The ETSU men’s and women’s basketball teams gathered in the Mini-Dome Friday in front of the media to talk about their upcoming seasons.
By joining the A-Sun conference this year, both teams will try to get a feel for their opponents during the season, and make a strong push towards the conference championships in March.
As a first year member of the A-Sun, ETSU will host the men’s conference championships in the Memorial Center for the next two seasons.
Men’s coach Murry Bartow talked about joining a new conference. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “There will be a period of transition of course, but I’m excited about it.”
Senior guard Ben Rhoda (Centerville, Ohio) said there will be challenges in the A-Sun. “It’s a competitive conference and we will have to travel farther to play,” he said. “But were going to go out and give it our best shot and try to win every game.”
Much of the preseason hype has centered around senior guard Tim Smith (Newport News, Va.) who is closing in on the all-time scoring record at ETSU. Smith finished seventh nationally in scoring last season with 22.2 points per game. This season Smith was selected as the A-Sun preseason Player of the Year.
Injuries led to a 9-18 overall record last season, 4-12 in Southern Conference play. But this season Bartow has six new additions that will add depth to his squad. “Last season at times we only had seven or eight guys practicing,” said Rhoda. “The new guys will give us some rest this season.”
The Bucs added four freshmen to the team this season, including Courtney Pigram, a highly touted recruit out of Memphis, Tenn. Joining the freshmen are two junior college transfers, forwards Kenyona Swader (Smyrna, Tenn.) and Eryk Thomas (Fremon, Calif.) who will also compete for minutes.
The Bucs open their season Nov. 10 in Memorial Center against Mars Hill in an exhibition game before traveling to Knoxville to face Tennessee on Nov. 18. The Bucs will take on Belmont Dec. 1, at home in their first A-Sun match up.
The Lady Bucs also hope to establish themselves in the new conference as they return four out of five starters from last season.
The Lady Bucs posted a 13-17 record in 2004, 9-11 in the SoCon.
Lady Bucs coach Karen Kemp begins her 12th season at ETSU and believes her team will be able to build off a strong finish from last season. “We are going to come out and play ETSU basketball,” she said.
Leading the team this season will be senior guard B.J. Banjo (Baltimore, Md.), the only Lady Buc to start all 30 games last year.
“We hope to do well in the A-Sun,” Banjo said. “We are very guard-oriented and small in the post, but we have a lot of players who can score. We are going to give it 100 percent in every game.”
New to the team this season are three freshmen, guard Adaeze Azubuike (Lexington, Ky.), guard/forward Sharnae Hunt (Annapolis, Md.), and center/forward Farren Stackhouse (St.Mary’s, Ga.). Kemp expects Azubuike to have an impact early on in the season. “She plays good defense, crashes the boards well for a guard, and will certainly push for minutes,” Kemp said.
The Lady Bucs begin their season Nov. 9 against Mars Hill at 7 p.m. in Memorial Center.
In two key non-conference match ups the Lady Bucs will travel to Mississippi State and to Cincinnati early in the season. The team will host Belmont Dec. 1 in their opening A-Sun game.

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