Something happened to the ETSU men’s basketball team after their second loss to Appalachian State.
It was not necessarily a miracle on the scale of Biblical proportions, but it came in the form of three wins in a row for the Bucs, capped by a Bracket Buster win on Saturday over Austin Peay. The Bucs were the only team in the Southern Conference to win their Bracket Buster.
Fans wonder what caused the spark – indeed they only need to observe a certain phenomenon behind press row.
During the last ASU game at home, some very misled and ignorant fans (supposedly they are the ETSU faithful) started heckling Tim Smith. Smith leads the Southern Conference in scoring and has led the Bucs at the point to two NCAA Tournaments.
Oh how soon they forget.
On Saturday the “Sanhedrin,” or the reigning voices out of the crowd behind press row, started their squawking again, yelling at Smith to pass the ball in the second half once the more-than-capable Governors started eating away at an unusually large gap. Despite his game-high 29 points, along with eight rebounds and eight assists, the fans have no mercy.
“Our team came together after that [ASU game],” Smith said. “We just came together and showed them we can win. All the coaches and team really came out and supported me.”
Anyone who has seriously followed the Bucs understands that Smith has not changed his game. As fellow sports writer Dave Ongie said to me, “The same people who didn’t understand why we won last year, don’t understand why we are losing this year.”
The “Sanhedrin” within have rejected their two-time SoCon Tournament MVP, hoping for immediate gratification.
“It’s got to be the people who don’t understand why we won last year,” Smith said. “I’m doing the same things I’ve always done. They just want to point a finger at somebody.
“They can blame me if they want to because I said I was the leader of this team.”
It’s the fans’ lack of faith that causes more of a backlash than any loss ever could. When Austin Peay was down by 30 points on Saturday, never did you hear them getting onto their players because they had faith.
The Governors worked their way back within four respectable points by the end of regulation. Their fans understood that Austin Peay was having a similar year to the Bucs. But they also understood that their boys were still capable of winning.
Kudos to the Austin Peay faithful.
If the Bucs do prevail over mountains and valleys to become the first team in SoCon history to win a tournament without a first-round bye, there will be some ashamed people who will have to reckon with themselves.
“I’m ready for postseason play again,” Smith said. “This is our last year in the SoCon, and we have to go out with a blast. I don’t want those guys to come up to me at the end of the tournament if we win and say good game.”

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