Postgame: Empty Possessions Cost Bucs

Tonight was ugly. The countless empty possessions, especially in the last five minutes, really made the game tough to watch. But when you consider that we held Belmont to 72 points (well below their average) without one of our best perimeter defenders, and we're still comfortably in second place, there is at least some upside here unless you expected us to win today. Quite frankly, I didn't.

Analysis in the form of Green Stat/Red Stat:

4300 - Attendance. Now that's more like it! Great turnout today, I'd like to see more like it, even though I know Upstate and Kennesaw aren't really big draws, especially a midweek fixture with the Spartans.
4 - ETSU made three pointers, out of eight. I saw that number in the box score and wanted to rip my hair out. When you're down by ten points with two minutes to go, trying to drive against a team that gives you no breathing room in the lane and then fouling a good free-throw shooting team (although we ended up with the better FT numbers today) isn't going to help your chances to win or even force overtime. Throw up the three ball. Get Micah to 30. Give the ball to Mike. I recognize that there is some hesitance to shoot the three without Tubbs, but what have you got to lose?


70 - ETSU free throw percentage. By no means great, but a good bit better than the 64% the Bucs normally shoot from the free throw line.
2 - ETSU bench points: one apiece for J.C. Ward and Curtis Wilkinson. Those two combined with Lukas Poderis for a whopping one total field goal attempt. I don't wear a toupee, but if I did, I would have thrown it on the ground and jumped up and down on it in frustration on the sidelines. Forget beating Belmont, if you want to beat any team in Division I basketball, you have to get something from your bench. The lack of production really worked me up yesterday, like Harry Redknapp gets worked up when... well, anything happens, really.

At the end of the day, though, nothing is really all that different. We're still going to have to win the tournament to get to the Big Dance, we still have to find a way to replace Tubbs' production for the immediate future, and, when healthy, we have a very good chance of winning the conference tournament. I can't imagine what would happen if we didn't, with as many seniors as we have...

Postgame: Bucs Best the Bisons in the Trenches

Another day, another great chapter in the ETSU-Lipscomb rivalry. (Although how much of a rivalry it is when one team has won 26 of 34 meetings is up for debate.)

That might have been the ugliest basketball game I've ever seen (except for every NBA game since Jordan retired). It was pure, unadulterated trench warfare. While the Brown-Hodzic match-up didn't fully materialize as Zeke got into foul trouble with 15 minutes left, the big gents down the bench came in and played great under their own basket. While the Tubbs injury left Slater all kinds of room to work (13 of his 27 points came in the last 12 minutes), the defense held.

The big story of the night, though, was Tubbs' 360 jam. It was the #1 play of the night on SportsCenter. Holy bajeebus, what a beauty. Easily the front-runner for play of the year. He had to get it just right or he would have busted his head on the rim. Hopefully he recovers quickly, but I have serious doubts about him playing again this week after he left the Dome on crutches.

It's time for Green Stat/Red Stat.

.281 - Lipscomb's offensive rebound percentage. This is a sign of great work from the post players to hold back the Bisons and bring that opposing ORB% down (typically, ETSU gives up offensive boards at a .332 clip). It's good that they limited them to that many boards, because...
10 - Lipscomb second chance points, on 9 offensive rebounds. That simply can't happen. More offensive boards and we're talking about how far into triple digits Belmont will go when they come to the Dome tomorrow.

.250 - Jordan Burgason's shooting percentage. The perimeter players really gave him a hard time, and he put up a paltry seven points in a half-hour of play. He's normally a very dangerous player on the outside for Lipscomb but we made him a non-factor for most of this game.
.154 - ETSU's three point field goal percentage. Do I even need to say anything? That number hurts just to look at.

14 - Lukas Poderis' minutes on the floor. It's good to see Bartow reaching down the bench. This is a big part of why we brought in Wilkinson, but he still only played eight minutes. Gotta wonder when he'll get back into the rotation, or if he'll get back in at all come tournament time (I think they'll need him, especially when the big front court guys like Zeke and Mike get in foul trouble). But I digress; Poderis really showed himself to be a valuable asset even though he has seen significantly less floor time than last year.
3859 - Attendance. Frankly, I was disappointed at the turnout. I think we should have 4500+ for a team like Lipscomb. When one takes into account, though, that this was some 600 spectators above our average attendance, it's not as bad as it might first appear.


Meanwhile, the Lady Bucs systematically dismantled the Lady Bisons this afternoon. Six players in double figures and 51 total rebounds (but nobody with more than 6). There's not really much else to say, unless you want to talk about the countless technical issues that plagued the presentation of the game. After being right in the middle of it, I sure don't.

Game Day 20: Bucs vs. Lipscomb

ETSU Buccaneers
Head Coach - Murry Bartow (Alabama-Birmingham '85)
Record: 12-7 (7-1, 2nd A-Sun)
Home Record: 5-0
Record vs. Lipscomb: 25-8
RPI: .5369 (108th)
Team Points/Game: 67.9
Team Points Allowed/Game: 63.4
Team Rebounds/Game: 36.6
Team Rebounds Allowed/Game: 33.9
Team Assists/Game: 11.3
Team Steals/Game: 6.6
Team Blocks/Game: 3.6
Team Total Turnovers/Game: 14
Team Unforced Turnovers/Game: 8
Team Field Goal Pct.: .452
Team 3-Point FG Pct.: .337
Minutes/Game: Mike Smith, 34.2
Points/Game: Mike Smith, 15.9
Rebounds/Game: Isiah Brown, 7.5
Assists/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 4.2
Steals/Game: Adam Sollazzo, 1.47
Blocks/Game: Isiah Brown, 1.8
Turnovers/Game: Mike Smith, 2.7
Field Goal Pct. (Min. 60): Adam Sollazzo, 56.2%
3-Point FG Pct. (Min. 30): Justin Tubbs, 37.7%


Tonight's Opponent


Lipscomb
Head Coach: Scott Sanderson (South Carolina '84)
Record: 10-7 (5-3, 4th A-Sun)
Away Record: 4-6
RPI: .5309 (118th)
Team Points/Game: 77.2
Team Points Allowed/Game: 76.8
Team Rebounds/Game: 38.3
Team Rebounds Allowed/Game: 36.5
Team Assists/Game: 15.5
Team Steals/Game: 7.5
Team Blocks/Game: 2.5
Team Total Turnovers/Game: 16.6
Team Unforced Turnovers/Game: 7.7
Team Field Goal Pct.: .446
Team 3-Point FG Pct.: .317
Minutes/Game: Adnan Hodzic, 31.6
Points/Game: Adnan Hodzic, 19.6
Rebounds/Game: (Come on, GUESS) Adnan Hodzic, 7.9
Assists/Game: Josh Slater, 4.7
Steals/Game: Josh Slater, 2.6
Blocks/Game: Brandon Brown, 0.8
Turnovers/Game: Josh Slater, 3.3
Field Goal Pct. (Min. 60): Adnan Hodzic, 57.8%
3-Point FG Pct. (Min. 30): Jordan Burgasoon, 36%

Being from the greater Nashville area, this is the weekend I look forward to the most on the Atlantic Sun schedule. For as long as I can remember, I have genuinely disliked Lipscomb and Belmont. I'm not really sure why, I just don't like them. I'm entitled to that, right?

The key match-up for tonight will unquestionably be, as it was in both games last year, Zeke against Hodzic. Big Z can't get into foul trouble early in this game, or Lipscomb will eat the Bucs alive in the post. Slater is a very good point guard, but he's prone to taking ill-advised shots more frequently than coach Sanderson would like, so if ETSU can keep the ball to the outside, they should be able to win this one.

The bottom line is that the Bucs can, should, and have to win this game, or a certain group of bears will come in here Sunday looking for a snack... and no, I'm not talking about picnic baskets.

Back From Beyond the Graaaaaave....

No, we're not coming to get Barbara, nor are we taking a chance on Barbara Ann, or even flying to Santa Barbara while watching some Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Where I was going with that, I have no idea, but we're back. A lot has gone down since Buc Bits went on hiatus. Let's break it down for you:

• Heather Henson resigned as the HC for women's soccer. This was made official on December 1, which might be surprising given her tenure with the program (twelve years as the skipper), but not the results. With the meteoric rise of the men's soccer program under Scott Calabrese, the pressure was on Henson and the Ladies to get some big results in-conference, or at least generate improvement on past seasons, but the team never fully recovered from a 3-2 overtime loss to Belmont at Summers-Taylor, and ended up losing six of their last nine games. The team made it back to the conference tourney, but lost on penalties to Kennesaw State, marking the program's fourth first-round exit since joining the A-Sun. Whoever takes the reigns next will have a challenge on their hands. The team has lots of young talent, including what should be a great partnership up front in Ramey Kerns and Kayla White, and a good, young defense anchored in the middle by Samantha Kron. Still, the team has holes to fill; the squad will likely be looking for at least one winger and another center back with the departure of Alex Meehan. I have no evidence to back this up, but I suspect we'll have an announcement on a new coach by the end of February; if not, 2011 could be a long year. Meanwhile...
  
• Calabrese's Crew clinched their first-ever conference championship. What an incredible run. After the heart-breaker against North Carolina, the Bucs came out flying against Lipscomb in the semifinals, and played a solid game against Stetson, capped off with a pair of goals that I will certainly remember forever, for Theo Yang against the Bisons, and the redirect by A-Sun Freshman of the Year Itode Fubara. That was just a brilliant finish, no two ways around it. The Bucs drew College of Charleston in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and despite a very strong second half, dug themselves too big a hole in the first 45 minutes, falling 3-2 in Charleston. Still, this marks a shot across the bow of Southern soccer, that Scott Calabrese and ETSU are going to give these schools a run. Can they become the Butler of the South? Time will tell, but I have to think the first focus will be on replacing the team's captain and star defender, Guilherme Reis.
  
• Men's basketball rattled off eight in a row. Murry Bartow has to be a happy camper after the way his team have dominated the Atlantic Sun. After the loss to USC Upstate (who, by the way, have since lost nine straight), and the ensuing blowout at Charleston, the squad could have easily packed it in. Instead, they dug in and beat Mississippi State on the road, and have come out guns blazing after Christmas, with the aforementioned eight game win streak that started on Christmas Eve. In conference, the Bucs have averaged an 11.5 point margin of victory in their seven wins. All five starters are averaging double figures in conference (Sollazzo is the only one that isn't overall), and Smith and Brown are averaging a combined 16 rebounds per game. Everyone is shooting well and this team is firing on all cylinders. That's good, because one Mr. Adnan Hodzic (pictured left looking at LOLCats) and the Lipscomb Bisons are in town this weekend. Oh, and there was another team, too. I can't remember the name of the school, though... oh, what was it called... oh, yeah: BELMONT. The Bucs are 3-9 against Belmont since joining the A-Sun and haven't beaten them since Courtney Pigram hung 30 on them in March of '09.
• Women's basketball can't get any traction. Despite an impressive freshman season from Destiny "No Escape" Mitchell and the insane productivity of "Touchdown Tara" Davis, the Lady Bucs sit at 5-3 in conference play. The main sore spot has been an inability to finish strong. They've gone to pieces in the second half of all three of their losses, most evident in the loss to still-undefeated Florida Gulf Coast. Averaging 20+ turnovers per game doesn't help matters, and the bench has brought little to the floor, averaging less than 20 points per game. The team is almost entirely dependent on Davis and Mitchell for offense, which could make the stretch run problematic. On the flip side, Gulf Coast and USC Upstate, two of the stronger programs in the conference, aren't eligible for the tournament, so they could still end up winning the conference title despite the issues they've been having.

Baseball and softball are also in camps, gearing up for the season, with Skole's squad opening on February 18 against Marist at Cardinal Park. I'm going to set the over-under on turnout for this game at 60, including the players, coaches and umpires. I love baseball as much as anyone else, but there's a reason most outdoor sports aren't played in February.

I'll have a full preview of the upcoming action later on this weekend, but now I have to get some sleep and prepare para hablar español.

Jumpin' the Pughs and Dancin' in the Aisles; Bucs Rattle Off Three Straight (+ Bluenanza)

Colin Pugh has a tattoo on his right arm of Japanese origins, meant to contrast light and darkness, which could also aptly describe this weekend and last for Bucs FC.

After two rugby-style contests against Jacksonville and UNF which saw players bloodied, beaten, and bruised (to say nothing of the playing surface), the lads came away with a relatively clean (28 combined fouls plus a pair of Belmont bookings) victory against Belmont tonight, by the same score as the last two games (1-0 to the good). It would also be fitting, then, that Pugh won the Bucs two of their last three games.

The Dubliner pulled out his second goal in as many games when he buried a goal on the back post after a great, incisive run from Woodruff. Ronnie "Hoo-rah!" Hreha stoned Brandon Tarr on a penalty just past the hour mark (which is incredibly difficult: Tarr is one of the best pure scorers in the A-Sun) which proved to be the biggest challenge of the goal on the night for the Bruins.

There is a great deal of significance in this win, not just because it puts the Bucs in a position to clinch a playoff spot on Sunday, but also because it puts them in second place in the conference standings (don't ask me why they're ahead of Stetson, but they are). Astute readers will remember that Florida Gulf Coast is in first, and that the Eagles are ineligible for the conference tournament. What does this mean? It means ETSU is the top seed, which means they host the conference tournament, which means more work for old Maynard G. Krebs here. It could also be a logistical nightmare, since basketball season starts right in the middle of the tournament. That is, of course, assuming the standings hold.

Speak of the devil, basketball season is upon us! Bluenanza was held on Thursday. To be honest, there wasn't much energy in the building with only about 1500 spectators on hand, but a few players stood out to me:

Ashley Benedict: The sophomore center played the position extremely well and did exactly what she needed to do: shut down Latisha Belcher. She played with a lot of hustle and was right on top of every rebound contest, and even though the scrimmage had no real intensity or even significance to the start of the season, it was good to see Benedict on top of things.

Shawn Randall: The freshman guard went 2/5 with 6 points and likes to take long range shots. That's the big thing that stood out to me: often you'll see players who come to this level from high school and are gun-shy because they don't want to screw up and get benched. Once she finds her range, she's going to be a big part of Kemp's offense.

Mike Smith: Of course, he should stand out as a fifth-year senior, but he looked like he was on a completely different level from everyone else on the floor. He was focused, confident, and didn't look like a guy who had missed a full season with knee problems at all. Everybody had flashes of the skill and brilliance we've come to expect from this senior class (minus Tommy Hubbard, who didn't play in the scrimmage), but Smith was clear and away the cream of this crop.

Women's soccer is in Spartanburg for a "win and you're in" contest against USC Upstate tomorrow. It should be on ASun.TV, and I will most definitely be watching.

Game Day: Calabrese Crew v Jacksonville

I've been away for a while, and my blog has fallen into neglect. Vertigo can do that to you (and not the U2 kind, which is also rather agonizing).

THE BUCS:

Head Coach: Scott Calabrese (Bryant '95)
Record: 7-4-0
Conference: 2-2-0 (4th)
Home Record: 5-0-0
Goals For: 15
Goals Against: 14
Shooting Percentage: 8.4%
Shots on Goal Percentage: 31.5%
Biggest Win: 9/30 vs. Campbell, 4-0
Biggest Loss: 10/10 at FGCU, 0-5

Stats Leaders
Goals: Aaron Schoenfeld, David Geno (3)
Assists: Itode Fubara, Guilherme Reis (3)
Shots: Schoenfeld (41)
Shots on Goal: Geno (14)
Shooting Percentage (min. 10 shots): Geno (12.5%)
Minutes Played (GK): Ronnie Hreha (523)
Goals Against: James Holt (6)
Goals Against Average: Holt (1.05)
Saves: Holt (16)
Save Percentage: Holt (72.7%)
Shutouts: Holt, Hreha (1)

Projected Starting XI
Hreha
Woodruff-Westbrook-Reis-Reed
Fubara-Osorio-Samperio-Pugh
Schoenfeld-Geno


Tonight's Opponent:

Jacksonville Dolphins
Record: 6-5-1
Conference Record: 1-2-0 (8th)
Away Record: 1-1-1
Goals For: 26
Goals Against: 21
Shooting Percentage: 12.7%
Shots on Goal Percentage: 48.5%
Biggest Win: 9/19 vs. Alabama A&M, 7-0
Biggest Loss: 9/1 at Central FL, 0-5


Stats Leaders
Goals: Nedim Hrustic (7)
Assists: Darko Karamatic, Daniele Campailla (3)
Shots: Hrustic (36.8%)
Shots on Goal: Karamatic (22)
Shooting Percentage (min. 10 shots): Hrustic (36.8%)
Minutes Played (GK): Johnny Foley (979)*
Goals Against: Foley (19)
Goals Against Average: Foley (1.75)
Saves: Foley (44)
Save Percentage: Foley, (69.8%)
Shutouts: Foley (1)
(*Foley leads all statistical categories by default because Zach Greenwald has only played three games.)

Projected Starting XI
Foley
Resch-Hottner-Harvey-Ivanovic
???-Faga-Helms-Campailla
Hrustic-Karamatic
(Purely speculation. I have no clue what their lineup will look like. I wish I did.)

Today may be the start of the most important weekend of conference play, at least for these two teams. After a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Gulf Coast, this is a golden opportunity for this ETSU squad to show its resilience by bouncing back at home. The Dolphins meanwhile, have something to prove after dropping their tilts against both Nashville schools last weekend.

ETSU's best talents lie up front, with a layered and diverse attack that plays a very attractive brand of soccer (something Calabrese really seems to emphasize in his coaching style, which gets a thumbs-up from me). Schoenfeld is a great player on the ball, Geno is a natural finisher, Fubara and Woodruff both have great feet, and Colin Pugh has a lot of pure speed. Despite this, they've only been able to score more than two goals once, and have gone into overtime more than once to pull out wins (Marshall, Clemson, UNC-A). Gui Reis has been excellent in orchestrating the defense, but he really needs to be on his game to contain JU forward Nedim Hrustic, who has provided more than a fourth of the Dolphins' offense.

Jacksonville's defense has been a real sore spot; they've shut out two teams this year, but one of those squads was a winless (in conference play) North Florida team and the other was an Alabama A&M program that will no longer exist after November 3. The back line is young, with the oldest player being junior Tobbias Hottner, but are a formidable group on paper, with Hottner standing at 6'4" and frosh Garrett Harvey towering over most forwards in the A-Sun at 6'3" to lead the way.. Suffice it to say that Aaron Schoenfeld is going to be well-covered tonight.

Offense is the name of the game for the Dolphins as it is for the Bucs, with Hrustic and Serbian Darko Karamatic providing a lot of spark up front, and Daniele Campailla feeding them the ball from the midfield. All three players are juniors or seniors, and in a game that promises lots of end-to-end play, ETSU's back line will have to be at their absolute best to keep this game under control.

Of course, some of that pressure falls on the keeper. I have to imagine that Coach is going with one keeper tonight unless things start to get ugly. I have no idea which one he'll go with, though. That really depends on the performances during the Peninsular Punishments.

Well, that about covers it... what? Women? Yeah, they're in Georgia this weekend, playing two huge fixtures this weekend. More on those games and why they're so important later. It's go time!

Bucs Outlast Bears in Battle of Attrition

Saturday night, I saw one of the roughest, most vicious 90-minute brawls I think I've ever seen.

Oh, and there was a soccer game, too.


I don't really have to offer up much analysis for this contest, as the numbers speak quite well for themselves. Mercer committed 25 fouls on the night. I'll have to double-check, but that could be a Summers-Taylor record. They also took just five shots, while ETSU took 20. (Argue home cooking on the shot counter if you like, but I thought those were reasonable numbers for both sides.) Six players were booked, four from Mercer (three of those came in the last ten minutes, so they didn't have a huge bearing on play, but that's still more than any game this year).

The Bears wanted to turn this into proverbial trench warfare. It seemed like every time ETSU tried to develop an attack, they would foul and break up the flow of play. It stymied the Bucs in the first half, and the Bears got a goal off a great corner from Ian Cameron to go into the intermission 1-0. This was the first time the men's team went into the intermission trailing at home, and just the second time they've trailed at the break all season. Against a team that plays rough like Mercer, that can be tough to come back from.

Coach made some adjustments at the half and the Bucs eventually took advantage of the Bears' rough-and-tumble play, with Alesi Osorio cashing in on a rebound off a Gui Reis free kick twenty yards out.

Blaike Woodruff was the hero in the 78th minute when he appeared out of thin air on the back post to cash in on a Geno miss. Nobody was up in support of Geno on the break, and Woodruff just popped up in the right place at the right time. He looked a little surprised that the ball ever got to him, but he deserved it: he was literally all over the pitch Saturday night and has been a huge contributor to the offense since moving to fullback.

The Bucs held on to win 2-1, but there wasn't ever really that much work for Ronnie Hreha. The defense did very well; Mercer didn't really seem like a team that had much pure skill in the attack and used their strength as the fulcrum of their offense. Cameron stood out as a very solid skill player, but nobody else made a lasting impression.

Why didn't they? Simple: bruises heal, losses don't.

Speaking of losses not healing, it looks like Heather Henson's squad could be in for a long season after their heartbreaking loss to Belmont back on September 26. They lost to UNF and Jacksonville by a combined scoreline of 5-0. They were out-shot by a 39-18 combined margin. Now we'll really see if Coach's decision to bring in a sports psychologist will pay dividends, because this team can't let these losses shake them with Stetson and Gulf Coast, the other two teams in the top four in the conference table, coming in this weekend.

On the other fall team sport front, the VolleyBucs finally got into conference play. Some folks will still be skeptical about this team simply because of its track record, but I'm taking the "innocent until proven guilty" stance after they swept Campbell. Everyone has a role, and they're all playing their roles to perfection. This is exactly how they need to go into the Lipscomb tilt on Friday, but what's important is how they rebound from that match with Belmont the following day.

That's all for now. And no, I will not start wearing Braves memorabilia just because they made the playoffs.