SWVA telling me that the game against Pitt was EPIC got me to thinking-

I consider myself rather well versed on the history of the ETSU program. But when I got to thinking about it, the most famous games in ETSU history are losses, not victories.

I'm really hard pressed to think of a buzzer beating, Calvin Talford shot for a victory in a really big game that put ETSU into the NCAAs or something.

So here's my question- what are the most epic games in ETSU history? And I'd like to focus on the triumphs, not losing to Oklahoma and being unable to get a shot off from inside half court before the buzzer.

A- I'd like to ask some people about those games of previous generations. I'm speaking specifically about the 1956 NAIA run to Kansas City that essentially put the Bucs into Division I and the '68 triumph against Florida State, though I don't think that was a real close game.

B- I'm not sure what your definition of epic is, but I will say one of the most memorable moments of ETSU basketball was Les Robinson hugging someone and jumping up and down after the 23-point victory against Marshall for the Bucs' second-ever NCAA berth.

It was a lousy game from a competitive standpoint but very sweet for ETSU fans.

C- I gotta go with Chris Corchiani slipping on the floor in a sold out Memorial Center. The sellout in Memorial, the competitiveness of the game against what was still a top program, the local telecast- IN SO MANY WAYS THAT WAS WHAT ETSU CAN BE AT THEIR HIGHEST LEVEL.

D- This one is more recent, but I think it certainly would belong in a list of the greatest games in ETSU history. Back in 2003, DeChellis' NCAA year, ETSU played UNC-G at Memorial Center on national TV. The game was on ESPN.

ETSU trailed by five with 17 seconds left and what I remember was that Tim Smith committed a turnover at that point trying to make a behind the back pass. This led to my dislike of Tim Smith.

But somehow, someway, ETSU came back and won the game in overtime.

This wasn't a sellout, in fact there were 7,000 empty seats (back when they could have actually been SOLD!). But ESPN was complimentary of the facility and competition, the game was sensational, and in so many ways it again was "what ETSU basketball can be."

One of my favorites was the UTC game at the roundhouse in 2003 I think. We were down by almost 20 at the half and came back and won the game. What a thrill it was to walk out of that arena that night with the W.

Of the games I have seen I would say ETSU beating Arizona in the first round of the NCAA. They got the lead and unlike several of their other NCAA games I have seen they were able to make it stand up and finshed it off.
They had good chances to beat Oklahoma, Iowa, Wake Forest and Cinncinnati and probably should have won but couldn't finish the job, againist Arizona they did finish it.

For me it had to be the NC State game at home that the Bucs won. What a night that was! Arizona was very sweet also. I can also remember beating Georgia Tech back during the Winfred Reid years and that was so exciting because I was a student and everyone went wild and had a great time. Bucs have had so great wins over the years.

(10-24-2009 11:56 AM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  Of the games I have seen I would say ETSU beating Arizona in the first round of the NCAA. They got the lead and unlike several of their other NCAA games I have seen they were able to make it stand up and finshed it off.
They had good chances to beat Oklahoma, Iowa, Wake Forest and Cinncinnati and probably should have won but couldn't finish the job, againist Arizona they did finish it.

I agree.

I also liked the game where ETSU played Memphis in the mid-south coliesum. The old mid south was a tough place to play, and ETSU stood up to the crowd. Anyone who has ever been to a game in the mid south will know what I'm talking about. You feel that at any moment the crowd is coming out of the stands to tear the opponent apart. ETSU stood up to that pressure, I was proud of them.

I remember Les Robinson hugging the kid in the wheelchair. I actually saw that kid at a game last year. I hadn't seen him in years. It was a good thing to see. He was a regular fixture at ETSU games during the Robinson era.

I can't fault anyone for saying the NC State game or the Arizona game. Obviously I can't go back to the Harley Swift days...so I don't know what it is like to go to the sweet sixteen. There are many games that come to mind...and that Oklahoma game was one of the greatest games I've ever seen. But I don't tout it as the greatest because as Pitt says we did lose it. It's a funny thing because it is a source of pride and shame all at the same time. The other NCAA losses are not. Iowa, Cincinnati, Wake Forrest, Michigan, and Pitt. The mister team that went up against Oklahoma...were so young...so undersized. Everything was against them...that the loss, although was a loss, came in a game that we were just so happy to be in. That's not true of any other NCAA appearance. And Oklahoma is not the greatest game ETSU was ever in. But it does deserve it's place in history. Not as something you brag about...but something that you look back at with a bitter sweet devotion...because it was the beginning of a great era. The greatest era.

Now having gotten that out of the way...

Pitt, I've maintained from day one on this site that the most epic, the most colossal, the most bitter, and the single greatest example of beautiful and vile hatred that I have ever witnessed in a basketball game was against UT Chattanooga in the semi final game of the SoCon tournament in Asheville, NC 1989. The first year we ever won the SoCon tournament. It was so heated that at the end of the game Benny Green punched our cheerleader in the face. Espn caught it on live tv. It was an up and down in your face battle between a team that represented a successful past and a team that would become legend. I remember beating Citadel by just a few points the day before and ETSU fans were chanting "we want you" in the direction of Chattanooga fans....and Chattanooga fans were arrogantly waving us over in their direction as if to say, good luck little buccaneers. That day was WAR! I'm amazed that only a cheerleader took a punch to the face. There could had easily been riots between the two fan bases. Absolute hate in all directions. Definitely the most epic thing I have ever witnessed as an ETSU fan.

There was a heart pounding gut wrenching tournament game the following year against VMI that's high on this list too. Beating VMI isn't like beating NC State but it was in the tournament...and the entire fan base was on the verge of throwing up the entire last five minutes of the game. For every basket we made those twins had an answer. But when the game was on the line...Mister was automatic at the line. He hit foul after foul. But it was gut wrenching!

There have been many great and epic battles.

Gotta agree on the UTC game.

I guess it depends on what your definition of "epic" is.

I guess if you were talking to someone from say California, you would mention the NCAA wins against Florida State or Arizona to go for the name recognition.

But honestly beating your biggest rival in a grueling, dramatic game like that is hard to beat. Those days in Asheville were special.

If you weigh the hatred factor, post game antics, and the rivalry aspects of the game along with the Xs and Os that one is hard to beat.

(10-24-2009 10:35 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  SWVA telling me that the game against Pitt was EPIC got me to thinking-

I've only been following ETSU basketball for 5 yrs, but of those, last years game vs. pitt is the only one that would remotely apply. Sure the final score doesn't give ETSU justice, but 38 minutes of that game was a nail biter.

(10-25-2009 05:30 PM)Basketball then Homework Wrote:  

(10-24-2009 10:35 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  SWVA telling me that the game against Pitt was EPIC got me to thinking-

I've only been following ETSU basketball for 5 yrs, but of those, last years game vs. pitt is the only one that would remotely apply. Sure the final score doesn't give ETSU justice, but 38 minutes of that game was a nail biter.

5 years? That's 4 in the A-sun and the final year in the SoCon with an injury depleted team. In those five years...can anyone name a big win for ETSU? I guess you could say the Georgia game...but being in Hawaii it was a bit lackluster and none of us SAW it.

Now in those five years I've seen some good games and had much fun with them...but not epic.

I felt the game against Garner-Webb a couple of years ago when the Bucs were down by 12 with three minutes left and came back to win was rather special.

The two other that come to mind would be Pigram beating UTC in OT with a 3-pointer at the buzzer and beating Jacksonville to go to the NCAAs.

However, I'm not sure an early Nov. game nor a rather lopsided affair qualify as "epic."

Maybe it does- the rivalry with UTC counts for something.

So there. The man who "lives to diminish ETSU accomplishments" (HO! HO! HO!) has actually stated that a out-of-conference victory against a mid-major in November might be epic.

I'm sorry. That just shows you how far ETSU has fallen.

I agree with Gold on the VMI game from the SoCon tournament in 1990. Maybe it is because I work with Damon Williams that I have fond memories of that game. Mister's foul line performance was off the charts in that one.

(10-24-2009 10:40 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  One of my favorites was the UTC game at the roundhouse in 2003 I think. We were down by almost 20 at the half and came back and won the game. What a thrill it was to walk out of that arena that night with the W.

This was my first thought.

Everyone has picked some great games. Does anyone remember the Western Kentucky game in 1978. ETSU had lost on the road to league favorite W. Kentucky 98-94, but beat the Hilltoppers in the dome 80-77 in three overtimes.

Was that on TV? NBC, maybe?

(10-26-2009 11:54 AM)bucten Wrote:  Everyone has picked some great games. Does anyone remember the Western Kentucky game in 1978. ETSU had lost on the road to league favorite W. Kentucky 98-94, but beat the Hilltoppers in the dome 80-77 in three overtimes.

was like
Yes. I think that was the year we had rocking chairs instead of a bench or folding chairs. Weren't there a couple of overtimes or double overtimes with them and Eastern too ? do you remember the game with Memphis State? They had a front line that was like 7 foot, 6-11,and 7-2 or somthing rediculus like that. Troy Lee Mikell dunked right in the middle them. There was a brawl under the basket that nearly got onto the student section. I remember we won.

(10-26-2009 10:47 AM)Meanmike0001 Wrote:  I agree with Gold on the VMI game from the SoCon tournament in 1990. Maybe it is because I work with Damon Williams that I have fond memories of that game. Mister's foul line performance was off the charts in that one.

Both Ramon and Damon were something special. We think of Belmont as being able to hit the three....You could be all over the twins and they'd still hit it. I'd take those two any day.

I remember the Western game as well. Great game.

drmm, the brawl with Memphis was memorable too. Wasn't that Keith Lee ?

If we had hit our free throws and beat Pitt.. that would have been epic
...because that would have been the first time a 16 ever beat a 1..
that would have made it EPIC..
Someone mentioned the NCAA win over Fla State.. the game before that one was fun.. We had tied Murray State for the OVC season championship..and that was before the OVC post season tourney.. we Split with them during the regular season..we beat them here and they killed us at their place..so the league had a playoff game at Eastern Ky and we beat them there in a close game.. we took a huge crowd over there.. that win put us in the NCAA's

I don't buy that if we would had hit our free throws we would had beaten Pitt. Pitt was always a step a head of us in that game. We played them well and I'm not trying to take away from that....but honestly when you get into the if we would have type arguments....if we had hit a few more free throws then they would had made big baskets. They had an answer for everything we did. That's not to say that we didn't play a hell of a game...b/c we did.

I can certainly see your point in that one thing like free throws does not win or lose games. There are lots of contributing factors. But the Bucs did miss 20 free throws in this game! Considering that at least some of those were one and ones it added up to a major contributing factor to us losing the game. Of course, handling the pressure of the national stage and making the free throws under the gun is part of winning in the NCAAs. If it were me I certainly could not have hit free throws either! Whew, we did miss an inordinate number in that game.

It was an unacceptable amount of free throws to miss...all I am saying is...Pitt seemed to have an answer for everything we did. They scored when they had to. And that is theme that they carried all the way to the elite 8.

Well the fact is .. if we had shot free throws at the same average we did during the regular season and ASUN tourney???? (we'll never know) But that's not the point I was trying to make.. It was about the use of the word EPIC..
So let's just forget the missed foul shots and say IF we had found a way to pull out the win.. It would have been EPIC because a 16 has never beaten a 1.. that would make it EPIC.. It would be talked about on NCAA tourney broadcasts for many years to come..It was a hell of a game..but not EPIC!
I still believe that if Mister had not fouled out in the Oklahoma game, we would have won then...(we'll never know).. then that game would have been EPIC .. and the announcers would not be able to say " a 16 has never beaten a 1" but every year they would say it has only happened once, and ETSU did it...

(10-26-2009 03:06 PM)JWBUC Wrote:  I remember the Western game as well. Great game.

drmm, the brawl with Memphis was memorable too. Wasn't that Keith Lee ?

I think you're right. Iremember Halihan was the coach,he dived into the pile and come back out like bouncing off a trampoline. Lucky that no one was hurt. It made a stink in memphis.

Remember the last time we beat Memphis at their place..we beat them in overtime.. Eliott Perry had something like 40 and Mister had 37...

I wonder how many assists Mister had?

(10-26-2009 09:06 PM)Goldfinger Wrote:  I wonder how many assists Mister had?

I could check, the Memphis game is one of the games I have on video. If I can find the time these next few weeks I'll be happy to put that game on youtube if anyone would like to see it.

(10-27-2009 08:39 AM)Bucster Wrote:  

(10-26-2009 09:06 PM)Goldfinger Wrote:  I wonder how many assists Mister had?

I could check, the Memphis game is one of the games I have on video. If I can find the time these next few weeks I'll be happy to put that game on youtube if anyone would like to see it.

You truly are my hero

I've been here 10 years now. A few I remember includes a wild game over in Boone in '04 where we were down 10-15 the whole game, and Murry put Jerald Fields & Brad Nuckles in at the same time (the first tme he did that in that year), and boom! We came back and won by double digits. Timmy ate 'em up that day. App wasn't all that great, but it was a great victory because we had more fans in the stands than they did, and somehow you just knew we were going to pull it out.

Another big one was the win @ Chattanooga in '04, which was another come back win for that same team, mentioned above.

In '02-'03 we had a very nice win on the road @ Davidson that propelled that team on a tear to win the league.

And.... that blowout win over Belmont was pure sweetness last year, giving them their worst defeat in team history.

Of course the win over Jacksonville was also a great win last year.

Don't know if any of them or all of them qualify as epic as defined by anyone here, but those were some of the great ones in my mind.

(10-26-2009 08:22 PM)bucfan1968 Wrote:  Remember the last time we beat Memphis at their place..we beat them in overtime.. Eliott Perry had something like 40 and Mister had 37...

That is the game I was talking about above. I was there, to be fair, Memphis' team was a little down and were relying on Perry way too much. ETSU ran up an early lead on three pointers, and Memphis came back. What was great about the Memphis game was the way ETSU hung in againt that crowd. Games in the mid south were tough because of the crowd, VERY HOSTILE. To give you an idea, during a Lousivlle game once switch blades were thrown on the floor. The crowd is on top of the court and it is very loud in there. If they brought them through orange mound on the way to the game, they probably thought they wouldn't make it out alive, and I'm only half way kidding. Like I said above, I was proud of them.

The Mister team was the most mentally tough team I've ever seen at ETSU

They threw switchblades out on the floor, Tiger?

And yet I'm told by ETSU people that FOOTBALL is the thug sport.

(10-31-2009 05:40 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  They threw switchblades out on the floor, Tiger?

And yet I'm told by ETSU people that FOOTBALL is the thug sport.

Hey, it was Louisville, what ever it takes.

Ah yes.

Didn't their coach adulterously impregnate a woman in the bathroom of a resturant and then pay for her abortion?

I sure am happy that we got rid of those thug football players Mike Cavan brought in to ETSU and went with this sport instead.

(11-01-2009 07:27 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  Ah yes.

Didn't their coach adulterously impregnate a woman in the bathroom of a resturant and then pay for her abortion?

I sure am happy that we got rid of those thug football players Mike Cavan brought in to ETSU and went with this sport instead.

C'mon, Pitt, that's not fair. It was the supply closet.

Well that makes it a a higher class hook up for sure.......

If he had chosen the elevator, ole Rick could have channeled Aerosmith but as it is he is stuck with "I am all of out love" or some ballad like that by Air Supply.

Opposing fans will have something to say for sure. That is just how it is.

Like many have noted, depends on one's definition of "epic". To me, that means a game like Ali-Frazier, two worthy opponents going at it toe-to-toe like their lives depended on it - not necessarily an NCAA bid. With that preface in mind, the answer is: the 1978 WKU 3-OT game. The Dome was nearly full, and the ways the overtimes came about had a surrealistic quality about them. People were in disbelief it was so thrilling. "Nuts" would be an understatement.
Second place would be the NC St. game; third Oklahoma.

If importance of the game is factored in, and it must be a victory, then the Arizona game is the correct answer, with the '68 game over Florida St. and Dave Cowens being second; although as noted, it wasn't all that exciting, comparatively.
Honorable mentions to the UTC games noted above (esp. the '89 game), the Memphis St. game, the win over San Diego St when they had Michael Cage, and one of the wins over Austin Peay when they had Fly Williams. And I'm leaving out one game I can't quite place with Winfried King and Tandy(?).


[And not that anyone cares, but I'm not "back". I just have briefly looked in every month or so, and this just happens to be a topic that I'm more qualified than all but a few to comment on, due to my longevity around the program, so I thought you all might be interested........]

I'm glad you did post. I was worried you might have been sick.

I wish I had been around to compare the UTC game with the Western Kentucky game but alas I was not. Although I was at the NC State game as well as the Oklahoma game and I would put the 89 UTC game above them.

Not to horn in...but I would say all UC/ET basketball game in the early 90's, win or lose, were epic!

The largest, on campus, crowds the modern day SoCon has ever witnessed.

(11-05-2009 04:57 PM)chattanoogamocs Wrote:  Not to horn in...but I would say all UC/ET basketball game in the early 90's, win or lose, were epic!

The largest, on campus, crowds the modern day SoCon has ever witnessed.

Preach it to the newbies for they do not understand

People who say there is no difference between the So Con and A-Sun don't realize how close the So Con was (and has been) to being a two-bid league.

Nor do they realize that almost every program in the conference has some sort of history in which they've either been nationally ranked or had a coach go on to bigger and better things.

Those games were huge- and it was a rivalry that the entire country could understand if so inclined because it was local, in the same conference, and usually had some sort of NCAA implications to it.

If I may, let me make a distinction between "epic" and "ferocious".
I'll still call the WKU the most "epic", but there is no doubt that some of/most of the UTC/ETSU games in that "golden era" were as ferocious as ANY games could be. I would put the NC St. game in there, too, but with, curiously(?), good blood in the mix, as opposed to the (extremely) bad blood with UTC.

Goldfinger is right in this. The newbies here could not *hope* to understand those games and that rivalry without having experienced them. And that is a pity.........

Good to see you, chattanoogamocs..........

You know I was thinking about this the other day...If something had happened to Mister or any of those players. If a fight would had broke out in those years...Twelve Thousand people would have descended on the playing floor ready to do battle for that team. The players were truly beloved by this city like no one before or sense. To such a degree that other towns and universities couldn't understand. That team somehow weaved their way into the hearts of an entire town. I've never seen anything like it before or since. And the new people can't possibly understand this. And that's sad. Not through a fault of their own...but because of what we've lost as a University, a basketball program, and a town. It's heartbreaking.

We may have great teams again. We may be ranked again. We may even go to the final four one day. But nothing will ever replace or duplicate the way the town felt about that Mister team...or the way the Mister team felt about the town. It was truly special.