The Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament begins today, with the Bucs first game against the winner of the VMI and Georgia Southern matchup.
If Georgia Southern were to defeat VMI, it would give the Bucs (18-9, 13-3) a chance for some revenge as they lost their Feb. 2 matchup with the Eagles 98-79 at Georgia Southern.
But on the flip side, if VMI is victorious, who the Bucs have defeated twice during the regular season 74-60 on Jan. 24 and 75-62 Feb. 21, Head Coach Ed DeChellis does not believe his team will be any less motivated.
“Our guys will be motivated to play whoever we play,” he said. “If it’s Georgia Southern, hopefully it’s a revenge factor, they beat us pretty handily, we didn’t play particularly well.”
If the Bucs are victorious in their first game, there is a possibility their semifinal matchup could be with another team that they lost to during the regular season, Chattanooga.
The Bucs lost their Jan. 2 meeting with the Moccasins 67-58 and the possibility of playing two teams that have given the Bucs two of their three conference losses motivates the team.
“It’d be great motivation,” Senior D.J. McDuffie said. “Both those teams beat us pretty good.”
Senior Renaldo “Scooter” Johnson said, “If we play those teams we’ll be more focused and more motivated (than the last time we played).”
“(Those are) teams that gave us losses this year, we know what we have to do know,” he said.
The third meeting of the tournament, if the Bucs win their quarter and semifinal games, would be the final in which they could face any number of teams including the College of Charleston or UNC-Greensboro.
The Bucs defeated Charleston handily 62-47 on Feb. 2 and they split their meetings with Greensboro, losing Jan. 29, 77-67 and taking the victory Feb. 13 by a score of 84-75.
DeChellis, however, is not looking past his team’s first game and believes any number of teams could win the tournament championship.
“Any team can win,” he said. “Some teams have a more realistic chance.”
“What hurts about tournament play,” he said, “on that day one guy can be in the zone and have a career night, and you can get beat, that’s the tournament and that’s what it’s all about.”
One concern DeChellis does not have is his team being able to play their type of basketball for, possibly, three games in a row.
“Everybody is in the same boat,” DeChellis said. “It’s positive for us. We rely on our rebounding and defense, things I believe you can control every night.”
“We’ve been successful as a blue-collar team,” he said. “You can’t always control your jump shot, some nights it’s there and some nights it’s not.”
The Bucs have proven they will be the team to beat, accumulating a record of 13-3 in conference action, the best in both the North and South Divisions of the conference.
“The best team usually is hot over a two-month period,” DeChellis said. “We’ve proven we were the best team in the league, night in and night out (and) that’s hard.”
“(It’s) harder to keep focus in playing with intensity, (playing) good basketball for two months,” he said.
McDuffie is also optimistic about the Bucs’ chances in the conference tournament.
“I think if we come out and play hard every night we can do well in the tournament,” he said. “If we focus we can do something special.”
DeChellis also will rely on his seniors to provide leadership going into the tournament and is proud that they will graduate with the satisfaction of knowing that they brought ETSU basketball back to respectability in the conference.
“These seniors will leave behind an ethic of hard work and an ethic of being dedicated,” he said.
“They’ll be the class to finally turn things around and get respect in being the regular season champions and they’ll get to hang a banner in Memorial Center,” he said.

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