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.