Hearing that ETSU may be in the ESPN College of Charleston tournament to open up the Cougs new arena. CofC, ETSU, and Clemson are the teams I am hearing are involved right now, with one more to be announced. Format will be a round-robin 3 game tourney.
Sounds good to me, but it just furthers the conspiracy that ESPN loves the College of Charleston.
It may have something to do with the beach and Bobby Cremins.
ESPN LOVES Bobby Cremins......
Bobby Cremins hasn't impressed me at CoC.
Have you ever thought that Bobby Cremins, being a name coach, will bring more attention than any of ETSU coaches ever has?
And you have to ask yourself- WHY is Cremins a name coach?
Was it those Final Fours at Georgia Tech? The stardom at South Carolina under Frank McGuire.
Well, no, not exactly.
It was the one year he spent as an assistant coach to Jerry Conboy at Point Park College in Pittsburgh.
Point Park, at the time, would often play preliminary games to Duquesne or Pitt at the Civic Arena.
Which is now the Mellon Arena.
Which is the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Without the hockey rights to capitalize on the Pens popularity, ESPN has to try SOMETHING to get people to watch them!
Any idea on dates for the tourny? Id love to go down there for the games
Now hearing that the tournament will be 8 teams.
So does this mean that ESPN will be televising this tourney or just a select number of games? Seems they will need to get some "bigger" name schools to compete if it's going to be television-worthy.
Notice that C of C didn't retire the name "John Kresse Arena."
Unlike ETSU with Jim Mooney Field.
ETSU is confirmed in the tournament. Other teams I know will be in it are CofC, Clemson, Temple, Southern Miss, and TCU. There are still two slots open.
Now this is the kind of tournament ETSU needs to be in.
In today's JC Press:
Buccaneers to open season in Charleston
By Kelly Hodge
Press Managing Sports Editor
khodge@johnsoncitypress.com
Discuss This Article in Our Forums
Difficult start has eight of first nine on the road
A difficult stretch of road games will start in a familiar spot for the East Tennessee State basketball team this fall.
The Bucs open their schedule in Charleston, S.C., in a tournament at the College of Charleston, an old Southern Conference rival. Clemson, Temple and Texas Christian have also committed to the eight-team event, and ESPN will televise some of the games on Nov. 17-18.
“It’s an interesting way to start the year,” coach Murry Bartow said Tuesday. “It’s a new event with good exposure, and Charleston is a place our fans have enjoyed going over the years. I hope we have a big contingent go down for that tournament.”
Game dates and times for the season have yet to be released, but the Bucs know they’ll be tested early. Eight of their first nine games are away from home, with the exception being Wingate in Memorial Center on Nov. 22
Following that are stops at Tennessee Tech, Bradley, Marshall, Mercer and Appalachian State.
“We’re on the road pretty much through mid-December,” said Bartow. “It’s not ideal, but it just happened that way. It would look a little better if we didn’t have to play our first two conference games (Mercer and Kennesaw State) on the road.”
The Atlantic Sun Conference schedule will be a 20-game grind this season. Bartow has mixed emotions about that.
“I’m not sure how much I like it, but I’ll know after we play 20 league games,” he said. “The positive thing is you play everybody twice, and it’s easy based on that to determine who the best team is, who should get the No. 1 seed for the tournament. The negative is that it doesn’t give you much flexibility outside the league. I’m sure the schedule will be looked at over the next couple of years.”
The Bucs get an early jump on the season with a trip to Canada the last of August that includes four exhibition games in three days. Part of the deal is 10 extra days of practice.
“That will give us a great idea of where we are,” said Bartow. “We’ll start to see how quickly the newcomers can jump in.”
ETSU will have at least four newcomers on the roster. The last remaining scholarship may go to a player who won’t be in uniform this season.
“It could potentially be a transfer,” said Bartow, “and if that’s the case, they’ll be sitting for a year. We’ll know more on that in the next week or so.”
Its a joke that ETSU has so few home games.
"Not ideal"???????????
WTF??????