball back down the floor in transition. She also crashed the glass constantly in the offensive end; any player grabbing 16.4% of available offensive rebounds is an enormous boost to an offense, and that was something they missed when she got hurt. She missed the last seven games of the season with a dislocated knee cap, but that's something that should be fairly easy to recover from (although certainly painful), and if this year was any indication, she is ready to terrorize the Atlantic Sun for the next three years. I thought she was the best player on this team this year, and the numbers back me up on that. A+
Natalie Pickwell
29.5 MPG, .393 FG%, .398 3FG%, .852 FT%, 4.4 RPG, 0.8 APG, 1.3 TOPG, 0.7 SPG
12.50 EFF, -4.91 VAA, 6.89 VAR, .544 TSP, .506 EFG, .053 AST%, .109 TO%, .069 TRB%
The expectations for Pickwell this season were fairly low coming in to this season. After two quiet years a good ways down the bench, the Kingsport product finally found her stride this year, and went on a massive scoring tear in January. The three on her jersey definitely reflects her biggest strength, as her shooting statistics will clearly point out. Really, how many players at ANY level of basketball have a three-point percentage that's higher than their base shooting percentage? It's completely counter-intuitive, but I'm not going to complain. Having a player like that at the two spot is certainly not a bad thing, and after a very strong season this year, Pickwell still has an outside shot at 1,000 points for her career, and although she won't catch Michele DeVault's school record for career threes made, she could very easily have a DeVault-style closing to her tennure at ETSU.
The other big note on Pickwell is how well she values the basketball. Turnovers were a huge issue for the team this year, but Pickwell turned the ball over on just 11% of her touches, the best number on the team and one of the best in the conference (Kelsey Jacobson of FGCU leads the A-Sun in this stat, with a .089 Turnover Percentage). The big problem with pure scorers, though, is that they tend to run hot-and-cold. After a very solid swing against the Nashville schools, Pickwell went quiet, with her best total in the last three games of the year being 11 points in a narrow victory over Lipscomb in the first round of the tournament. Still, she exceeded my expectations this year, and if she continues to develop, she should be a major factor in her senior year. B
Latisha Belcher
26.3 MPG, .448 FG%, .693 FT%, 8.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 1.6 APG, 2.1 TOPG, 0.9 BPG, 1.9 SPG
17.56 EFF, 4.49 VAA, 15.00 VAR, .516 TSP, .448 EFG, .121 AST%, .173 TO%, .152 ORB%, .114 DRB%, .128 TRB%
Anyone who expected Tish to come back and dominate as a senior after two knee injuries had their hopes dashed. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would expect that. Those are probably the same people who expect ETSU to go to the second round of the NCAA tournament every year. Despite playing on two bad knees, Tish was still very solid in her final year. While hardly the pinnacle of senior productivity, she gave the team a strong presence on the glass that they very much needed in the absence of Mitchell, and she elevated her game at the right times to keep this team's title hopes alive. Case in point: in the Jacksonville game, Belcher picked up four fouls in the first half, and then came back and played 19 minutes without taking that last foul, going 4/6 from the field and 4/6 from the free throw line, grabbing five boards and FOUR steals to keep the team alive. She didn't have much left to give, but when the team needed her, she was able to rise to the occasion. It's a darn shame that she didn't get one last ring, but she certainly left the fans with some lasting memories, even in losing efforts. B+
Gwen Washington
25.4 MPG, .370 FG%, .157 3FG%, .847 FT%, 9.3 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 2.1 APG, 2.1 TOPG, 0.8 SPG
12.88 EFF, -3.59 VAA, 6.55 VAR, .452 TSP, .384 EFG, .165 AST%, .145 TO%, .104 ORB%, .089 TRB%
If you're looking for a player to give your team a lift off the bench, look no further than Gwen Washington. After losing her starting spot early in the campaign, Gwen found her form from the bench and really provided a big lift as the sixth man. Her shooting numbers are really poor, but she still managed to produce 9+5 per game off the bench, and was the best free throw shooter on the team. She got in the mix and fought for offensive boards, kept the turnovers down, and her efficiency numbers were better than Davis'. She'll be back in a starting role next fall, so she has to find her form on a more consistent basis, but I think this year was important for Washington's development. B-
Shawn Randall
17.4 MPG, .370 FG%, .262 3FG%, .724 FT%, 5.8 PPG, 2.0 RPG, 0.8 APG, 3.0 TOPG
4.29 EFF, -12.42 VAA, -5.46 VAR, .459 TSP, .403 EFG, .090 AST%, .300 TO%
I have a tendency to cut freshmen some slack, especially when they're pressed into early service due to injuries, which Shawn was. Randall showed flashes of real brilliance this year, particularly on Senior Day against JU, which gives hope for the future. What's really important for most freshman, though, is establishing what needs to be worked on going forward. Randall has to make smarter decisions with the basketball. That may mean taking fewer shots, passing the ball more and not trying to beat defenders one-on-one like most D1 players can in high school. It's tough to change a player's habits and instincts, and Randall picked up on some of it, but not all of it. She didn't have a great season, just an average one, but she did well enough to give hope for the future. C+
Tosha Austin
16.7 MPG, .447 FG%, .500 FT%, 2.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 0.4 APG, 1.4 TOPG, 0.7 BPG, 0.6 SPG
12.77 EFF, -2.48 VAA, 4.19 VAR, .459 TSP, .447 EFG, .042 AST%, .282 TO%, .094 ORB%, .149 DRB%, .129 TRB%
I would imagine that more than a few folks are disappointed in Austin's play this season. Certainly, the base numbers aren't great, even for a bench player, but Austin is very much a defensive specialist. Sure, she's not a great shooter or ball-handler by any stretch, but she was second on the team in blocks, pulled in a respectable 19 steals, and averaged nearly 5 boards a game off the bench. Tosha is not going to be a star, but she will be a solid role player for this team over the next two years. Her ability to shut down opposing post players will make her invaluable going forward. She's not quite there, but she's moving in the right direction. B-
Jasmine McIntosh
10.8 MPG, .404 FG%, .308 3FG%, .750 FT%, 3.6 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 0.3 APG, 0.8 TOPG,
11.00 EFF, -2.88 VAA, 1.43 VAR, .500 TSP, .472 EFG, .062 AST%, .192 TO%
A lot of what I've said for other players applies to J-Mac. Take smarter shots and value the basketball. 25 turnovers in her limited playing time is just ridiculous, and her 3.6 PPG does nothing to offset that. I'll cut her some slack because, like Randall, she's a freshman pressed into extended duty by injuries, but if she's going to take that many threes, she needs to be more accurate. C+
Iesha Robinson
10.2 MPG, .264 FG%, .200 3FG%, .593 FT%, 2.8 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 0.5 APG, 1.0 TOPG
6.11 EFF, -4.01 VAA, -1.30 VAR, .403 TSP, .367 EFG, .052 AST%, .325 TO%
Iesha didn't go on several key road trips late in the season. Personally, I think that's pretty indicative of how well she performed this year, as if the numbers aren't. The rebounding numbers are fine, but her shooting stats are poor by any standard. She averaged a turnover per game in ten minutes of playing time, and made an average of one possession's difference in a given contest on the offensive end, which wouldn't have mattered one way or the other in most of ETSU's games this year. D
Incompletes (>10 MPG)
Ashley Benedict
Ashley Miles
Akaycha Robinson
So there you have it: the ETSU women's basketball team in review in 2010-11. Tomorrow, it's time for the boys to come out to play one more time. And when I say "tomorrow," I really do mean tomorrow this time. No, seriously.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Back Up To Speed
Well, the Blog has been rather quiet the last couple of weeks, although not much has been missed:
ETSU basketball mismanaged its way into a defeat at the hands of Iona in the CIT semifinals. Granted, this was an excellent Iona team, but I will never stop pointing out the six seconds that ticked off the clock while ETSU's front court sat on its hands. That situation right there cost that team the game. I hate the fact that fouling is utilized as a defensive strategy, but it's a fact of life, and they need to utilize it in a situation like that. Nobody on the floor was in foul trouble at the time, and you're only down by a point. If you have enough time after the free throws, you can get the ball in Mike Smith's hands and let your best player win you the game. I guess we'll never know what he could have done, and he'll fall just 18 points short of Tom Chilton at 6th on the all-time scoring list.
At the very least, Zeke broke the single-season record set by Zakee Wadood for blocks. He's chasing the all-time mark now, and it's well within his reach if he stays healthy his senior year.
In baseball, the Bucs exploded for a 10-run eighth inning in the opener against Florida Gulf Coast. Bo Burton actually picked up a save in that game, coming in with the tying run aboard in the top of the eighth after a great start from John Long. The Eagles then bounced back with a blowout win thanks to five errors yesterday. They're just under way as I type this. Bo Reeder has exploded in this series and reached 200 hits. He's hitting a sensational .356 and slugging a sensational .723. He leads the team in homers with TEN, and is second in RBIs with 32 (Pratt has 34). With the team hitting .310 and scoring 163 runs, the offense is great, and despite the enormous ERA numbers from the pitching staff, the staff has been okay. The issue has been defense. ETSU's .949 defense is the worst in the Atlantic Sun. Kerry Doane has 13 errors already, and is fielding a very poor .888. Reeder, for all his offensive prowess and mound dominance, is fielding an atrocious .830 with nine errors. Niesman is fielding .899 with nine bloopers of his own. Those numbers simply have to get better if this team wants to be better than a game above .500 in conference play. The A-Sun is simply too good not to exploit that kind of defense. We saw it on full display yesterday.
Softball has... well, it hasn't been pretty. Whitney Kiihnl was expected to dominate this team, and she did. And so did JJ Nelson. And Sarah Sigrest. And Olivia Kline, who threw the first complete game no-hitter in the history of Betty Basler Field (Shelby Morris and Marissa Hardy had combined for a perfect game previously). With the exception of two big wins against a very bad Belmont team and a promising start against a poor Appalachian State squad that got washed out before being made official, the squad has really struggled. The big sore spot hasn't been the offense, which is actually pretty average relative to other A-Sun teams (the bats are actually better than Lipscomb's on paper), but rather the defense. All of it.
The fielding defense is tenth in the conference in errors (56, ahead of Campbell) and fielding percentage (.941, ahead of Belmont). The pitching staff is last in A-Sun in runs allowed (206), earned runs (151), walks (121), doubles allowed (45), and homers allowed (39). They're also 10th in batting average against (.284, ahead of Belmont), and hit batters (23, ahead of Jacksonville).
The pitching struggles could not have been put on display any better than they were yesterday in the second game of the North Florida series. With two outs in her pocket in the top of the seventh and looking to close out a fantastic performance in which she had given up only one run on three hits, Morris came unraveled. I could spend hours trying to find the eloquence to describe this sequence of pitches, but I think I'll just do it this way and let you imagine how this went down:
Fielders Choice P to 3B (2 outs)
Wild pitch (Runners at second and third)
Wild pitch (R, 2-2)
Walk
Duncan to P for Morris
HBP (Bases Loaded)
Walk (R, 3-2 UNF)
Morris to P for Duncan
Walk (R, 4-2 UNF)
Walk (R, 5-2 UNF)
Wolff to P for Morris
Ground out to SS
Four runs on no hits, no errors, three left on base.
This reminds me of something Keanu Reeves said in The Replacements. To paraphrase:
Something goes wrong. And you try to fight against it, but then another thing goes wrong. And another. And another. And the harder you fight against it, the faster you sink, until you're in over your head, just like quicksand.
There's a lot of truth in that (not just in sports, but in life, although that's beyond our context on BB:BE). It happened to Jean Van de Velde in the 1999 British Open, and this collapse by Morris was every bit as painful to watch. I recognize that pitchers are competitive and want to win games on their own, but if you're having a hard time hitting your spots down low, you have to throw the batters something they can put in play and put some trust in your defense. Even if you have to throw it right down the middle, you're pitching to the bottom of the order and it's not prudent to try to dance around them.
There are moments that define your season, for better or worse. This is one of those moments for Brad Irwin's squad. When they put themselves in a great position to win games, clicking on all cylinders, Murphy's Law kicks in and they get saddled with a loss when they should have had a win. Still, this team can't give up on their season just yet. They still have a chance for a sweep against Stetson next weekend, and then again when they take on Mercer later. If they can play .500 in conference the rest of the way, they have a good shot at making the conference tournament, and anything can happen once you get there.
Men's soccer is in action today. They took on Lincoln Memorial earlier, and will play Milligan at 6:30 tonight in the final home game of their spring season.
And before I forget (because they deserve far more coverage than I have given them this year), big congratulations are in order t
o the men's and women's tennis squads. The men wrapped up at least a share of the regular season title yet again with UNF (it's an outright title if Jacksonville beats UNF on April 10). The women wrapped up the outright regular season crown with their win over Mercer yesterday. Both teams finished 9-1 in regular season play and will gear up for the Atlantic Sun tournaments in sunny DeLand, Florida. After my recent clashes with the weather out at Basler Field, I don't blame them for heading south.
ETSU basketball mismanaged its way into a defeat at the hands of Iona in the CIT semifinals. Granted, this was an excellent Iona team, but I will never stop pointing out the six seconds that ticked off the clock while ETSU's front court sat on its hands. That situation right there cost that team the game. I hate the fact that fouling is utilized as a defensive strategy, but it's a fact of life, and they need to utilize it in a situation like that. Nobody on the floor was in foul trouble at the time, and you're only down by a point. If you have enough time after the free throws, you can get the ball in Mike Smith's hands and let your best player win you the game. I guess we'll never know what he could have done, and he'll fall just 18 points short of Tom Chilton at 6th on the all-time scoring list.
At the very least, Zeke broke the single-season record set by Zakee Wadood for blocks. He's chasing the all-time mark now, and it's well within his reach if he stays healthy his senior year.
In baseball, the Bucs exploded for a 10-run eighth inning in the opener against Florida Gulf Coast. Bo Burton actually picked up a save in that game, coming in with the tying run aboard in the top of the eighth after a great start from John Long. The Eagles then bounced back with a blowout win thanks to five errors yesterday. They're just under way as I type this. Bo Reeder has exploded in this series and reached 200 hits. He's hitting a sensational .356 and slugging a sensational .723. He leads the team in homers with TEN, and is second in RBIs with 32 (Pratt has 34). With the team hitting .310 and scoring 163 runs, the offense is great, and despite the enormous ERA numbers from the pitching staff, the staff has been okay. The issue has been defense. ETSU's .949 defense is the worst in the Atlantic Sun. Kerry Doane has 13 errors already, and is fielding a very poor .888. Reeder, for all his offensive prowess and mound dominance, is fielding an atrocious .830 with nine errors. Niesman is fielding .899 with nine bloopers of his own. Those numbers simply have to get better if this team wants to be better than a game above .500 in conference play. The A-Sun is simply too good not to exploit that kind of defense. We saw it on full display yesterday.
Softball has... well, it hasn't been pretty. Whitney Kiihnl was expected to dominate this team, and she did. And so did JJ Nelson. And Sarah Sigrest. And Olivia Kline, who threw the first complete game no-hitter in the history of Betty Basler Field (Shelby Morris and Marissa Hardy had combined for a perfect game previously). With the exception of two big wins against a very bad Belmont team and a promising start against a poor Appalachian State squad that got washed out before being made official, the squad has really struggled. The big sore spot hasn't been the offense, which is actually pretty average relative to other A-Sun teams (the bats are actually better than Lipscomb's on paper), but rather the defense. All of it.
The fielding defense is tenth in the conference in errors (56, ahead of Campbell) and fielding percentage (.941, ahead of Belmont). The pitching staff is last in A-Sun in runs allowed (206), earned runs (151), walks (121), doubles allowed (45), and homers allowed (39). They're also 10th in batting average against (.284, ahead of Belmont), and hit batters (23, ahead of Jacksonville).
The pitching struggles could not have been put on display any better than they were yesterday in the second game of the North Florida series. With two outs in her pocket in the top of the seventh and looking to close out a fantastic performance in which she had given up only one run on three hits, Morris came unraveled. I could spend hours trying to find the eloquence to describe this sequence of pitches, but I think I'll just do it this way and let you imagine how this went down:
Fielders Choice P to 3B (2 outs)
Wild pitch (Runners at second and third)
Wild pitch (R, 2-2)
Walk
Duncan to P for Morris
HBP (Bases Loaded)
Walk (R, 3-2 UNF)
Morris to P for Duncan
Walk (R, 4-2 UNF)
Walk (R, 5-2 UNF)
Wolff to P for Morris
Ground out to SS
Four runs on no hits, no errors, three left on base.
This reminds me of something Keanu Reeves said in The Replacements. To paraphrase:
Something goes wrong. And you try to fight against it, but then another thing goes wrong. And another. And another. And the harder you fight against it, the faster you sink, until you're in over your head, just like quicksand.
There's a lot of truth in that (not just in sports, but in life, although that's beyond our context on BB:BE). It happened to Jean Van de Velde in the 1999 British Open, and this collapse by Morris was every bit as painful to watch. I recognize that pitchers are competitive and want to win games on their own, but if you're having a hard time hitting your spots down low, you have to throw the batters something they can put in play and put some trust in your defense. Even if you have to throw it right down the middle, you're pitching to the bottom of the order and it's not prudent to try to dance around them.
There are moments that define your season, for better or worse. This is one of those moments for Brad Irwin's squad. When they put themselves in a great position to win games, clicking on all cylinders, Murphy's Law kicks in and they get saddled with a loss when they should have had a win. Still, this team can't give up on their season just yet. They still have a chance for a sweep against Stetson next weekend, and then again when they take on Mercer later. If they can play .500 in conference the rest of the way, they have a good shot at making the conference tournament, and anything can happen once you get there.
Men's soccer is in action today. They took on Lincoln Memorial earlier, and will play Milligan at 6:30 tonight in the final home game of their spring season.
And before I forget (because they deserve far more coverage than I have given them this year), big congratulations are in order t
o the men's and women's tennis squads. The men wrapped up at least a share of the regular season title yet again with UNF (it's an outright title if Jacksonville beats UNF on April 10). The women wrapped up the outright regular season crown with their win over Mercer yesterday. Both teams finished 9-1 in regular season play and will gear up for the Atlantic Sun tournaments in sunny DeLand, Florida. After my recent clashes with the weather out at Basler Field, I don't blame them for heading south.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Bucs Advance; Baseball Hits Wall, Drops Ball; Softball News
Say what you will about Justin Tubbs' consistency (and believe me, I will when postseason grades come out), the guy is really motivated to keep playing basketball, putting up 27 points on an unsuspecting Ohio team as ETSU rolled to an 82-73 win.
Nine points may not seem like a lopsided victory, but it certainly was on Tuesday night. Even though the Bucs got out-rebounded, there's a very clear reason for it: they were hitting their shots. When your team is shooting 53% from the field, 47% from beyond the arc, and 72% from the free throw line, you're firing on all cylinders.
There's also the matter (not a small one by any stretch) of Mike Smith's tremendous second half performance, as he shot 60% from the field and scored 24 points (with ten boards) without hitting a single three. The squad got a very strong bench performance (?!) from Sollazzo (12+7), and Isiah was okay up front. Heck, if they can keep winning on the backs of Tubbs and Smith, why not?
I love to complain. Finding weaknesses and exposing them is something I take pride in (because weaknesses cannot be mended until they are exposed), but there is not a single thing to complain about from Tuesday's performance. The squad put on a show, hit some clutch shots (especially Smith with two sets of huge free throws and the dunk to send the Bobcats away), and ran Ohio out of their own building.
So now it's on to Iona, who is perhaps most memorable for beating Richmond in double overtime earlier this season, a squad that will take on Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen tomorrow night. Quite a step up there, although Iona is still a 20-win program, but if someone can shut down Mike Glover (no easy task - no one in the MAAC could do it this year), then we're looking at the possibility of something the Bucs wouldn't have even dreamed of coming into this year: a postseason championship.
Baseball's pitching staff finally ran out of juice last weekend, and then again in the doubleheader against Radford. John Long had two disastrous starts, first on Friday (2.1 IP, 5 ER), and again on Tuesday (0.1 IP, 3 ER), and the Bucs never really were able to recover from either. There's also the matter of Bo Burton four innings (8 ER, 4 BB), and Bushey looked mortal back on Sunday (5 ER in 4 IP). In fact, the only solid start of the week belongs to... Clinton Freeman?
That's right! All the promise that Skole talked about with Freeman finally came through on the mound this week. After a solid relief effort in a failed comeback, the Davy Crockett product fanned six and gave up four in four innings on Tuesday. He has now retired eleven batters at the plate in his last 6.2 innings, and seems to have found himself a nice rhythm after struggling at the start of the year. Dak Rissman also had a very impressive relief effort in the Sunday win over the Dolphins, and deservedly got that decision.
At the plate, the squad has been carried by, of all people, Bo Reeder. Big Bo hit .364 on the week with FOUR homers and a dozen RBIs. Meanwhile, Green and Scruggs have gone .176 and .143 respectively, with Scruggs getting rung up seven times. Paul Hoilman hasn't been much better, hitting just .278 with six Ks, but after taking one yard on Tuesday in the second tilt with Radford, maybe he's starting to come out of his funk and will be strong this weekend. They'll need him to be if they want a shot at beating Stetson in DeLand.
Softball had a wild and crazy Monday in a split with King College, which really showed just how perfect Buccaneer pitching has to be in order to pick up wins: Shelby Morris made one mistake, got burned, and when the team went belly-up on offense, she got a loss she probably didn't deserve.
In fairness to the bats, Christy Kooch made a fantastic game-ending catch, showing shades of Willie Mays, as she charged into the outfield fence and held on to the ball. Still, the fact that ETSU could only muster two runs against a Division II seems a little ominous right on the edge of conference season.
Tonight, they'll gear up to face Lipscomb and Whitney Kiihnl, who is 18th in the nation in ERA and 8th in the nation in strikeouts. While that could be a tough match-up, this is still a very winnable pair of games. If the wind kicks up at Basler like it has in the past, I wouldn't be shocked to see ETSU come away with at least a split today.
Nine points may not seem like a lopsided victory, but it certainly was on Tuesday night. Even though the Bucs got out-rebounded, there's a very clear reason for it: they were hitting their shots. When your team is shooting 53% from the field, 47% from beyond the arc, and 72% from the free throw line, you're firing on all cylinders.
There's also the matter (not a small one by any stretch) of Mike Smith's tremendous second half performance, as he shot 60% from the field and scored 24 points (with ten boards) without hitting a single three. The squad got a very strong bench performance (?!) from Sollazzo (12+7), and Isiah was okay up front. Heck, if they can keep winning on the backs of Tubbs and Smith, why not?
I love to complain. Finding weaknesses and exposing them is something I take pride in (because weaknesses cannot be mended until they are exposed), but there is not a single thing to complain about from Tuesday's performance. The squad put on a show, hit some clutch shots (especially Smith with two sets of huge free throws and the dunk to send the Bobcats away), and ran Ohio out of their own building.
So now it's on to Iona, who is perhaps most memorable for beating Richmond in double overtime earlier this season, a squad that will take on Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen tomorrow night. Quite a step up there, although Iona is still a 20-win program, but if someone can shut down Mike Glover (no easy task - no one in the MAAC could do it this year), then we're looking at the possibility of something the Bucs wouldn't have even dreamed of coming into this year: a postseason championship.
Baseball's pitching staff finally ran out of juice last weekend, and then again in the doubleheader against Radford. John Long had two disastrous starts, first on Friday (2.1 IP, 5 ER), and again on Tuesday (0.1 IP, 3 ER), and the Bucs never really were able to recover from either. There's also the matter of Bo Burton four innings (8 ER, 4 BB), and Bushey looked mortal back on Sunday (5 ER in 4 IP). In fact, the only solid start of the week belongs to... Clinton Freeman?
That's right! All the promise that Skole talked about with Freeman finally came through on the mound this week. After a solid relief effort in a failed comeback, the Davy Crockett product fanned six and gave up four in four innings on Tuesday. He has now retired eleven batters at the plate in his last 6.2 innings, and seems to have found himself a nice rhythm after struggling at the start of the year. Dak Rissman also had a very impressive relief effort in the Sunday win over the Dolphins, and deservedly got that decision.
At the plate, the squad has been carried by, of all people, Bo Reeder. Big Bo hit .364 on the week with FOUR homers and a dozen RBIs. Meanwhile, Green and Scruggs have gone .176 and .143 respectively, with Scruggs getting rung up seven times. Paul Hoilman hasn't been much better, hitting just .278 with six Ks, but after taking one yard on Tuesday in the second tilt with Radford, maybe he's starting to come out of his funk and will be strong this weekend. They'll need him to be if they want a shot at beating Stetson in DeLand.
Softball had a wild and crazy Monday in a split with King College, which really showed just how perfect Buccaneer pitching has to be in order to pick up wins: Shelby Morris made one mistake, got burned, and when the team went belly-up on offense, she got a loss she probably didn't deserve.
In fairness to the bats, Christy Kooch made a fantastic game-ending catch, showing shades of Willie Mays, as she charged into the outfield fence and held on to the ball. Still, the fact that ETSU could only muster two runs against a Division II seems a little ominous right on the edge of conference season.
Tonight, they'll gear up to face Lipscomb and Whitney Kiihnl, who is 18th in the nation in ERA and 8th in the nation in strikeouts. While that could be a tough match-up, this is still a very winnable pair of games. If the wind kicks up at Basler like it has in the past, I wouldn't be shocked to see ETSU come away with at least a split today.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Sweeeeeep for Softball; Bucs Draw Ohio in Quarters
It took extra innings to do it, but softball took both games of their doubleheader with Presbyterian yesterday. Pitching won ETSU those two games, as Jessica Duncan pitched yet another complete game, and Wolff and Morris combined for another strong effort against Presbyterian.
In the first game, Duncan was very solid. After a shaky fourth inning where she blew the shutout on back-to-back hits, then had the eventual second run reach on an error by Baird at third base, which was eventually walked home. Duncan dug deep to keep the team ahead, though, getting six of her seven strikeouts after the second run scored and earning a well-deserved victory - and rest.
In the second game, Wolff pitched a solid five innings, and had ETSU in a position to win another tight game. Shelby Morris came on in relief in the bottom of the sixth and gave up two hits and the tying run despite getting all three outs at the plate. The game went two extra innings, but she didn't yield another hit to the Blue Hose, but a run scored in the eighth on an error by Marlina Delisa to keep the game going. It's somewhat fitting, then, that Amy Campbell would score the winning run on a throwing error herself, with Baird's unassisted double play at third closing out the game.
Pitching is the reason ETSU won this game, unquestionably, but the bats seem to have found a rhythm, collecting 22 hits over these two contests. The catch? Only one of those hits went for extra bases. That lack of power is what's really hurting this squad. The table-setters are doing their jobs, though: Nicole Fox went 3/8 across the two contests, and Marlina Delisa seems to have found a new home in the two hole, going 4/7 with 2 RBIs. It's just a matter of finishing the job, and that won't get any easier in a conference that features more than a few quality programs, specifically Upstate, Stetson, Lipscomb, Jacksonville, and Mercer.
Speaking of tough jobs, ETSU will face Ohio in the quarterfinals of the CIT, despite the fact that Ohio got a bye through the second round. I have given up trying to figure out how this tournament works and am just going to go with it. Scouting report on Ohio to come later.
In the first game, Duncan was very solid. After a shaky fourth inning where she blew the shutout on back-to-back hits, then had the eventual second run reach on an error by Baird at third base, which was eventually walked home. Duncan dug deep to keep the team ahead, though, getting six of her seven strikeouts after the second run scored and earning a well-deserved victory - and rest.
In the second game, Wolff pitched a solid five innings, and had ETSU in a position to win another tight game. Shelby Morris came on in relief in the bottom of the sixth and gave up two hits and the tying run despite getting all three outs at the plate. The game went two extra innings, but she didn't yield another hit to the Blue Hose, but a run scored in the eighth on an error by Marlina Delisa to keep the game going. It's somewhat fitting, then, that Amy Campbell would score the winning run on a throwing error herself, with Baird's unassisted double play at third closing out the game.
Pitching is the reason ETSU won this game, unquestionably, but the bats seem to have found a rhythm, collecting 22 hits over these two contests. The catch? Only one of those hits went for extra bases. That lack of power is what's really hurting this squad. The table-setters are doing their jobs, though: Nicole Fox went 3/8 across the two contests, and Marlina Delisa seems to have found a new home in the two hole, going 4/7 with 2 RBIs. It's just a matter of finishing the job, and that won't get any easier in a conference that features more than a few quality programs, specifically Upstate, Stetson, Lipscomb, Jacksonville, and Mercer.
Speaking of tough jobs, ETSU will face Ohio in the quarterfinals of the CIT, despite the fact that Ohio got a bye through the second round. I have given up trying to figure out how this tournament works and am just going to go with it. Scouting report on Ohio to come later.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Reeder Makes Good on Homecoming, Makes History at TTU
Well, if you weren't a fan of Journey before tonight, you probably should be now.
Dylan Pratt's three-run homer into right-center capped a surreal five-run comeback in Cookeville, but it was Reeder who slammed the door on his hometown team by striking out the side for his nation-leading eighth save of the year.
Reeder was doing everything right tonight. He hit a solo shot to opening the scoring, recovered from a bobbled ball at third to go around the horn for a double play, and then legged out a two-out infield single to keep the game going.
Speaking of that ninth inning rally, how about Hoilman coming through with a clutch hit? After going 1/14 since the start of the UNF series, The Only Guy on the Planet who Likes Advanced Combinatorics hit a crucial RBI single into center field to set the stage for a man who is likely to get much less pitching once this team gets deep into conference play.
On the pitching side, everything went pretty well. A solid start from Booker followed up by two solid innings of work from Bo Burton (I still have nightmares about his massive collapse against Mercer last year) set things up for - as Skyler Barnett evidently referred to him - Scott McWinStealer, who shockingly couldn't deliver and got the hook after a third of an
I think this is a really important win for this team, psychologically. Having not won in Cookeville in fifteen years, to be able to do it in such a dramatic fashion almost gives one the impression that they might be destined for something special. Is this the Team of Destiny?
The answer is, of course, no: Destiny plays women's basketball.
Dylan Pratt's three-run homer into right-center capped a surreal five-run comeback in Cookeville, but it was Reeder who slammed the door on his hometown team by striking out the side for his nation-leading eighth save of the year.
Reeder was doing everything right tonight. He hit a solo shot to opening the scoring, recovered from a bobbled ball at third to go around the horn for a double play, and then legged out a two-out infield single to keep the game going.
Speaking of that ninth inning rally, how about Hoilman coming through with a clutch hit? After going 1/14 since the start of the UNF series, The Only Guy on the Planet who Likes Advanced Combinatorics hit a crucial RBI single into center field to set the stage for a man who is likely to get much less pitching once this team gets deep into conference play.
On the pitching side, everything went pretty well. A solid start from Booker followed up by two solid innings of work from Bo Burton (I still have nightmares about his massive collapse against Mercer last year) set things up for - as Skyler Barnett evidently referred to him - Scott McWinStealer, who shockingly couldn't deliver and got the hook after a third of an
I think this is a really important win for this team, psychologically. Having not won in Cookeville in fifteen years, to be able to do it in such a dramatic fashion almost gives one the impression that they might be destined for something special. Is this the Team of Destiny?
The answer is, of course, no: Destiny plays women's basketball.
Smith Spontaneously Combusts, Bucs Rout Paladins
Ka-BOOM!
This was the sound that rang out in front of a shockingly sparse crowd when Mike Smith went up for a two-handed dunk that brought Mike Smith to 30 points in a game for the first time in his career. Smith was all over the floor in the first half, with 21 of ETSU's 43 first-half points, at one point outscoring the entire Furman team. JT stepped in during the second half, found his feet and had one of his best games as a Buccaneer, scoring 20 points despite just hitting two threes the whole night. Smith's 32 points and 100% effort from the stripe both tied tournament records, as did Tubbs' five steals. The defense was there for these two as well, especially Smith, as Amu Saaka, an all-conference selection in the SoCon, had more fouls (4) than he did points (3). That's no small feat, and a big part of why this game turned out the way it did.
As impressive as their performances were, and as great as it was to blow Furman out (largest lead was 22 with 11:45 to go), this was hardly a perfectly played game for Bartow's crew. Zeke was invisible. Micah had five points and four turnovers, and fouled out on top of that. We're not exactly playing world-beaters the rest of the way, but this team can't afford to have one or two of its starters messing on the linens in every game. Not when we're getting eight bench points, with half of those coming from Sollazzo, who was swapped in favor of De'Shaud Johnson at the point. This was a move made more for sentimental reasons than tactical ones, but honestly, Johnson looked like he could have played the point more often. He only had five points, but also dished out four helpers and did not turn the basketball over. What a novel concept.
As enjoyable as it was to watch the "Mike Smith & Friends Show" last night, the "Friends" of that equation need to figure out how much more basketball they want to be playing. They've got just under a week to do it, but they have to realize that even though this is essentially the Meineke Car Care Bowl of college basketball, it's still the postseason. Maybe they should all eat breakfast with Justin Tubbs, since he has it figured out. Or maybe they could sleep in their extremely awesome gold uniforms. Have I ever mentioned that I love gold uniforms?
I. Love. Gold. Uniforms.
This was the sound that rang out in front of a shockingly sparse crowd when Mike Smith went up for a two-handed dunk that brought Mike Smith to 30 points in a game for the first time in his career. Smith was all over the floor in the first half, with 21 of ETSU's 43 first-half points, at one point outscoring the entire Furman team. JT stepped in during the second half, found his feet and had one of his best games as a Buccaneer, scoring 20 points despite just hitting two threes the whole night. Smith's 32 points and 100% effort from the stripe both tied tournament records, as did Tubbs' five steals. The defense was there for these two as well, especially Smith, as Amu Saaka, an all-conference selection in the SoCon, had more fouls (4) than he did points (3). That's no small feat, and a big part of why this game turned out the way it did.
As impressive as their performances were, and as great as it was to blow Furman out (largest lead was 22 with 11:45 to go), this was hardly a perfectly played game for Bartow's crew. Zeke was invisible. Micah had five points and four turnovers, and fouled out on top of that. We're not exactly playing world-beaters the rest of the way, but this team can't afford to have one or two of its starters messing on the linens in every game. Not when we're getting eight bench points, with half of those coming from Sollazzo, who was swapped in favor of De'Shaud Johnson at the point. This was a move made more for sentimental reasons than tactical ones, but honestly, Johnson looked like he could have played the point more often. He only had five points, but also dished out four helpers and did not turn the basketball over. What a novel concept.
As enjoyable as it was to watch the "Mike Smith & Friends Show" last night, the "Friends" of that equation need to figure out how much more basketball they want to be playing. They've got just under a week to do it, but they have to realize that even though this is essentially the Meineke Car Care Bowl of college basketball, it's still the postseason. Maybe they should all eat breakfast with Justin Tubbs, since he has it figured out. Or maybe they could sleep in their extremely awesome gold uniforms. Have I ever mentioned that I love gold uniforms?
I. Love. Gold. Uniforms.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Upstate (WBK) to Postseason; Bucs to CBI; Bat & Ball News
So, as I had unfortunately expected, the Lady Bucs didn't land a spot in the WNIT; however, to add insult to injury, USC Upstate got an invite to the WBI, despite being a (statistically) far lower-caliber team than ETSU. The Lady Bucs have a significantly higher RPI, stronger schedule, and better scoring offense and defense. In fact, let's see how they stack up with the WBI field in RPI:
ETSU - 103
Cleveland State (151)
Wright State (157)
Idaho (165)
UAB (174)
Cal State Bakersfield (196)
Elon (154)
Eastern Illinois (201)
Sacred Heart (110)
Chicago State (192)
Manhattan (169)
Northern Colorado (214)
USC Upstate (289)
South Dakota (209)
Central Arkansas (182)
Buffalo (163)
IPFW (158)
As you can see, only one of those teams is on par with ETSU, and the rest are far below. This is a competition that ETSU could easily enter and win, giving their three healthy freshmen with any semblance of significant floor time (McIntosh, Miles, and Randall) some development time and postseason experience. This is a young team that could really use the experience, even in a smaller postseason tournament like this one. With the expansion of the WNIT to 64 teams, ETSU still not getting in is a bit disheartening, but with such a young team, I don't think that Kemp would decline an opportunity to keep them playing. Whether she did or not, we'll probably never know.
On the men's front, the Bucs are in the CBI tonight against [deep gritty voice] The Furman
Paladins [/deep gritty voice]. These two teams are built in very similar ways. Both emphasize good defense, as ETSU and Furman allow 63.7 and 64.0 points per game, respectively, while both score exactly 69.0 points per game.
The two teams are also dependent on a single star. Mike Smith on one side, and Amu Saaka on the other. Guiding the Paladins to their first 20-win season in two decades, Saaka averaged 16 points and 6.6 boards per game, took 100 more field goals than any other Paladin, and was the only player on the team to hit 1000 minutes played. He's a threat from anywhere on the floor, leading the team in made and attempted three pointers, as well, and is an 87% free throw shooter. Logic would dictate that he'll be Smith's assignment on the night, and that will be a key match-up to watch. Actually, it will be THE key match-up. Jordan Miller and Noah States are certainly threats to score, but Tubbs should be more than able to handle Miller, and States' measurements are identical to Zeke's, meaning Zeke has the advantage.
ETSU SHOULD win this game. They've lost once on their home floor this year, and the team they faced was far, far better than Furman. Granted, the only teams of consequence that they played at home this year were Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville (the latter of whom, by the way, is also in this tournament, traveling to East Carolina), but this is the first postseason game the school has ever hosted, meaning there is a lot of significance and should be a lot of energy in the building. Hopefully, having an old SoCon team in the building will also help attendance, but the Paladins weren't really a huge draw back in the day, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.
On the baseball front, the Cardiac Bucs came away with a pair of ninth-inning rallies to sweep North Florida. Matthew Scruggs hit a rare game-winning triple in the top of the fourth on Friday that drove in what would prove to be the winning run, and then turned around and hit a two-run shot to give ETSU the lead in the top of the ninth on Saturday. Dylan Pratt (have I mentioned that this guy is awesome?) brought the house down with a three-run dinger on Sunday that gave the Bucs the sweep.
Scruggs went 5/12 with six RBIs and five runs scored, with a pair of homers - a solo shot and the aforementioned game-winning two-run shot - on Saturday. Pratt went just 2/8, but drove in five and scored two. There's also the matter of Derek Trent, who went 5/12 with 3 RBIs and a run scored, including a solo shot on Saturday and two doubles, one each on Saturday and Sunday.
On the hill, Bo Reeder earned that A-Sun Pitcher of the Week award, giving up just one hit in three innings, striking out two and picking up his fifth, sixth, and seventh saves in the sweep. I once joked that there was nothing long about John Long (standing at 5'10", and to that point having not lasted more than five innings), but he shut me up this weekend with a great performance on the hill, going 6.2 innings with just two earned runs allowed and 8 strikeouts. Bushey gave up four earned runs in 4.2 innings on Sunday, but continues to pad his strikeout numbers, adding five in his start for a team-leading 21 total on the season in just five appearances.
Overall, you have to like where the team is going. The squad has six wins in a row, offense coming from everywhere, and solid, consistent pitching (especially from the bullpen, which is very much needed), but there are a couple of sore spots.
Kerry Doane made an error in every game this weekend. His field percentage is at .873, the worst on the team. What is it with this program and shortstops? Justin Tramble, Nick Belcher, Garrett May, and now Doane. Kerry was not this bad last year - he committed 19 errors the entire season. At this rate, he'll be halfway to that by the end of the Jacksonville series.
He's not the only one, either. Through 12 games, the team has committed a total of 23 errors. Niesman has five; Reeder has three. The team is fielding at a .951 clip, which isn't particularly good. This is not sustainable and will have to change before the team gets to the squads with the bats to make them pay, like, say, Jacksonville next weekend.
There's also the not-so-small matter of Paul Hoilman's struggles in this series. Paul Bunyan went 1/10 and struck out six times. I've struck out less than that with women (no, seriously). His timing might be off, or he could be trying to force things since no one wants to pitch to him - he was walked four times by the UNF staff and has gotten a free pass 16 times this year, which is more than double the next-highest Buc (Pratt has 6). Whatever the case may be, Paul has to get it together. There's no pressure yet, as we're still a long way away from the tournament, but we won't be dancing unless he's firing on all cylinders.
In other news, softball hosted the inaugural Buccaneer Challenge (which I erroneously called the Buccaneer Classic more times than I care to count) this weekend. They went 4-2 with a couple of unpleasant losses against Pittsburgh, but they've finally managed to find their offense.
Over all six games:
Henderson - .526 (7/19), 8 RBIs, 3 2B, HR
Baird - .476 (7/21), 13 RBIs, 2 2B, 3 HR
Lower - .389 (7/18), 3 RBIs, 2 HR
Campbell - .316, 7 RBIs, 2 2B, HR
The pitching numbers were a bit inflated by the losses to Pitt, but Duncan fanned 20 batters total and pitched two complete games, while Wolff had a one-hit shutout that was nearly a no-no against SC State, and both hurlers had ERAs under four, which is really good considering they were the two starters against Pitt and faced the brunt of the attack. Morris had the wost weekend statistically, mainly because she had mop-up duty against Pitt in both games, and they ate her alive.
Ultimately, though, I think this team is headed in the right direction. After losing four in a row, they've bounced back to win four of their last six, and the schedule should get a little easier now that they're moving into conference play, although a schedule with Lipscomb and Upstate as bookends may prove difficult.
ETSU - 103
Cleveland State (151)
Wright State (157)
Idaho (165)
UAB (174)
Cal State Bakersfield (196)
Elon (154)
Eastern Illinois (201)
Sacred Heart (110)
Chicago State (192)
Manhattan (169)
Northern Colorado (214)
USC Upstate (289)
South Dakota (209)
Central Arkansas (182)
Buffalo (163)
IPFW (158)
As you can see, only one of those teams is on par with ETSU, and the rest are far below. This is a competition that ETSU could easily enter and win, giving their three healthy freshmen with any semblance of significant floor time (McIntosh, Miles, and Randall) some development time and postseason experience. This is a young team that could really use the experience, even in a smaller postseason tournament like this one. With the expansion of the WNIT to 64 teams, ETSU still not getting in is a bit disheartening, but with such a young team, I don't think that Kemp would decline an opportunity to keep them playing. Whether she did or not, we'll probably never know.
On the men's front, the Bucs are in the CBI tonight against [deep gritty voice] The Furman
Paladins [/deep gritty voice]. These two teams are built in very similar ways. Both emphasize good defense, as ETSU and Furman allow 63.7 and 64.0 points per game, respectively, while both score exactly 69.0 points per game.The two teams are also dependent on a single star. Mike Smith on one side, and Amu Saaka on the other. Guiding the Paladins to their first 20-win season in two decades, Saaka averaged 16 points and 6.6 boards per game, took 100 more field goals than any other Paladin, and was the only player on the team to hit 1000 minutes played. He's a threat from anywhere on the floor, leading the team in made and attempted three pointers, as well, and is an 87% free throw shooter. Logic would dictate that he'll be Smith's assignment on the night, and that will be a key match-up to watch. Actually, it will be THE key match-up. Jordan Miller and Noah States are certainly threats to score, but Tubbs should be more than able to handle Miller, and States' measurements are identical to Zeke's, meaning Zeke has the advantage.
ETSU SHOULD win this game. They've lost once on their home floor this year, and the team they faced was far, far better than Furman. Granted, the only teams of consequence that they played at home this year were Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville (the latter of whom, by the way, is also in this tournament, traveling to East Carolina), but this is the first postseason game the school has ever hosted, meaning there is a lot of significance and should be a lot of energy in the building. Hopefully, having an old SoCon team in the building will also help attendance, but the Paladins weren't really a huge draw back in the day, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.
On the baseball front, the Cardiac Bucs came away with a pair of ninth-inning rallies to sweep North Florida. Matthew Scruggs hit a rare game-winning triple in the top of the fourth on Friday that drove in what would prove to be the winning run, and then turned around and hit a two-run shot to give ETSU the lead in the top of the ninth on Saturday. Dylan Pratt (have I mentioned that this guy is awesome?) brought the house down with a three-run dinger on Sunday that gave the Bucs the sweep.
Scruggs went 5/12 with six RBIs and five runs scored, with a pair of homers - a solo shot and the aforementioned game-winning two-run shot - on Saturday. Pratt went just 2/8, but drove in five and scored two. There's also the matter of Derek Trent, who went 5/12 with 3 RBIs and a run scored, including a solo shot on Saturday and two doubles, one each on Saturday and Sunday.
On the hill, Bo Reeder earned that A-Sun Pitcher of the Week award, giving up just one hit in three innings, striking out two and picking up his fifth, sixth, and seventh saves in the sweep. I once joked that there was nothing long about John Long (standing at 5'10", and to that point having not lasted more than five innings), but he shut me up this weekend with a great performance on the hill, going 6.2 innings with just two earned runs allowed and 8 strikeouts. Bushey gave up four earned runs in 4.2 innings on Sunday, but continues to pad his strikeout numbers, adding five in his start for a team-leading 21 total on the season in just five appearances.
Overall, you have to like where the team is going. The squad has six wins in a row, offense coming from everywhere, and solid, consistent pitching (especially from the bullpen, which is very much needed), but there are a couple of sore spots.
Kerry Doane made an error in every game this weekend. His field percentage is at .873, the worst on the team. What is it with this program and shortstops? Justin Tramble, Nick Belcher, Garrett May, and now Doane. Kerry was not this bad last year - he committed 19 errors the entire season. At this rate, he'll be halfway to that by the end of the Jacksonville series.He's not the only one, either. Through 12 games, the team has committed a total of 23 errors. Niesman has five; Reeder has three. The team is fielding at a .951 clip, which isn't particularly good. This is not sustainable and will have to change before the team gets to the squads with the bats to make them pay, like, say, Jacksonville next weekend.
There's also the not-so-small matter of Paul Hoilman's struggles in this series. Paul Bunyan went 1/10 and struck out six times. I've struck out less than that with women (no, seriously). His timing might be off, or he could be trying to force things since no one wants to pitch to him - he was walked four times by the UNF staff and has gotten a free pass 16 times this year, which is more than double the next-highest Buc (Pratt has 6). Whatever the case may be, Paul has to get it together. There's no pressure yet, as we're still a long way away from the tournament, but we won't be dancing unless he's firing on all cylinders.
In other news, softball hosted the inaugural Buccaneer Challenge (which I erroneously called the Buccaneer Classic more times than I care to count) this weekend. They went 4-2 with a couple of unpleasant losses against Pittsburgh, but they've finally managed to find their offense.
Over all six games:
Henderson - .526 (7/19), 8 RBIs, 3 2B, HR
Baird - .476 (7/21), 13 RBIs, 2 2B, 3 HR
Lower - .389 (7/18), 3 RBIs, 2 HR
Campbell - .316, 7 RBIs, 2 2B, HR
The pitching numbers were a bit inflated by the losses to Pitt, but Duncan fanned 20 batters total and pitched two complete games, while Wolff had a one-hit shutout that was nearly a no-no against SC State, and both hurlers had ERAs under four, which is really good considering they were the two starters against Pitt and faced the brunt of the attack. Morris had the wost weekend statistically, mainly because she had mop-up duty against Pitt in both games, and they ate her alive.
Ultimately, though, I think this team is headed in the right direction. After losing four in a row, they've bounced back to win four of their last six, and the schedule should get a little easier now that they're moving into conference play, although a schedule with Lipscomb and Upstate as bookends may prove difficult.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Bush(ey)-Whacked; Bucs Postseason Hopes?
After Derek Bushey's fantastic start against UNC-Asheville, I wondered whether it would be something he could repeat. After five more excellent innings against [deep, gritty voice] the Furman Paladins [/deep, gritty voice], and I think we've found a new Sunday starter come conference season.
Bushey fanned six in five innings, giving up just one run en route to his first win of the year. The guy who inadvertently denied Bushey his first win, Ben Booker, came in and pitched a solid inning. Dak Rissman struck out two, but did give up a run in one inning of work, but it wasn't enough for [deep, gritty voice] the Furman Paladins [/deep, gritty voice] to catch ETSU, especially when Reeder came in and slammed the door on them, striking out three of the four batters he faced for his fourth save of the year.
Offense by committee also continues: Reeder 2/4 with 2 runs scored, Trent 2/4 wit
h an RBI, John Long 3/4 with an RBI and a run scored. Hoilman was only 1/4, but drove in a run on his third double of the year, and Pratt went 0/2 but came around to score on a walk. The defense was also solid, committing zero errors. No, that's not a typo. This game has been recorded in the memories.
Speaking of memorable moments, the Baseball Bucs are, at the time of this writing, 10th in the nation in RPI. That's right, we're ahead of the likes of Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, last year's Cinderella TCU, and perennial powerhouse Cal State Fullerton.
We're also well ahead of most of the rest of the conference. Take a look:
ETSU - 10
Jacksonville - 31
Stetson - 35
Kennesaw State - 37
Belmont - 89
Campbell - 104
Lipscomb - 108
Mercer - 118
USC Upstate - 146
North Florida - 148
Before anyone completely dismisses this due to Mercer's placing, consider the teams the Bears have played. They've played just two squads in the top 100 and are 2-2 against them (2-1 against Belmont with an 8-5 loss to Georgia), so the ranking is totally out of place based on what Mercer has done.
As a conference, the A-Sun also ranks 6th in RPI, ahead of BCS conferences the WAC, MAC, Mountain West, Big East, and the Big Ten, and well ahead of the SoCon.
Speaking of the A-Sun's place among conferences, here's a look at some of the upcoming pieces here on BB:BE.
-The Atlantic Sun: Rising or Setting? Campbell's departure will mark the sixth since Samford left in 2004, but the conference has managed to stay afloat. When the moratorium on Division I entries lifts in 2012, what should the conference do?
-A Decade in Review: 2001-2011 - A look back at the best - and worst - moments of a decade of ETSU men's basketball, featuring a slew of previously unused metrics to analyze squads from years' past.
-Bucs' Final Season Grades (Pending Postseason) - Unlikely to arrive for the men's team until after the postseason, but if the women have a blank dance card, theirs will arrive sooner. We'll offer full analysis of each player that hit the floor for these two squads, which could open the door to another question: just what went wrong in Macon?
-Football (working title) - This debate feels endless. Some say football is an impossibility for a university in the heart of Big Orange Country; others say the lack of football is holding the university back. Is there a compromise to be had? We'll examine the reasons for the program's dissolution, scenarios for revival, and comparable situations at schools across the country.
Plus continued coverage of baseball and softball.
============================================
Time to look at the postseason picture for the basketball squads. It's still that time of year, after all. Since chivalry isn't dead just yet, let's look at the ladies first.
Sadly, I think the loss in the semifinals dashed any postseason hopes for the Lady Bucs. The teams they lost to - especially Campbell - don't really look that great when going through the application process for a WNIT at-large bid, and going 5-9 against the top 200 teams in the RPI doesn't bode well, either. Coach Kemp did really well to offset her weak conference slate with very high-quality non-conference opponents, but they still needed to win the conference if they wanted into the NCAA tournament. We'll see how things shake out, but I have a feeling their season is over.
Analysis: While the squad's 21 wins looks really impressive, half of them came against what are considered bottom-feeders by national standards, and against teams that were even slightly above them in the RPI, they really struggled.
This is obviously NOT an NCAA-caliber resume. I'm not sure it's even an NIT resume with the two awful conference losses to Stetson and Upstate, even if they were by one point. The Bucs have been extended a formal invitation to play in the CIT, which I firmly believe they should accept. This is a tournament geared towards mid-major schools, and the field is one they could probably have a great deal of success in. Other teams already invited include Tennessee Tech (who, as you may remember, got thrashed in the Mini-Dome on homecoming), Marshall, Air Force, and Davidson. Oh, wait, I forgot one:
Bushey fanned six in five innings, giving up just one run en route to his first win of the year. The guy who inadvertently denied Bushey his first win, Ben Booker, came in and pitched a solid inning. Dak Rissman struck out two, but did give up a run in one inning of work, but it wasn't enough for [deep, gritty voice] the Furman Paladins [/deep, gritty voice] to catch ETSU, especially when Reeder came in and slammed the door on them, striking out three of the four batters he faced for his fourth save of the year.
Offense by committee also continues: Reeder 2/4 with 2 runs scored, Trent 2/4 wit
h an RBI, John Long 3/4 with an RBI and a run scored. Hoilman was only 1/4, but drove in a run on his third double of the year, and Pratt went 0/2 but came around to score on a walk. The defense was also solid, committing zero errors. No, that's not a typo. This game has been recorded in the memories.Speaking of memorable moments, the Baseball Bucs are, at the time of this writing, 10th in the nation in RPI. That's right, we're ahead of the likes of Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, last year's Cinderella TCU, and perennial powerhouse Cal State Fullerton.
We're also well ahead of most of the rest of the conference. Take a look:
ETSU - 10
Jacksonville - 31
Stetson - 35
Kennesaw State - 37
Belmont - 89
Campbell - 104
Lipscomb - 108
Mercer - 118
USC Upstate - 146
North Florida - 148
Before anyone completely dismisses this due to Mercer's placing, consider the teams the Bears have played. They've played just two squads in the top 100 and are 2-2 against them (2-1 against Belmont with an 8-5 loss to Georgia), so the ranking is totally out of place based on what Mercer has done.
As a conference, the A-Sun also ranks 6th in RPI, ahead of BCS conferences the WAC, MAC, Mountain West, Big East, and the Big Ten, and well ahead of the SoCon.
Speaking of the A-Sun's place among conferences, here's a look at some of the upcoming pieces here on BB:BE.
-The Atlantic Sun: Rising or Setting? Campbell's departure will mark the sixth since Samford left in 2004, but the conference has managed to stay afloat. When the moratorium on Division I entries lifts in 2012, what should the conference do?
-A Decade in Review: 2001-2011 - A look back at the best - and worst - moments of a decade of ETSU men's basketball, featuring a slew of previously unused metrics to analyze squads from years' past.
-Bucs' Final Season Grades (Pending Postseason) - Unlikely to arrive for the men's team until after the postseason, but if the women have a blank dance card, theirs will arrive sooner. We'll offer full analysis of each player that hit the floor for these two squads, which could open the door to another question: just what went wrong in Macon?
-Football (working title) - This debate feels endless. Some say football is an impossibility for a university in the heart of Big Orange Country; others say the lack of football is holding the university back. Is there a compromise to be had? We'll examine the reasons for the program's dissolution, scenarios for revival, and comparable situations at schools across the country.
Plus continued coverage of baseball and softball.
============================================
Time to look at the postseason picture for the basketball squads. It's still that time of year, after all. Since chivalry isn't dead just yet, let's look at the ladies first.Women's Team
Record: 19-12 (15-5)
RPI: .5334 (103)
SOS: .5069 (130)
Record vs. RPI Top 50: 0-4
Record vs. RPI 51-100: 1-4
Record vs. RPI 101-200: 4-1
Record vs. RPI 201+: 14-3
Highest RPI: 88 (Week 16)
Lowest RPI: 128 (Week 9)
Key Wins: vs. Richmond (74)
Bad Losses: @ USC Upstate (189), @ North Florida (248), @ Campbell (259), vs. Jacksonville (215)
Record: 19-12 (15-5)
RPI: .5334 (103)
SOS: .5069 (130)
Record vs. RPI Top 50: 0-4
Record vs. RPI 51-100: 1-4
Record vs. RPI 101-200: 4-1
Record vs. RPI 201+: 14-3
Highest RPI: 88 (Week 16)
Lowest RPI: 128 (Week 9)
Key Wins: vs. Richmond (74)
Bad Losses: @ USC Upstate (189), @ North Florida (248), @ Campbell (259), vs. Jacksonville (215)
Sadly, I think the loss in the semifinals dashed any postseason hopes for the Lady Bucs. The teams they lost to - especially Campbell - don't really look that great when going through the application process for a WNIT at-large bid, and going 5-9 against the top 200 teams in the RPI doesn't bode well, either. Coach Kemp did really well to offset her weak conference slate with very high-quality non-conference opponents, but they still needed to win the conference if they wanted into the NCAA tournament. We'll see how things shake out, but I have a feeling their season is over.
Men's Team
Record: 21-11 (16-5 A-Sun)
RPI: .5458 (92)
SOS: .4926 (174)
Record vs. RPI Top 50: 0-1
Record vs. RPI 51-100: 1-5
Record vs. RPI 101-200: 9-3
Record vs. RPI 201+: 11-2
Highest RPI: 85 (Week 17)
Lowest RPI: 140 (Week 5)
Key Wins: @ Dayton (79), @ Mississippi State (115)
Bad Losses: @ USC Upstate (313), vs. Northeastern (180), @ Stetson (304)
Record: 21-11 (16-5 A-Sun)
RPI: .5458 (92)
SOS: .4926 (174)
Record vs. RPI Top 50: 0-1
Record vs. RPI 51-100: 1-5
Record vs. RPI 101-200: 9-3
Record vs. RPI 201+: 11-2
Highest RPI: 85 (Week 17)
Lowest RPI: 140 (Week 5)
Key Wins: @ Dayton (79), @ Mississippi State (115)
Bad Losses: @ USC Upstate (313), vs. Northeastern (180), @ Stetson (304)
Analysis: While the squad's 21 wins looks really impressive, half of them came against what are considered bottom-feeders by national standards, and against teams that were even slightly above them in the RPI, they really struggled.
This is obviously NOT an NCAA-caliber resume. I'm not sure it's even an NIT resume with the two awful conference losses to Stetson and Upstate, even if they were by one point. The Bucs have been extended a formal invitation to play in the CIT, which I firmly believe they should accept. This is a tournament geared towards mid-major schools, and the field is one they could probably have a great deal of success in. Other teams already invited include Tennessee Tech (who, as you may remember, got thrashed in the Mini-Dome on homecoming), Marshall, Air Force, and Davidson. Oh, wait, I forgot one:
[deep, gritty voice]the Furman Paladins.[/deep, gritty voice]
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Curtain Call for Basketball...
... or is it?
The run of multiple championships is over for both teams, but the postseason dream may not be dead. There is no way on Earth that the men's team doesn't play some kind of postseason basketball. 84 Division I programs have 20 wins, and with 128 postseason spots available outside the NCAA tournament, there's no way that the Bucs aren't playing somewhere. On strength of schedule, we're likely looking at a reasonably high seed in the CBI/CIT. The CIT is the better tournament, and we have a decent chance of advancing if our starters don't just completely give out.
Then again, that was the whole problem, wasn't it? With the exception of Smith and Isiah Brown, the starters completely tailed off when the squad made the postseason.
Something similar happened with the Lady Bucs, but they got strong performances from the right players at the right times. Washington stepped up against Lipscomb, and Belcher, despite picking up three early fouls, played her heart out against Jacksonville. Unfortunately for Tish, nobody else played well at all against the Dolphins. The solid cumulative numbers (15 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals), as Davis went 4/19 from the field. Pickwell, Randall, and Washington were a combined 7/27, and Washington had as many points as Pickwell and Randall combined. A lot of the talk may surround Washington's technical foul for punching the basketball late in the game, but when your team shoots 29% from the field and goes 1/13 from beyond the arc, you have no business winning a basketball game.
For the Ladies, not getting that 20th win stings. It might hurt their postseason chances, but they could still have a shot. Florida Gulf Coast gets the automatic bid to the WNIT for winning the conference, but ETSU could still garner an at-large bid. Apparently, there's also a WCIT tournament that started this year, and ETSU would almost certainly be going to that competition if it does exist, but I haven't been able to find any information on it whatsoever.
Baseball had a great comeback win against Upstate on Friday, but didn't get to build any kind of momentum after the Saturday game got rained out, and the Sunday game got snowed out. I'm curious as to when they'll reschedule these games. Surely they won't let conference tilts go unplayed, will they?
Softball is 1-3 going into today. Duncan pitched a complete game against Columbia, fanning 9 and giving up no earned runs. Mikayla Treadway was the only player with multiple hits. In the next game, they got blown out. Three errors didn't help, although they weren't the difference in a 10-3 loss to Villanova.
Errors DID burn the Lady Bucs against Arkansas, though, as Duncan pitched a complete game again and only gave up one earned run, but the Lady Bucs lost 4-1. Morris got the loss after
walking five in the subsequent 9-1 loss to South Florida, despite giving up just two earned runs. Once again, the errors weren't the difference, but they made this loss look much worse than it should have been. Offense also continues to be an issue, as they mustered just three hits - and only struck out three times. As the Wendy's commercials used to say, "Where's the Beef?" This team needs more power. Irwin obviously hasn't had the chance to address this via recruiting, but he needs a slugger or two in the middle of the lineup if he wants this team to do some real damage to back up what has shaken out to be a pretty darn good pitching staff.
That's all for today. Congratulations to our new Atlantic Sun champions, Belmont and Stetson. Everyone saw Belmont coming from a mile away, but Stetson caught everyone by surprise with Victoria McGowan's half-court buzzer-beater. After that, though, I would be shocked if they hadn't won the whole thing. Good luck in the big dance.
The run of multiple championships is over for both teams, but the postseason dream may not be dead. There is no way on Earth that the men's team doesn't play some kind of postseason basketball. 84 Division I programs have 20 wins, and with 128 postseason spots available outside the NCAA tournament, there's no way that the Bucs aren't playing somewhere. On strength of schedule, we're likely looking at a reasonably high seed in the CBI/CIT. The CIT is the better tournament, and we have a decent chance of advancing if our starters don't just completely give out.
Then again, that was the whole problem, wasn't it? With the exception of Smith and Isiah Brown, the starters completely tailed off when the squad made the postseason.
Something similar happened with the Lady Bucs, but they got strong performances from the right players at the right times. Washington stepped up against Lipscomb, and Belcher, despite picking up three early fouls, played her heart out against Jacksonville. Unfortunately for Tish, nobody else played well at all against the Dolphins. The solid cumulative numbers (15 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals), as Davis went 4/19 from the field. Pickwell, Randall, and Washington were a combined 7/27, and Washington had as many points as Pickwell and Randall combined. A lot of the talk may surround Washington's technical foul for punching the basketball late in the game, but when your team shoots 29% from the field and goes 1/13 from beyond the arc, you have no business winning a basketball game.
For the Ladies, not getting that 20th win stings. It might hurt their postseason chances, but they could still have a shot. Florida Gulf Coast gets the automatic bid to the WNIT for winning the conference, but ETSU could still garner an at-large bid. Apparently, there's also a WCIT tournament that started this year, and ETSU would almost certainly be going to that competition if it does exist, but I haven't been able to find any information on it whatsoever.
Baseball had a great comeback win against Upstate on Friday, but didn't get to build any kind of momentum after the Saturday game got rained out, and the Sunday game got snowed out. I'm curious as to when they'll reschedule these games. Surely they won't let conference tilts go unplayed, will they?
Softball is 1-3 going into today. Duncan pitched a complete game against Columbia, fanning 9 and giving up no earned runs. Mikayla Treadway was the only player with multiple hits. In the next game, they got blown out. Three errors didn't help, although they weren't the difference in a 10-3 loss to Villanova.
Errors DID burn the Lady Bucs against Arkansas, though, as Duncan pitched a complete game again and only gave up one earned run, but the Lady Bucs lost 4-1. Morris got the loss after
walking five in the subsequent 9-1 loss to South Florida, despite giving up just two earned runs. Once again, the errors weren't the difference, but they made this loss look much worse than it should have been. Offense also continues to be an issue, as they mustered just three hits - and only struck out three times. As the Wendy's commercials used to say, "Where's the Beef?" This team needs more power. Irwin obviously hasn't had the chance to address this via recruiting, but he needs a slugger or two in the middle of the lineup if he wants this team to do some real damage to back up what has shaken out to be a pretty darn good pitching staff.That's all for today. Congratulations to our new Atlantic Sun champions, Belmont and Stetson. Everyone saw Belmont coming from a mile away, but Stetson caught everyone by surprise with Victoria McGowan's half-court buzzer-beater. After that, though, I would be shocked if they hadn't won the whole thing. Good luck in the big dance.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Gwen Gives Ladies Lift, Smith Saves a Season, and More
As promised (not like anyone is reading this, but still), it's time for women's postseason awards. Before we begin, congratulations to Tara Davis on getting pegged for the Atlantic Sun first team.
I'd also like to say that I FIRMLY disagree with the choice of Briana Williams as Freshman of the Year. People will immediately point to Williams' 18 points per game and use that as justification, but I can point to almost any other statistic for Destiny Mitchell - or shucks, even Sarah Hansen at Florida Gulf Coast - and Williams comes out on the losing end.
Destiny has as many assists, one more block and 33 more steals than Williams in five fewer games. Her efficiency numbers (16.29/21.42) are far superior to Williams' (5.66/7.98). Her true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage are eleven points better than Williams', and she also grabs rebounds far more frequently than Williams does. My only guess as to why Mitchell didn't win Freshman of the Year was due to her missing five conference games, which is a really flimsy reason; she was the runaway candidate as it was.
The best revenge is living well, though: Mitchell will still have three more years to show why she should have won it, and likely at least a couple of first-team all-conference selections to go with it.
We'll have to do the SparkNotes version of the All-Conference selections, since they're well overdue. For the process I used, see my previous post about the men's postseason awards. I added an additional category (assist percentage, due to the larger number of point guards) for the women to make a nice even 20
Atlantic Sun First Team All-Conference
C - Haley Nelson, Belmont
PF - Chelsea McMillan, USC Upstate - Player of the Year
SF - Destiny Mitchell, ETSU
SG - Kelsey Jacobson, Florida Gulf Coast
PG - Tara Davis, ETSU
6th - Taneske Richardson, Jacksonville
Atlantic Sun Second Team All-Conference
C - Sametria Gideon, Kennesaw State
PF - Sarah Hansen, Florida Gulf Coast
SF - Tonisha Baker, Campbell
SG - Tee'Ara Copney, USC Upstate
PG - Victoria McGowan, Stetson
6th - Shannon Murphy, Florida Gulf Coast
Atlantic Sun All-Freshman
C - Sarah Hansen, FGCU
PF - Destiny Mitchell, ETSU - Freshman of the Year
SF - Sasha Sims, Stetson
SG - Molly Ernst, Belmont
PG - Brianna Williams, Mercer
(If you're wondering why my AFT is the same as the actual AFT, it's not because I'm lazy - it's because I completely agree with all of those choices, except Williams as FotY.)
Postseason Awards Scoring (not used for All-Freshman Team)
Chelsea McMillan, USCU - 51 points
Destiny Mitchell, ETSU - 30
Haley Nelson, Belmont - 29
Taneske Richardson, JU - 28
Kelsey Jacobson, FGCU - 22
Tara Davis, ETSU - 19
Tonisha Baker, CU - 18
Sarah Hansen, FGCU - 15
Sametria Gideon, KSU - 15
Victoria McGowan, Stetson - 13
Tee'Ara Copney, USCU - 11
Shannon Murphy, FGCU - 9
Anna Bowers, Lipscomb - 7
Angie Smith, KSU - 6
Briana Williams, Mercer - 6
Brittany Kirkland, UNF - 6
Brittnee Hazel, Mercer - 6
Gigi Thomas, JU - 4
Jenna Bartsokas, Lipscomb - 3
Tierra Brown, Stetson - 2
Now that the postseason accolades are done and dusted, let's get to the actual games.
WOW!
The first round held some great basketball for those that turned out. The River City Rumble matches were both down to the wire and really helped fan the fires on one of the A-Sun's best rivalries (the other naturally being the Battle of the Boulevard) ETSU-Lipscomb was very much worth tuning in for. The Lady Bucs nearly messed around and got beat, but they made those last-second free throws that took all the drama out of their 83-75 win. In a game that was so nip and tuck, I really have to tip my hat to Gwen Washington, who stepped up and gave the team a real spark from the bench. Even with the great second half TD had, there's now way we're ever in this game if Gwen doesn't turn it way up.
On the men's side, it's all about Mike Smith, which is a compliment to Mike Smith, but nobody else showed up:
Tubbs - 1/6
Williams - 3/8
Brown - 3/12 (In fairness, Zeke earned his PT with excellent defense. More on that later.)
Sollazzo - 1/2
Smith took more than half of the team's three point attempts. The only other player to hit a shot of that variety? J.C. Ward. He was rewarded with 11 minutes. Ward always seems to really get up for the tournament and play his best basketball, so maybe that should change. I'm not saying he should start - the starters need to get it together, and should have a good opportunity to tune themselves up for the title game against UNF - but he should get far more than 11 minutes when he's clearly on form. Let him spell the starters and let them rest up for Belmont or... well, let's be realistic, Belmont will beat Mercer. I suspect it could be ugly.
Needless to say, Smith saved our bacon, and that's before he robbed Hartley in the lane. North Florida are hardly world-beaters, and they're likely drained after what is always an emotional contest against Jacksonville, but what happened against Campbell can't happen again if they want a shot at any kind of postseason basketball.
Meanwhile, a Buccaneer *not* named Mike Smith is chasing a piece of history. After adding four blocks last night, Isiah Brown now sits just seven swats shy of Zakee Wadood's single-season record. Zeke is at 134 total, the fifth most in school history, with a season still to play. That total is just 49 shy of the school record. Barring injury, I think he'll hit that next year, and I can't wait to see it. Zeke the Lesser could also catch Zeke the Greater on the single-season mark for blocks per game: Wadood's record is 2.27, and Isiah currently sits at 2.00. Just something to watch tonight. Zeke also sits at a whopping 227 offensive rebounds, putting him 8th all-time, and putting the all-time mark within his reach.
Other Bucs looking to get their names in multiple places in next year's media guide:
Sollazzo's 261 career assists ranks seventh all-time, just four shy of Greg Stephens. If he keeps this up, he could potentially catch CP by the end of next year, but he won't catch Tim Smith, and I don't think anyone will catch Mr. Jennings. His 134 assists this year give him the 9th best single-season total, just four shy of Pigram (138, 08-09), and 11 shy of Tim Smith (145, 05-06) who sits up in 6th. Jennings holds the four best single-season totals, though - 183, 202, 297, and a downright ridiculous 301 his senior year. That's pretty freaking tough to do. The Flying Cannoli is also climbing the assist/turnover ratio rankings; his 1.31/1 mark is 6th all-time, just behind Eric Palmer
Mike Smith - Smith sits at 758 rebounds, 6th in school history, just ahead of Jerald Fields and behind - guess who? - Zakee Wadood (which is fine by me, because I never get tired of typing his name). His 190 offensive boards rank 10th all-time; he needs just two to pass Dillion Sneed. Smith will also get into the record books along with Micah Williams for minutes per game in a single-season, clocking in at 34.2 (10th) and 35.5 (6th), respectively. Smith is already in the books for career minutes played, sitting at 5th all-time at 3,959; if the Bucs play three more games (counting tonight), he should catch Greg Dennis in third, but the team would have to play ten more games for him to catch Mr. Jennings, and eight for him to catch Tim Smith, so it looks like his ceiling is well-established. Smith is also now the all-time leader in games played for ETSU, passing Brad Nuckles' 131 mark with 135 games played. Williams is tied with Calvin Talford, Marty Story, and Alvin West at 126 right now and will pass them tonight; if the Bucs win tonight, he will finish his career third all-time, or second if they make it beyond the first round in any kind of postseason competition.
Speaking of Micah, he sits at 1,141 career points, 23rd all-time, but he can very easily jump into the top 20 if he hits his scoring average. If he has a pair of 20 point games tonight and tomorrow (assuming they win tonight), he could jump into 19th ahead of Wes Stallings, and could still potentially pass Kevin Tiggs at 18th with a postseason berth for ETSU.
I'll do a full recap of the record books at the end of the season.
In the meantime, Dylan Pratt continues to impress with anothe two-run jack in a 13-5 rout of Asheville. With the USC Upstate series coming up, he has a chance to really flex those muscles and add another couple of homers to his total. Hoilman went 2/4 with a walk, a K, and three runs scored. Trent picked up three more hits, including another big homber, and Reeder jacked a three-run shot on a 2/5 day.
The pitching was the real standout here, though. Bushey goes five innings, fans seven, and gives up just one hit in the start... but didn't get the decision, because Ben Booker came in and gave up five runs (three earned) on three hits and chipped in the only two walks that ETSU's staff threw. Rissman came in and got the Bucs out of the inning, and McNally would go on to pick up the win as the staff gave up four hits the rest of the game, with an eight-run explosion - including two of ETSU's three homers and a two RBI double from Scruggs - in the top of the 8th.
5-2 to start the year. Considering that two of those wins came against a team like Rider, I'd think Skole is pretty darn satisfied with that record.
Soccer is also in action with the spring schedule under way. Their first of three home fixtures was Wednesday night, as they pummeled Tusculum 4-0. Geno opened the scoring before I got there, and Haba, Hodges, and Schoenfeld (who might have actually scored twice on the same play) got the other three.
The Standouts:
Nate Hodges - Nate was given a long leash and took full advantage of it. He made some great runs up the field and his goal was an absolute beauty to the far post as he slashed in from the left touch line. If Blaike Woodruff stays in the back, Matt Reed has himself some tough competition.
Blaike Woodruff - Speaking of Blaike, he might be the fastest player on this team. He can just absolutely fly down the wing. He does so many things well, and even when he makes a mistake, he has the speed to recover. He's also smart and extremely skilled with the ball at his feet. We may never find out of he has the touch to finish, but I can't help but think that he could play anywhere. I could spend a whole blog fawning over this guy's play, but I have stuff to do.
David Haba - Numbers don't carry the weight at the collegiate level that they do at the pro level, but Haba may earn that #10 shirt if he plays in the fall like he did Wednesday night. He was all over the place and weaved through Tusculum's defenders like road cones, especially on his goal. Haba blew right by his defender and caught the keeper totally flat-footed. Easy goal on the near post.
Redshirt Report:
Nick Dykes - I'm actually not sure Nick took a redshirt last year, but as little as I even saw him warming up, he may as well have. He played in central defense pretty much all night. He was pretty quiet, but he did get burned a couple of times. He'll likely make a good 3rd option at CB this fall.
Henry Klein - Boo played very aggressively in the attack on the wing, which kind of took me by surprise. I can't really say he stood out one way or the other, but he did have a couple of nice passes.
Craig Mitcham - Mitcham walked on last fall after playing with Geno at Dobyns-Bennett for the last few years. He played the second half and didn't really do anything to make himself stand out. I can't say I see him getting much playing time in the fall, but with respectable size and what looked like pretty solid mobility, he could be a good player to have down the bench if the injury bug strikes.
Who didn't play:
Colin Pugh
Alesi Osorio
Mohammad Bowers
Ronnie Hreha
Oddities:
Jaron Westbrook stood out because he didn't play his normal position (CB) all night. Calabrese had him out on the wing, both in defense and midfield. I would assume he just wanted to get a look at Nick Dykes in central defense, but while Westbrook had some very nice runs, he showed why he plays there when he got a chance at goal. He sent one sailing over the crossbar and put one right in the goalie's chest.
At this point, you're probably saying to yourself "wait - there are two central defenders, aren't there?" Why yes, there are, unless Calabrese gets REALLY bold and goes to a 3-4-3 (which is less advisable than Paul Hoilman pitching or Isiah Brown shooting a three). I won't give the player's name because the school hasn't released it, but I will say that I thought he looked solid. Not terribly flashy, but he got the job done and made most of the correct reads. He's not Gui Reis, but few at this level are, and he should be able to hold his own against stiffer competition.
Time to get rolling for women's basketball today, to say nothing of spring break preparations. As Jack Black would say, catch you cats on the flip-flop!
I'd also like to say that I FIRMLY disagree with the choice of Briana Williams as Freshman of the Year. People will immediately point to Williams' 18 points per game and use that as justification, but I can point to almost any other statistic for Destiny Mitchell - or shucks, even Sarah Hansen at Florida Gulf Coast - and Williams comes out on the losing end.
Destiny has as many assists, one more block and 33 more steals than Williams in five fewer games. Her efficiency numbers (16.29/21.42) are far superior to Williams' (5.66/7.98). Her true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage are eleven points better than Williams', and she also grabs rebounds far more frequently than Williams does. My only guess as to why Mitchell didn't win Freshman of the Year was due to her missing five conference games, which is a really flimsy reason; she was the runaway candidate as it was.
The best revenge is living well, though: Mitchell will still have three more years to show why she should have won it, and likely at least a couple of first-team all-conference selections to go with it.
We'll have to do the SparkNotes version of the All-Conference selections, since they're well overdue. For the process I used, see my previous post about the men's postseason awards. I added an additional category (assist percentage, due to the larger number of point guards) for the women to make a nice even 20
Atlantic Sun First Team All-Conference
C - Haley Nelson, Belmont
PF - Chelsea McMillan, USC Upstate - Player of the Year
SF - Destiny Mitchell, ETSU
SG - Kelsey Jacobson, Florida Gulf Coast
PG - Tara Davis, ETSU
6th - Taneske Richardson, Jacksonville
Atlantic Sun Second Team All-Conference
C - Sametria Gideon, Kennesaw State
PF - Sarah Hansen, Florida Gulf Coast
SF - Tonisha Baker, Campbell
SG - Tee'Ara Copney, USC Upstate
PG - Victoria McGowan, Stetson
6th - Shannon Murphy, Florida Gulf Coast
Atlantic Sun All-Freshman
C - Sarah Hansen, FGCU
PF - Destiny Mitchell, ETSU - Freshman of the Year
SF - Sasha Sims, Stetson
SG - Molly Ernst, Belmont
PG - Brianna Williams, Mercer
(If you're wondering why my AFT is the same as the actual AFT, it's not because I'm lazy - it's because I completely agree with all of those choices, except Williams as FotY.)
Postseason Awards Scoring (not used for All-Freshman Team)
Chelsea McMillan, USCU - 51 points
Destiny Mitchell, ETSU - 30
Haley Nelson, Belmont - 29
Taneske Richardson, JU - 28
Kelsey Jacobson, FGCU - 22
Tara Davis, ETSU - 19
Tonisha Baker, CU - 18
Sarah Hansen, FGCU - 15
Sametria Gideon, KSU - 15
Victoria McGowan, Stetson - 13
Tee'Ara Copney, USCU - 11
Shannon Murphy, FGCU - 9
Anna Bowers, Lipscomb - 7
Angie Smith, KSU - 6
Briana Williams, Mercer - 6
Brittany Kirkland, UNF - 6
Brittnee Hazel, Mercer - 6
Gigi Thomas, JU - 4
Jenna Bartsokas, Lipscomb - 3
Tierra Brown, Stetson - 2
Now that the postseason accolades are done and dusted, let's get to the actual games.
WOW!
The first round held some great basketball for those that turned out. The River City Rumble matches were both down to the wire and really helped fan the fires on one of the A-Sun's best rivalries (the other naturally being the Battle of the Boulevard) ETSU-Lipscomb was very much worth tuning in for. The Lady Bucs nearly messed around and got beat, but they made those last-second free throws that took all the drama out of their 83-75 win. In a game that was so nip and tuck, I really have to tip my hat to Gwen Washington, who stepped up and gave the team a real spark from the bench. Even with the great second half TD had, there's now way we're ever in this game if Gwen doesn't turn it way up.
On the men's side, it's all about Mike Smith, which is a compliment to Mike Smith, but nobody else showed up:
Tubbs - 1/6
Williams - 3/8
Brown - 3/12 (In fairness, Zeke earned his PT with excellent defense. More on that later.)
Sollazzo - 1/2
Smith took more than half of the team's three point attempts. The only other player to hit a shot of that variety? J.C. Ward. He was rewarded with 11 minutes. Ward always seems to really get up for the tournament and play his best basketball, so maybe that should change. I'm not saying he should start - the starters need to get it together, and should have a good opportunity to tune themselves up for the title game against UNF - but he should get far more than 11 minutes when he's clearly on form. Let him spell the starters and let them rest up for Belmont or... well, let's be realistic, Belmont will beat Mercer. I suspect it could be ugly.
Needless to say, Smith saved our bacon, and that's before he robbed Hartley in the lane. North Florida are hardly world-beaters, and they're likely drained after what is always an emotional contest against Jacksonville, but what happened against Campbell can't happen again if they want a shot at any kind of postseason basketball.
Meanwhile, a Buccaneer *not* named Mike Smith is chasing a piece of history. After adding four blocks last night, Isiah Brown now sits just seven swats shy of Zakee Wadood's single-season record. Zeke is at 134 total, the fifth most in school history, with a season still to play. That total is just 49 shy of the school record. Barring injury, I think he'll hit that next year, and I can't wait to see it. Zeke the Lesser could also catch Zeke the Greater on the single-season mark for blocks per game: Wadood's record is 2.27, and Isiah currently sits at 2.00. Just something to watch tonight. Zeke also sits at a whopping 227 offensive rebounds, putting him 8th all-time, and putting the all-time mark within his reach.
Other Bucs looking to get their names in multiple places in next year's media guide:
Sollazzo's 261 career assists ranks seventh all-time, just four shy of Greg Stephens. If he keeps this up, he could potentially catch CP by the end of next year, but he won't catch Tim Smith, and I don't think anyone will catch Mr. Jennings. His 134 assists this year give him the 9th best single-season total, just four shy of Pigram (138, 08-09), and 11 shy of Tim Smith (145, 05-06) who sits up in 6th. Jennings holds the four best single-season totals, though - 183, 202, 297, and a downright ridiculous 301 his senior year. That's pretty freaking tough to do. The Flying Cannoli is also climbing the assist/turnover ratio rankings; his 1.31/1 mark is 6th all-time, just behind Eric Palmer
Mike Smith - Smith sits at 758 rebounds, 6th in school history, just ahead of Jerald Fields and behind - guess who? - Zakee Wadood (which is fine by me, because I never get tired of typing his name). His 190 offensive boards rank 10th all-time; he needs just two to pass Dillion Sneed. Smith will also get into the record books along with Micah Williams for minutes per game in a single-season, clocking in at 34.2 (10th) and 35.5 (6th), respectively. Smith is already in the books for career minutes played, sitting at 5th all-time at 3,959; if the Bucs play three more games (counting tonight), he should catch Greg Dennis in third, but the team would have to play ten more games for him to catch Mr. Jennings, and eight for him to catch Tim Smith, so it looks like his ceiling is well-established. Smith is also now the all-time leader in games played for ETSU, passing Brad Nuckles' 131 mark with 135 games played. Williams is tied with Calvin Talford, Marty Story, and Alvin West at 126 right now and will pass them tonight; if the Bucs win tonight, he will finish his career third all-time, or second if they make it beyond the first round in any kind of postseason competition.
Speaking of Micah, he sits at 1,141 career points, 23rd all-time, but he can very easily jump into the top 20 if he hits his scoring average. If he has a pair of 20 point games tonight and tomorrow (assuming they win tonight), he could jump into 19th ahead of Wes Stallings, and could still potentially pass Kevin Tiggs at 18th with a postseason berth for ETSU.
I'll do a full recap of the record books at the end of the season.
In the meantime, Dylan Pratt continues to impress with anothe two-run jack in a 13-5 rout of Asheville. With the USC Upstate series coming up, he has a chance to really flex those muscles and add another couple of homers to his total. Hoilman went 2/4 with a walk, a K, and three runs scored. Trent picked up three more hits, including another big homber, and Reeder jacked a three-run shot on a 2/5 day.
The pitching was the real standout here, though. Bushey goes five innings, fans seven, and gives up just one hit in the start... but didn't get the decision, because Ben Booker came in and gave up five runs (three earned) on three hits and chipped in the only two walks that ETSU's staff threw. Rissman came in and got the Bucs out of the inning, and McNally would go on to pick up the win as the staff gave up four hits the rest of the game, with an eight-run explosion - including two of ETSU's three homers and a two RBI double from Scruggs - in the top of the 8th.
5-2 to start the year. Considering that two of those wins came against a team like Rider, I'd think Skole is pretty darn satisfied with that record.
Soccer is also in action with the spring schedule under way. Their first of three home fixtures was Wednesday night, as they pummeled Tusculum 4-0. Geno opened the scoring before I got there, and Haba, Hodges, and Schoenfeld (who might have actually scored twice on the same play) got the other three.
The Standouts:
Nate Hodges - Nate was given a long leash and took full advantage of it. He made some great runs up the field and his goal was an absolute beauty to the far post as he slashed in from the left touch line. If Blaike Woodruff stays in the back, Matt Reed has himself some tough competition.
Blaike Woodruff - Speaking of Blaike, he might be the fastest player on this team. He can just absolutely fly down the wing. He does so many things well, and even when he makes a mistake, he has the speed to recover. He's also smart and extremely skilled with the ball at his feet. We may never find out of he has the touch to finish, but I can't help but think that he could play anywhere. I could spend a whole blog fawning over this guy's play, but I have stuff to do.
David Haba - Numbers don't carry the weight at the collegiate level that they do at the pro level, but Haba may earn that #10 shirt if he plays in the fall like he did Wednesday night. He was all over the place and weaved through Tusculum's defenders like road cones, especially on his goal. Haba blew right by his defender and caught the keeper totally flat-footed. Easy goal on the near post.
Redshirt Report:
Nick Dykes - I'm actually not sure Nick took a redshirt last year, but as little as I even saw him warming up, he may as well have. He played in central defense pretty much all night. He was pretty quiet, but he did get burned a couple of times. He'll likely make a good 3rd option at CB this fall.
Henry Klein - Boo played very aggressively in the attack on the wing, which kind of took me by surprise. I can't really say he stood out one way or the other, but he did have a couple of nice passes.
Craig Mitcham - Mitcham walked on last fall after playing with Geno at Dobyns-Bennett for the last few years. He played the second half and didn't really do anything to make himself stand out. I can't say I see him getting much playing time in the fall, but with respectable size and what looked like pretty solid mobility, he could be a good player to have down the bench if the injury bug strikes.
Who didn't play:
Colin Pugh
Alesi Osorio
Mohammad Bowers
Ronnie Hreha
Oddities:
Jaron Westbrook stood out because he didn't play his normal position (CB) all night. Calabrese had him out on the wing, both in defense and midfield. I would assume he just wanted to get a look at Nick Dykes in central defense, but while Westbrook had some very nice runs, he showed why he plays there when he got a chance at goal. He sent one sailing over the crossbar and put one right in the goalie's chest.
At this point, you're probably saying to yourself "wait - there are two central defenders, aren't there?" Why yes, there are, unless Calabrese gets REALLY bold and goes to a 3-4-3 (which is less advisable than Paul Hoilman pitching or Isiah Brown shooting a three). I won't give the player's name because the school hasn't released it, but I will say that I thought he looked solid. Not terribly flashy, but he got the job done and made most of the correct reads. He's not Gui Reis, but few at this level are, and he should be able to hold his own against stiffer competition.
Time to get rolling for women's basketball today, to say nothing of spring break preparations. As Jack Black would say, catch you cats on the flip-flop!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
By The Numbers: Men's A-Sun Postseason Awards
There has been a lot of talk in the latter half of the season that Mike Smith is the front-runner for the Atlantic Sun's Player of the Year 
Award. Speaking as a fan of ETSU, I think this would be great for the program. It would certainly be great for Smith himself, as he has put in countless hours of work after spending an entire year on the sidelines to make sure he was the player that the program could look to as a leader for this squad.
At the same time, though, I'm not sure I agree with the idea of him being the player of the year. So, I took it upon myself to sample a collection of the conference's best players and rank them in a variety of statistical categories:
Field Goal Percentage
Three Point Field Goal Percentage
Free Throw Percentage
Rebounds Per Game
Assists Per Game
Turnovers Per Game
Steals Per Game
Blocks Per Game
Points Per Game
Efficiency
Efficiency-2 (based on minutes played/40 instead of games played)
Value Above Average Player
Value Above Replacement Player
True Shooting Percentage
Effective Field Goal Percentage
Turnover Percentage
Offensive Rebound Percentage
Defensive Rebound Percentage
Total Rebound Percentage
The top five got awarded points on a descending scale (5 points for first place, 4 for second, and so on). So, without further ado, I present your Buc Bits: Blog Edition Postseason Awards for men's basketball.
With the women's awards announced earlier today, I'll put together my postseason awards and some analysis on the A-Sun picks later tonight or very early tomorrow morning. In the meantime... back to baseball.
It's a shame the fourth game didn't get played in the Rider series, as Matt Scruggs (Matt & Scruggs?) hit a solo shot to tie the game at one in the bottom of the first before the rain set in. I was also eager to see what Derek Bushey could do with the start, but missed his first inning of work since I got there late. (What? Cleanliness is important.) But for the series, John Long
looked solid again, although I can't say I envy him for having to pitch in the mid 40s on Friday night. Kerry Doane did him no favors, adding a couple of errors to his total for the season to extend the variations on a theme at short for this program. Betterson struck out two more times in the first game and didn't play Saturday, but Trent got it together on Saturday, including a two run smash and a two-RBI two bagger, but the team as a whole couldn't hold off Rider in the second game of the doubleheader. A grand slam will do that, although I feel for McNally having to come in after Clinton Freeman walked the bases loaded. They may as well have put a giant "kick me" sign on his back.
I guess one can't really complain overall, though. The squad is 4-2 to start the year and have taken both series at home before going on the road for a one night stand in Asheville, and then opening up conference play in Spartanburg this weekend.
That's all for now. More to come later tonight... I hope...
Award. Speaking as a fan of ETSU, I think this would be great for the program. It would certainly be great for Smith himself, as he has put in countless hours of work after spending an entire year on the sidelines to make sure he was the player that the program could look to as a leader for this squad.At the same time, though, I'm not sure I agree with the idea of him being the player of the year. So, I took it upon myself to sample a collection of the conference's best players and rank them in a variety of statistical categories:
Field Goal Percentage
Three Point Field Goal Percentage
Free Throw Percentage
Rebounds Per Game
Assists Per Game
Turnovers Per Game
Steals Per Game
Blocks Per Game
Points Per Game
Efficiency
Efficiency-2 (based on minutes played/40 instead of games played)
Value Above Average Player
Value Above Replacement Player
True Shooting Percentage
Effective Field Goal Percentage
Turnover Percentage
Offensive Rebound Percentage
Defensive Rebound Percentage
Total Rebound Percentage
The top five got awarded points on a descending scale (5 points for first place, 4 for second, and so on). So, without further ado, I present your Buc Bits: Blog Edition Postseason Awards for men's basketball.
Player of the Year
Ayron Hardy, Jacksonville
33.8 MPG, .559 FG%, .288 3FG%, 12.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.7 TOPG 2.0 SPG, 16.17 EFF, 19.14 EFF-2, 9.33 VAA, 22.85 VAR, .624 TSP, .588 EFG, .187 ASP, .113 TOP, .107 ORBP, .125 DRBP, .102 TRBP
I can hear you scratching your head even as I type this; to be honest, I was a bit surprised myself. Hardy doesn't actually lead the sample group in any statistical category I measured, but he appears in the top five in 13 of those 19 categories, including ranking second eight times. The next closest is Adnan Hodzic, with 11 appearances and six first place finishes.
I was fully ready to hand the PotY award to Hodzic and toss this aside as a statistical fluke, but let's think about this for a minute: if you took Hodzic away from Lipscomb, how bad does it hurt them? Not really that much, especially when you consider the presence of Josh Slater on the squad. By that same token, if you took Ayron Hardy away from Jacksonville, the Dolphins are likely a .500 team in conference play. There is no one on that squad that can step up and provide what he does.
Hardy is a player that doesn't really get a lot of press. He has never been named to a postseason all-conference team, despite being named the Defensive PotY in 2009. It's time he was rewarded for his versatility, and that time is now. Congratulations, Mr. Hardy, on a season well played.
On to the ACTs - All-Conference Teams, that is. Not the other one that I still have nightmares about.
All-Conference First Team
Point Guard - Josh Slater, Lipscomb
31.0 MPG, .434 FG%, .292 3FG%, 16.5 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 4.7 APG, 3.1 TOPG, 3.1 SPG, 15.79 EFF, 20.36 EFF-2, 11.08 VAA, 23.49 VAR, .555 TSP, .482 EFG, .138 TOP, .099 ORBP, .150 DRBP, .113 TRBP
Shooting Guard - Mike Smith, ETSU
34.1 MPG, .462 FG%, .374 3FG%, 16.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 1.9 APG, 2.3 TOPG, 0.7 SPG, 15.87 EFF, 18.61 EFF-2, 8.21 VAA, 21.85 VAR, .562 TSP, .516 EFG, .120 TOP, .091 ORBP, .163 DRBP, .116 TRBP
Small Forward - Ayron Hardy, Jacksonville
33.8 MPG, .559 FG%, .288 3FG%, 12.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.7 TOPG 2.0 SPG, 16.17 EFF, 19.14 EFF-2, 9.33 VAA, 22.85 VAR, .624 TSP, .588 EFG, .187 ASP, .113 TOP, .107 ORBP, .125 DRBP, .102 TRBP
Power Forward - Mick Hedgepeth, Belmont
21.7 MPG, .543 FG%, 10.2 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 1.4 TOPG, 0.8 BPG, 11.84 EFF, 21.78 EFF-2, 9.83 VAA, 18.52 VAR, .605 TSP, .552 EFG, .128 TOP, .162 ORBP, .184 DRBP, .152 TRBP
I don't think this one really needs justifying, but I'll give it a go regardless.
Mick Hedgepeth (not Hedgepath, like everyone and their mothers seem to want to say it) might just be the best-kept secret in the Atlantic Sun. The junior post man (he can play both the 4 and 5) is not on the floor nearly as much as he potentially could be with a program that doesn't operate on the strict rotation that Belmont does (or, less likely, Rick Byrd doesn't realize what he has). He is an absolute monster on the glass and can turn a post-heavy offense into a pile of mushed up Nilla Wafers. He's another player that doesn't get lots of press, as opposed to the gents up the way at DLU, but he's arguably just as good, which is why I made room for him on the first team.
Center - Adnan Hodzic, Lipscomb
31.6 MPG, .565 FG%, 18.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.0 APG, 2.2 TOPG, 17.52 EFF, 22.18 EFF-2, 15.13 VAA, 27.76 VAR, .609 TSP, .567 EFG, .122 TOP, .118 ORBP, .182 DRBP, .136 TRBP
All-Conference Second Team
Point Guard - Ian Clark, Belmont
Shooting Guard - Corey Walden, Stetson
Small Forward - Micah Williams, ETSU (The only really arbitrary choice I made here; Smith had more points, but I personally wouldn't play him here, whereas I would play Williams at SF.)
Power Forward - Eric Griffin, Campbell
Center - Isiah Brown, ETSU
Sixth Man - Parker Smith, North Florida
All-Conference Freshman Team
Point Guard - Corey Walden, Stetson (Freshman of the Year)
Shooting Guard - Christophe Varidel, FGCU
Small Forward - Langston Hall, Mercer
Power Forward - Torrey Craig, USC Upstate
Center - Babatunde Olomuwiya, USC Upstate
Sixth Man - Luis Jacobo, Stetson
Awards Scoring (Not used for All-Freshman Team):
Ayron Hardy, Jacksonville - 42 points
Adnan Hodzic, Lipscomb - 41
Mick Hedgepeth, Belmont - 30
Josh Slater, Lipscomb - 25
Mike Smith, ETSU - 20
Eric Griffin, Campbell - 19
Ian Clark, Belmont - 18
Isiah Brown, ETSU - 15
Corey Walden, Stetson - 13
Parker Smith, North Florida - 12
Ayron Hardy, Jacksonville
33.8 MPG, .559 FG%, .288 3FG%, 12.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.7 TOPG 2.0 SPG, 16.17 EFF, 19.14 EFF-2, 9.33 VAA, 22.85 VAR, .624 TSP, .588 EFG, .187 ASP, .113 TOP, .107 ORBP, .125 DRBP, .102 TRBP
I can hear you scratching your head even as I type this; to be honest, I was a bit surprised myself. Hardy doesn't actually lead the sample group in any statistical category I measured, but he appears in the top five in 13 of those 19 categories, including ranking second eight times. The next closest is Adnan Hodzic, with 11 appearances and six first place finishes.
I was fully ready to hand the PotY award to Hodzic and toss this aside as a statistical fluke, but let's think about this for a minute: if you took Hodzic away from Lipscomb, how bad does it hurt them? Not really that much, especially when you consider the presence of Josh Slater on the squad. By that same token, if you took Ayron Hardy away from Jacksonville, the Dolphins are likely a .500 team in conference play. There is no one on that squad that can step up and provide what he does.
Hardy is a player that doesn't really get a lot of press. He has never been named to a postseason all-conference team, despite being named the Defensive PotY in 2009. It's time he was rewarded for his versatility, and that time is now. Congratulations, Mr. Hardy, on a season well played.
On to the ACTs - All-Conference Teams, that is. Not the other one that I still have nightmares about.
All-Conference First Team
Point Guard - Josh Slater, Lipscomb31.0 MPG, .434 FG%, .292 3FG%, 16.5 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 4.7 APG, 3.1 TOPG, 3.1 SPG, 15.79 EFF, 20.36 EFF-2, 11.08 VAA, 23.49 VAR, .555 TSP, .482 EFG, .138 TOP, .099 ORBP, .150 DRBP, .113 TRBP
Shooting Guard - Mike Smith, ETSU34.1 MPG, .462 FG%, .374 3FG%, 16.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 1.9 APG, 2.3 TOPG, 0.7 SPG, 15.87 EFF, 18.61 EFF-2, 8.21 VAA, 21.85 VAR, .562 TSP, .516 EFG, .120 TOP, .091 ORBP, .163 DRBP, .116 TRBP
Small Forward - Ayron Hardy, Jacksonville33.8 MPG, .559 FG%, .288 3FG%, 12.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.7 TOPG 2.0 SPG, 16.17 EFF, 19.14 EFF-2, 9.33 VAA, 22.85 VAR, .624 TSP, .588 EFG, .187 ASP, .113 TOP, .107 ORBP, .125 DRBP, .102 TRBP
Power Forward - Mick Hedgepeth, Belmont21.7 MPG, .543 FG%, 10.2 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 1.4 TOPG, 0.8 BPG, 11.84 EFF, 21.78 EFF-2, 9.83 VAA, 18.52 VAR, .605 TSP, .552 EFG, .128 TOP, .162 ORBP, .184 DRBP, .152 TRBP
I don't think this one really needs justifying, but I'll give it a go regardless.
Mick Hedgepeth (not Hedgepath, like everyone and their mothers seem to want to say it) might just be the best-kept secret in the Atlantic Sun. The junior post man (he can play both the 4 and 5) is not on the floor nearly as much as he potentially could be with a program that doesn't operate on the strict rotation that Belmont does (or, less likely, Rick Byrd doesn't realize what he has). He is an absolute monster on the glass and can turn a post-heavy offense into a pile of mushed up Nilla Wafers. He's another player that doesn't get lots of press, as opposed to the gents up the way at DLU, but he's arguably just as good, which is why I made room for him on the first team.
Center - Adnan Hodzic, Lipscomb31.6 MPG, .565 FG%, 18.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.0 APG, 2.2 TOPG, 17.52 EFF, 22.18 EFF-2, 15.13 VAA, 27.76 VAR, .609 TSP, .567 EFG, .122 TOP, .118 ORBP, .182 DRBP, .136 TRBP
All-Conference Second Team
Point Guard - Ian Clark, Belmont
Shooting Guard - Corey Walden, Stetson
Small Forward - Micah Williams, ETSU (The only really arbitrary choice I made here; Smith had more points, but I personally wouldn't play him here, whereas I would play Williams at SF.)
Power Forward - Eric Griffin, Campbell
Center - Isiah Brown, ETSU
Sixth Man - Parker Smith, North Florida
All-Conference Freshman Team
Point Guard - Corey Walden, Stetson (Freshman of the Year)
Shooting Guard - Christophe Varidel, FGCU
Small Forward - Langston Hall, Mercer
Power Forward - Torrey Craig, USC Upstate
Center - Babatunde Olomuwiya, USC Upstate
Sixth Man - Luis Jacobo, Stetson
Awards Scoring (Not used for All-Freshman Team):
Ayron Hardy, Jacksonville - 42 points
Adnan Hodzic, Lipscomb - 41
Mick Hedgepeth, Belmont - 30
Josh Slater, Lipscomb - 25
Mike Smith, ETSU - 20
Eric Griffin, Campbell - 19
Ian Clark, Belmont - 18
Isiah Brown, ETSU - 15
Corey Walden, Stetson - 13
Parker Smith, North Florida - 12
With the women's awards announced earlier today, I'll put together my postseason awards and some analysis on the A-Sun picks later tonight or very early tomorrow morning. In the meantime... back to baseball.
It's a shame the fourth game didn't get played in the Rider series, as Matt Scruggs (Matt & Scruggs?) hit a solo shot to tie the game at one in the bottom of the first before the rain set in. I was also eager to see what Derek Bushey could do with the start, but missed his first inning of work since I got there late. (What? Cleanliness is important.) But for the series, John Long
looked solid again, although I can't say I envy him for having to pitch in the mid 40s on Friday night. Kerry Doane did him no favors, adding a couple of errors to his total for the season to extend the variations on a theme at short for this program. Betterson struck out two more times in the first game and didn't play Saturday, but Trent got it together on Saturday, including a two run smash and a two-RBI two bagger, but the team as a whole couldn't hold off Rider in the second game of the doubleheader. A grand slam will do that, although I feel for McNally having to come in after Clinton Freeman walked the bases loaded. They may as well have put a giant "kick me" sign on his back.I guess one can't really complain overall, though. The squad is 4-2 to start the year and have taken both series at home before going on the road for a one night stand in Asheville, and then opening up conference play in Spartanburg this weekend.
That's all for now. More to come later tonight... I hope...
Friday, February 25, 2011
Pratt Rallies Bucs Past Rider; Basketball Was Played Somewhere
Tonight, Pratt the Trickster had a rather unimpressive hat trick: a K, a walk, and an HBP, but then went and pulled off a really great trick: he scored the winning run on a two-run blast (2) in the bottom of the 8th.
After Mike Thomas struck out ten batters in six innings, things looked pret
ty bleak for ETSU. Their only offense came on a solo shot from Paul Hoilman (2), who finished a triple shy of the cycle. I would make a snarky remark about how unlikely this is due to Hoilman's speed on the base paths, but it's midnight and I'm getting ready for Craig Ferguson.
Long turned in six respectable innings, but his stuff lacked something. It was likely the weather, which is understandable (nobody likes to pitch in the mid-40s at night), but he was able to keep the damage down with just two earned runs. His arm will feel the burn though, after throwing 166 pitches to the Broncs tonight. I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't play at all today in the field.
Unfortunately, Rider scored four runs, helped along by a pair of outfield errors from Betterson (1), Scruggs (1), and yet another defensive blooper Kerry Doane (4), which is giving him the benefit of the doubt - I would have scored him with two, even considering the rough (to put it mildly) infield conditions after the heavy rains last night.
Rider looked like they would run away with this game until McNally took the hill in the 7th and completely shut them down, with 4 Ks in two innings of work. He gave up his last two hits in the top of the ninth, but Reeder came in and got the save (1) to give McNally the win (2-0).
In addition to his error on a routine fly to left, Betterson also struck out swinging twice, as did Niesman. Green also went down twice, once looking, and went 0/4.
Speaking of players with struggles, Scruggs is hitting .167, and Derek Trent also went 0/3 and has one hit in the first four games. I really shouldn't have to tell you where this is going.
Now, in brief, basketball:
The Lady Bucs were flat in Buies Creek. Shawn Randall took the opening tip and immediately ran full-speed into her own back court, and things just went downhill from there. Granted, they played this game without Latisha Belcher, but it seemed like players wanted to take the game off. Pickwell was 3/10 from the field; Davis was 3/13 with six turnovers. The team needed offense from Tosha Austin in the post, and she went 1/5, although she at least partially made up for it with nine boards.
It was a meaningless game in the standings, but this is still a really disappointing loss, and the first ever against Campbell for this program. Hopefully they come out against Lipscomb a little more motivated, or we might have an upset on our hands.
For the men, the game started in a similar fashion when Curtis Wilkinson won the opening tip and threw it to Sollazzo in the back court; however, they went in the opposite direction for a very important win. The guys that needed to step up were the ones that stepped up. Zeke with another 21 points, Tubbs with a quiet 14 and solid shooting day (4/9), and Sollazzo's strong outside drive nets him more than a few trips to the line, where he makes the Camels pay and drops a career-best 22 on them. The best part of this win, though, wasn't the strong individual performances from the three starters - it's that they might play this team AGAIN in the tournament, with Smith and Williams in the lineup. Bartow must be licking his chops at the thought of having his two best scorers back and playing what would likely be the same team on the floor in the tournament.
If they don't play this team again, then it could be an even better matchup, as they'll play Kennesaw State, but that would also require KSU to beat Belmont, so I would strongly advise them to prep for Campbell.
Since I'm not one for clever transitions, let's move on to softball.
... you know, on second thought, the less said about softball's 6-3 loss to Northwestern (three fielding errors) and 11-1 mercy rule loss to Chattanooga, the better.
Finally, I do have to give some props to the ETSU tennis teams. I went out for a shoot at one of their practices, and I don't think I've ever seen a more gracious host than Yaser Zaatini. The men open up conference against Upstate today. Best of luck, guys!
After Mike Thomas struck out ten batters in six innings, things looked pret
ty bleak for ETSU. Their only offense came on a solo shot from Paul Hoilman (2), who finished a triple shy of the cycle. I would make a snarky remark about how unlikely this is due to Hoilman's speed on the base paths, but it's midnight and I'm getting ready for Craig Ferguson.Long turned in six respectable innings, but his stuff lacked something. It was likely the weather, which is understandable (nobody likes to pitch in the mid-40s at night), but he was able to keep the damage down with just two earned runs. His arm will feel the burn though, after throwing 166 pitches to the Broncs tonight. I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't play at all today in the field.
Unfortunately, Rider scored four runs, helped along by a pair of outfield errors from Betterson (1), Scruggs (1), and yet another defensive blooper Kerry Doane (4), which is giving him the benefit of the doubt - I would have scored him with two, even considering the rough (to put it mildly) infield conditions after the heavy rains last night.
Rider looked like they would run away with this game until McNally took the hill in the 7th and completely shut them down, with 4 Ks in two innings of work. He gave up his last two hits in the top of the ninth, but Reeder came in and got the save (1) to give McNally the win (2-0).
In addition to his error on a routine fly to left, Betterson also struck out swinging twice, as did Niesman. Green also went down twice, once looking, and went 0/4.
Speaking of players with struggles, Scruggs is hitting .167, and Derek Trent also went 0/3 and has one hit in the first four games. I really shouldn't have to tell you where this is going.Now, in brief, basketball:
The Lady Bucs were flat in Buies Creek. Shawn Randall took the opening tip and immediately ran full-speed into her own back court, and things just went downhill from there. Granted, they played this game without Latisha Belcher, but it seemed like players wanted to take the game off. Pickwell was 3/10 from the field; Davis was 3/13 with six turnovers. The team needed offense from Tosha Austin in the post, and she went 1/5, although she at least partially made up for it with nine boards.
It was a meaningless game in the standings, but this is still a really disappointing loss, and the first ever against Campbell for this program. Hopefully they come out against Lipscomb a little more motivated, or we might have an upset on our hands.
For the men, the game started in a similar fashion when Curtis Wilkinson won the opening tip and threw it to Sollazzo in the back court; however, they went in the opposite direction for a very important win. The guys that needed to step up were the ones that stepped up. Zeke with another 21 points, Tubbs with a quiet 14 and solid shooting day (4/9), and Sollazzo's strong outside drive nets him more than a few trips to the line, where he makes the Camels pay and drops a career-best 22 on them. The best part of this win, though, wasn't the strong individual performances from the three starters - it's that they might play this team AGAIN in the tournament, with Smith and Williams in the lineup. Bartow must be licking his chops at the thought of having his two best scorers back and playing what would likely be the same team on the floor in the tournament.
If they don't play this team again, then it could be an even better matchup, as they'll play Kennesaw State, but that would also require KSU to beat Belmont, so I would strongly advise them to prep for Campbell.
Since I'm not one for clever transitions, let's move on to softball.
... you know, on second thought, the less said about softball's 6-3 loss to Northwestern (three fielding errors) and 11-1 mercy rule loss to Chattanooga, the better.
Finally, I do have to give some props to the ETSU tennis teams. I went out for a shoot at one of their practices, and I don't think I've ever seen a more gracious host than Yaser Zaatini. The men open up conference against Upstate today. Best of luck, guys!
Friday, February 18, 2011
To Avoid Double Entendres, This Blog Has No Title
Forgive my tardiness, but this has been a rough week. To say I've been under the weather might
be a tiny bit of an understatement. But, in the aftermath of the Belmont loss, let's all just get it out of our systems.
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Typically, in an ETSU loss, one of two things (or both in really bad losses) go wrong: three point defense and free throw shooting. The perimeter D was acceptable at 33%, but the free throw shooting was a very poor 68%. You can't shoot that poorly at the line against a team as good as Belmont and expect to win.
Some might argue that hitting all 16 opportunities at the stripe wouldn't have won us the game and, ceteris paribus, they'd be right - we would have lost by three. But bad free throw shooting can ruin your confidence. If a guy can't hit his free throws, then he starts missing other shots, and then his bad shooting can very easily become contagious. Generally, this team has been able to get away with bad shooting from the line because of good defense and a lack of scoring depth among the other teams in the conference, but Belmont has the latter in spades. That makes life really difficult, and that's why we lost.
But life goes on, and the team bounced back and played a very solid second half plus ten minutes to beat Lipscomb in Allen Arena for the second year in a row.
If anyone needs any perspective on how great of a second half this team played, our top three scorers from the first half were: Zeke with ten, Sollazzo with six, and Curtis Wilkinson with five. (Wilkinson, by the way, would not score again and foul out after 23 minutes. Baby steps.)
Speaking of ye ol
de Flying Cannoli, the reaction to his last-second jumper seemed mixed between "Wow, we just took the lead with 2.5 seconds left!" and "Wow, Sollazzo just made a jump shot!" Now, I recognize that Sollazzo likes to drive a lot and doesn't always have the greatest shot selection, but come on. He's shooting 51% from the field on the year. For a player that doesn't live under the basket like Brown or Wilkinson, that's really impressive. He also went 6/6 from the line, which has really been his big sore spot this season. He's not perfect, but the fact that he has done even a decent job running the point for this team as a converted small forward is really impressive, and he deserves far more credit than he gets.
So what about the ladies? I have to be honest, I really could not immer
se myself in their tilt with Lipscomb. Maybe it was because I was sick, or my mind was just elsewhere, or maybe it was both teams shooting under 30% from the field that just made this game tough to get into. Still, there were some great individual numbers. Another 20 point game for Pickwell. Another double-double for Tish. TD back on form with 17, and Tosha Austin with 11 rebounds (that may be a career high; will double-check and confirm). I will also go out on a limb and say Jess Reece's seven blocks is a single-game program record. If not... wow.
Enough with hoops for now. Let's talk about another sport near and dear to my heart... ice hockey!
... wait, we don't have a hockey team? We don't even have an ice rink? Bugger. Oh well. (Did you know: Gulf Coast and Kennesaw both field men's club teams in the ACHA. The real kicker: they're really good.)
So, in that case, let's talk about another sport near and dear to my heart... water polo!
Kidding, kidding. Baseball.
The Bucs wrap up their season-opening series against Marist today. I suspect the bats will be up for this one after Chad Gallagher fanned ten for the Red Foxes yesterday in a 5-1 win. I couldn't get out to see the end of the Friday game (which was canceled due to darkness, the lighting situation being what it was), but got out for the seven innings played on Friday. I came away with more positive sentiments than negative, for certain. Let's break it down by player:
The Good
John Long - 5.0 IP, 60-ish pitches, 4 Ks, 2 BBs, 4 H, 2 ER - I was disappointed that Long got yanked after an error, but I suspect that Skole had him on a fairly tight pitching schedule for this early in the season. I liked what I saw. He has really good off-speed stuff that gave Marist's bats fits all day. He also doesn't get rattled easily; after committing a throwing error in the second to put two runners on base, he induced a fly-out, struck out Nick McQuail, and then got a ground-out to short to get himself out of the inning with no runs against him. In fact, he went four full innings carrying a shutout. I liked what I saw very much.
Dylan Pratt - 2/5, 3 RBI, R, 2B, HR (1) - Let me say, first of all, that Pratt is either way taller than 6'1" or way leaner than 220 lbs, and possibly both, but man oh man does he have the power. He seemed a little bit jittery at first and is prone to chasing one down around his ankles (which was how he struck out the only time he fanned), but when he gets hold of the ball, it's going into the outfield. That's exactly what you want from a DH.
The... Neutral?
Kerry Doane - 2/4, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2B, 2 E - For every step forward Kerry takes, he seems to take a step back. Despite a couple of very solid hits, I might never forget how he let the ball bounce right under his glove on a routine grounder and allowed two runs to score. It made me want to pull my hair out strand-by-strand. I really don't want to say anything more about it.
The Golden Sombrero
Cory Betterson - 4 Ks (2 swinging, 2 looking) - I was really hoping no one would earn one of these for a while, but maybe it's better to get them out of the way during the non-conference schedule. It was a mixed blessing that C-Bet didn't get another crack at it; if he hit, he would have gotten himself off the schneid, but if he struck out again, he would have tied a school record, and his name would likely be immortalized somewhere besides a blog that no one reads.
And finally, softball. The results from this weekend, with the tilt against Canisius still pending:
ETSU 7-5 Towson
Henderson - 2/3, HR, RBI, 3 R, BB
Lower - 1/3, 2 RBI, R
Baird - 1/1, RBI, R, 2BB
Morris (W) - 5.2 IP, 9 H, 5 Runs (1 Earned), 5 K, 3 BB
Wolff (S) - 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K, BB
ETSU 5-7 Morehead State (8 innings)
Baird - 2/5
Henderson - 1/3, RBI, R
Tara Hartnett - 2/3, 2 R
Annie Martin - 1/1, RBI
Duncan - 6.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R(3 Earned), 5 K, 4 BB
Wolff (L) - 1.0 IP, H, 2 R (1 Earned), K, BB
3 Errors
Akron 3-6 ETSU
Fox - 2/4, R
Henderson - 2/4, 2 RBI
Morris (L) - 4.0 IP, 8 H, 5 Runs (4 Earned), 5 K, 2 BB, Balk
Wolff - 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 Earned) 1 BB, 1 SO
2 Errors
Charleston 3-1 ETSU
Martin - 2/4
Baird - 1/3, R
Campbell - 1/3, RBI
Duncan (L) - 5.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R (0 Earned), 4 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP
Wolff - 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
2 Errors
I don't know about you, but I see a recurring theme in these losses: solid pitching efforts going to waste due to sloppy defense. Case in point, the ERA for each pitcher at the Charleston tournament:
Morris - 4.42 (including 3.0 IP + 3 ER in Canisius game today)
Duncan - 1.85
Wolff - 1.31 (including 3.0 IP + 1 ER in Canisius game today)
When you don't have the firepower to make up for it, errors can really burn you. Baseball can make up for a couple of bloopers a game, but softball doesn't have that luxury.
The other sore spot is driving in runners. Coming into today, the Lady Bucs have left an average of eight runners stranded per game. That's a lot of potential offense left on the base paths. I think that's indicative of a lack of serious power in the lineup, which was a big issue with the program under Mangrum. Since Irwin has effectively inherited this team from Mangrum minus its two best offensive players in 2010 (Schneider and Cason), I guess that shouldn't really be a shock, but I suspect it's something Irwin is looking to correct long-term.
The current score from Charleston: ETSU 4-8 Canisius in the top of the 7th with two away. And with that, I'm out the door. Payece! (Really awkward way of saying "peace," for any non-Will Smith fans in the house.)
be a tiny bit of an understatement. But, in the aftermath of the Belmont loss, let's all just get it out of our systems.UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Typically, in an ETSU loss, one of two things (or both in really bad losses) go wrong: three point defense and free throw shooting. The perimeter D was acceptable at 33%, but the free throw shooting was a very poor 68%. You can't shoot that poorly at the line against a team as good as Belmont and expect to win.
Some might argue that hitting all 16 opportunities at the stripe wouldn't have won us the game and, ceteris paribus, they'd be right - we would have lost by three. But bad free throw shooting can ruin your confidence. If a guy can't hit his free throws, then he starts missing other shots, and then his bad shooting can very easily become contagious. Generally, this team has been able to get away with bad shooting from the line because of good defense and a lack of scoring depth among the other teams in the conference, but Belmont has the latter in spades. That makes life really difficult, and that's why we lost.
But life goes on, and the team bounced back and played a very solid second half plus ten minutes to beat Lipscomb in Allen Arena for the second year in a row.
If anyone needs any perspective on how great of a second half this team played, our top three scorers from the first half were: Zeke with ten, Sollazzo with six, and Curtis Wilkinson with five. (Wilkinson, by the way, would not score again and foul out after 23 minutes. Baby steps.)
Speaking of ye ol
de Flying Cannoli, the reaction to his last-second jumper seemed mixed between "Wow, we just took the lead with 2.5 seconds left!" and "Wow, Sollazzo just made a jump shot!" Now, I recognize that Sollazzo likes to drive a lot and doesn't always have the greatest shot selection, but come on. He's shooting 51% from the field on the year. For a player that doesn't live under the basket like Brown or Wilkinson, that's really impressive. He also went 6/6 from the line, which has really been his big sore spot this season. He's not perfect, but the fact that he has done even a decent job running the point for this team as a converted small forward is really impressive, and he deserves far more credit than he gets.So what about the ladies? I have to be honest, I really could not immer
se myself in their tilt with Lipscomb. Maybe it was because I was sick, or my mind was just elsewhere, or maybe it was both teams shooting under 30% from the field that just made this game tough to get into. Still, there were some great individual numbers. Another 20 point game for Pickwell. Another double-double for Tish. TD back on form with 17, and Tosha Austin with 11 rebounds (that may be a career high; will double-check and confirm). I will also go out on a limb and say Jess Reece's seven blocks is a single-game program record. If not... wow.Enough with hoops for now. Let's talk about another sport near and dear to my heart... ice hockey!
... wait, we don't have a hockey team? We don't even have an ice rink? Bugger. Oh well. (Did you know: Gulf Coast and Kennesaw both field men's club teams in the ACHA. The real kicker: they're really good.)
So, in that case, let's talk about another sport near and dear to my heart... water polo!
Kidding, kidding. Baseball.
The Bucs wrap up their season-opening series against Marist today. I suspect the bats will be up for this one after Chad Gallagher fanned ten for the Red Foxes yesterday in a 5-1 win. I couldn't get out to see the end of the Friday game (which was canceled due to darkness, the lighting situation being what it was), but got out for the seven innings played on Friday. I came away with more positive sentiments than negative, for certain. Let's break it down by player:
The Good
John Long - 5.0 IP, 60-ish pitches, 4 Ks, 2 BBs, 4 H, 2 ER - I was disappointed that Long got yanked after an error, but I suspect that Skole had him on a fairly tight pitching schedule for this early in the season. I liked what I saw. He has really good off-speed stuff that gave Marist's bats fits all day. He also doesn't get rattled easily; after committing a throwing error in the second to put two runners on base, he induced a fly-out, struck out Nick McQuail, and then got a ground-out to short to get himself out of the inning with no runs against him. In fact, he went four full innings carrying a shutout. I liked what I saw very much.
Dylan Pratt - 2/5, 3 RBI, R, 2B, HR (1) - Let me say, first of all, that Pratt is either way taller than 6'1" or way leaner than 220 lbs, and possibly both, but man oh man does he have the power. He seemed a little bit jittery at first and is prone to chasing one down around his ankles (which was how he struck out the only time he fanned), but when he gets hold of the ball, it's going into the outfield. That's exactly what you want from a DH.
The... Neutral?
Kerry Doane - 2/4, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2B, 2 E - For every step forward Kerry takes, he seems to take a step back. Despite a couple of very solid hits, I might never forget how he let the ball bounce right under his glove on a routine grounder and allowed two runs to score. It made me want to pull my hair out strand-by-strand. I really don't want to say anything more about it.
The Golden Sombrero
Cory Betterson - 4 Ks (2 swinging, 2 looking) - I was really hoping no one would earn one of these for a while, but maybe it's better to get them out of the way during the non-conference schedule. It was a mixed blessing that C-Bet didn't get another crack at it; if he hit, he would have gotten himself off the schneid, but if he struck out again, he would have tied a school record, and his name would likely be immortalized somewhere besides a blog that no one reads.
And finally, softball. The results from this weekend, with the tilt against Canisius still pending:
ETSU 7-5 Towson
Henderson - 2/3, HR, RBI, 3 R, BB
Lower - 1/3, 2 RBI, R
Baird - 1/1, RBI, R, 2BB
Morris (W) - 5.2 IP, 9 H, 5 Runs (1 Earned), 5 K, 3 BB
Wolff (S) - 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K, BB
ETSU 5-7 Morehead State (8 innings)
Baird - 2/5
Henderson - 1/3, RBI, R
Tara Hartnett - 2/3, 2 R
Annie Martin - 1/1, RBI
Duncan - 6.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R(3 Earned), 5 K, 4 BB
Wolff (L) - 1.0 IP, H, 2 R (1 Earned), K, BB
3 Errors
Akron 3-6 ETSU
Fox - 2/4, R
Henderson - 2/4, 2 RBI
Morris (L) - 4.0 IP, 8 H, 5 Runs (4 Earned), 5 K, 2 BB, Balk
Wolff - 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 Earned) 1 BB, 1 SO
2 Errors
Charleston 3-1 ETSU
Martin - 2/4
Baird - 1/3, R
Campbell - 1/3, RBI
Duncan (L) - 5.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R (0 Earned), 4 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP
Wolff - 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
2 Errors
I don't know about you, but I see a recurring theme in these losses: solid pitching efforts going to waste due to sloppy defense. Case in point, the ERA for each pitcher at the Charleston tournament:
Morris - 4.42 (including 3.0 IP + 3 ER in Canisius game today)
Duncan - 1.85
Wolff - 1.31 (including 3.0 IP + 1 ER in Canisius game today)
When you don't have the firepower to make up for it, errors can really burn you. Baseball can make up for a couple of bloopers a game, but softball doesn't have that luxury.
The other sore spot is driving in runners. Coming into today, the Lady Bucs have left an average of eight runners stranded per game. That's a lot of potential offense left on the base paths. I think that's indicative of a lack of serious power in the lineup, which was a big issue with the program under Mangrum. Since Irwin has effectively inherited this team from Mangrum minus its two best offensive players in 2010 (Schneider and Cason), I guess that shouldn't really be a shock, but I suspect it's something Irwin is looking to correct long-term.
The current score from Charleston: ETSU 4-8 Canisius in the top of the 7th with two away. And with that, I'm out the door. Payece! (Really awkward way of saying "peace," for any non-Will Smith fans in the house.)
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Postgame: Bucs Net Win Over Dolphins; Pyrrich Victory for Ladies?
Last night was easily the best and worst 20 minutes of basketball the men's team has played all year. With a dangerous duet of defense and dunks, the team got out to a huge lead, and then fell apart at the seams in the second half. I guess that's okay, because the team still won the game, but Bartow cannot - and from what I could gather, was not pleased with the overall performance.
Still, this win was important for ETSU. They likely wrapped up a post-postseason spot, whether it be NCAA (if they win the tournament) or NIT (if Belmont wins the tournament). With a 2.5 game lead over Jacksonville for second, things aren't definite, but seem to be well in hand. It was also a great display of grit and resolve, to come back out and acknowledge the fact that they played poorly against Stetson with an authoritative first half against a much better team.
That brings us to the women's game. Yikes. Hearing John's call of Destiny Mitchell's injury made it sound bad enough - then I watched the video. I hate to speculate on something like this, but my fear is that she could be done for the year. The MRI will give a definite answer, but the way her leg just completely gave out, I can't imagine a scenario where she didn't do some kind of ligament damage, but stranger things have happened. Heck, stranger things have happened at ETSU in the last academic year alone. Hopefully the results will come back soon.
On a lighter note, how about Natalie Pickwell? If Mitchell is hurt for a lengthy period of time, Pickwell is one of several players that will have to step up to fill the offensive void, and the way she dominated UNF today really bodes well for her going into the tournament and, slightly further along, her senior year. If she gets hot, they might not miss Mitchell's offense as badly (if at all), although they will certainly miss her post presence either way.
Tomorrow is senior day for the men's team. It's a very emotional time, and we have a very beatable team in North Florida in the building for tomorrow. This senior class doesn't want to be the one that let a dynastic reign slip away at the last hurdle, and after playing with such tremendous gusto against Jacksonville in the first half, I have to think they'll handle this team. Then again, stranger things have happened...
Softball season starts Tuesday. I'll have my full preview up at some point.
Still, this win was important for ETSU. They likely wrapped up a post-postseason spot, whether it be NCAA (if they win the tournament) or NIT (if Belmont wins the tournament). With a 2.5 game lead over Jacksonville for second, things aren't definite, but seem to be well in hand. It was also a great display of grit and resolve, to come back out and acknowledge the fact that they played poorly against Stetson with an authoritative first half against a much better team.
That brings us to the women's game. Yikes. Hearing John's call of Destiny Mitchell's injury made it sound bad enough - then I watched the video. I hate to speculate on something like this, but my fear is that she could be done for the year. The MRI will give a definite answer, but the way her leg just completely gave out, I can't imagine a scenario where she didn't do some kind of ligament damage, but stranger things have happened. Heck, stranger things have happened at ETSU in the last academic year alone. Hopefully the results will come back soon.
On a lighter note, how about Natalie Pickwell? If Mitchell is hurt for a lengthy period of time, Pickwell is one of several players that will have to step up to fill the offensive void, and the way she dominated UNF today really bodes well for her going into the tournament and, slightly further along, her senior year. If she gets hot, they might not miss Mitchell's offense as badly (if at all), although they will certainly miss her post presence either way.
Tomorrow is senior day for the men's team. It's a very emotional time, and we have a very beatable team in North Florida in the building for tomorrow. This senior class doesn't want to be the one that let a dynastic reign slip away at the last hurdle, and after playing with such tremendous gusto against Jacksonville in the first half, I have to think they'll handle this team. Then again, stranger things have happened...
Softball season starts Tuesday. I'll have my full preview up at some point.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Game Day 27: Bucs vs. Dolphins
ETSU BuccaneersHead Coach - Murry Bartow (9th Year, Alabama-Birmingham '85)
Record: 12-7 (7-1, 2nd A-Sun)
Home Record: 9-1
Record vs. Jacksonville:
RPI: .5299 (121st)
Team Points/Game: 68.5 (3rd)
Team Points Allowed/Game: 63.3 (1st)
Team Rebounds/Game: 36.1 (4th)
Team Rebounds Allowed/Game: 33.6 (3rd)
Team Assists/Game: 11.2 (9th)
Team Steals/Game: 6.4 (8th)
Team Blocks/Game: 3.7 (5th)
Team Total Turnovers/Game: 13.7 (T-1st)
Team Unforced Turnovers/Game: 7.8
Team Field Goal Pct.: .459 (3rd)
Team 3-Point FG Pct.: .342(4th)
Minutes/Game: Mike Smith, 34.8
Points/Game: Mike Smith, 17.0
Rebounds/Game: Isiah Brown, 7.1
Assists/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 4.2
Steals/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 1.3
Blocks/Game: Isiah Brown, 1.7
Turnovers/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 2.6
Field Goal Pct. (Min. 100): Adam Sollazzo, .550
3-Point FG Pct. (Min. 50): Mike Smith, .373
Tonight's Opponent
Record: 12-7 (7-1, 2nd A-Sun)
Home Record: 9-1
Record vs. Jacksonville:
RPI: .5299 (121st)
Team Points/Game: 68.5 (3rd)
Team Points Allowed/Game: 63.3 (1st)
Team Rebounds/Game: 36.1 (4th)
Team Rebounds Allowed/Game: 33.6 (3rd)
Team Assists/Game: 11.2 (9th)
Team Steals/Game: 6.4 (8th)
Team Blocks/Game: 3.7 (5th)
Team Total Turnovers/Game: 13.7 (T-1st)
Team Unforced Turnovers/Game: 7.8
Team Field Goal Pct.: .459 (3rd)
Team 3-Point FG Pct.: .342(4th)
Minutes/Game: Mike Smith, 34.8
Points/Game: Mike Smith, 17.0
Rebounds/Game: Isiah Brown, 7.1
Assists/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 4.2
Steals/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 1.3
Blocks/Game: Isiah Brown, 1.7
Turnovers/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 2.6
Field Goal Pct. (Min. 100): Adam Sollazzo, .550
3-Point FG Pct. (Min. 50): Mike Smith, .373
Tonight's Opponent
Jacksonville DolphinsHead Coach: Cliff Warren (6th Year, Mount St. Mary's '90)
Record: 16-7 (10-4 A-Sun)
Away Record: 7-5
RPI: 0.5325 (112th)
Team Points/Game: 68.3 (4th)
Team Points Allowed/Game: 65.0 (3rd)
Team Rebounds/Game: 37.8 (1st)
Team Rebounds Allowed/Game: 34.0 (4th)
Team Assists/Game: 12.4 (5th)
Team Steals/Game: 8.1 (3rd)
Team Blocks/Game: 3.9 (4th)
Team Total Turnovers/Game: 15.9 (7th)
Team Unforced Turnovers/Game: 8.6
Team Field Goal Pct.: .427 (7th)
Team 3-Point FG Pct.: .301 (9th)
Minutes/Game: Ayron Hardy, 33.8
Points/Game: Ayron Hardy, 12.5
Rebounds/Game: Delwan Graham, 6.5
Assists/Game: Russell Powell, 3.0
Steals/Game: Ayron Hardy, 1.9
Blocks/Game: Glenn Powell, 1.1
Turnovers/Game: Delwan Graham, 2.0
Field Goal Pct. (Min. 100): Ayron Hardy, .566
3-Point FG Pct. (Min. 50): Travis Cohn, .379
Record: 16-7 (10-4 A-Sun)
Away Record: 7-5
RPI: 0.5325 (112th)
Team Points/Game: 68.3 (4th)
Team Points Allowed/Game: 65.0 (3rd)
Team Rebounds/Game: 37.8 (1st)
Team Rebounds Allowed/Game: 34.0 (4th)
Team Assists/Game: 12.4 (5th)
Team Steals/Game: 8.1 (3rd)
Team Blocks/Game: 3.9 (4th)
Team Total Turnovers/Game: 15.9 (7th)
Team Unforced Turnovers/Game: 8.6
Team Field Goal Pct.: .427 (7th)
Team 3-Point FG Pct.: .301 (9th)
Minutes/Game: Ayron Hardy, 33.8
Points/Game: Ayron Hardy, 12.5
Rebounds/Game: Delwan Graham, 6.5
Assists/Game: Russell Powell, 3.0
Steals/Game: Ayron Hardy, 1.9
Blocks/Game: Glenn Powell, 1.1
Turnovers/Game: Delwan Graham, 2.0
Field Goal Pct. (Min. 100): Ayron Hardy, .566
3-Point FG Pct. (Min. 50): Travis Cohn, .379
This contest has all the makings of a classic. You have two teams that really pride themselves on defense. One has a long reputation for lousy shooting, and the other is coming off a really ugly loss. In the event that Belmont wins the tournament, this game could (and likely will) decide which of these two teams plays postseason basketball.
Two players are going to have to step up and deliver tonight: Justin Tubbs and Adam Sollazzo. JT may have been just as well off not playing at all in DeLand, although the ankle doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. Sollazzo absolutely must hit his free throws. Actually, that goes for everyone. In fact, Bartow should implement some sort of disciplinary measure for guys who miss free throws, if he hasn't already.
Two players are going to have to step up and deliver tonight: Justin Tubbs and Adam Sollazzo. JT may have been just as well off not playing at all in DeLand, although the ankle doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. Sollazzo absolutely must hit his free throws. Actually, that goes for everyone. In fact, Bartow should implement some sort of disciplinary measure for guys who miss free throws, if he hasn't already.
Defensively, this shouldn't be a tough game for the Bucs - the whole Jacksonville offense runs through Hardy, so shut him down and they'll struggle mightily. But something has to change on the offensive end. JU doesn't give up much from outside, which works to ETSU's advantage, as Sollazzo and Smith both like to drive to the post.
And now... off to the Dome! Away!
Uh... fly!
Uh... oh, forget it. Woosh!
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