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East Tennessee State Basketball: 2019-20 season review of the Buccaneers

By TJ Miller

LAWRENCE, KANSAS - NOVEMBER 19: Patrick Good #10 of the East Tennessee State Buccaneers in action against the Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse on November 19, 2019 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
LAWRENCE, KANSAS - NOVEMBER 19: Patrick Good #10 of the East Tennessee State Buccaneers in action against the Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse on November 19, 2019 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /
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East Tennessee State Basketball
LAWRENCE, KANSAS – NOVEMBER 19: head coach Steve Forbes of the East Tennessee State Buccaneers (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /

East Tennessee State Basketball may never know what could have been in the NCAA Tournament. But, ETSU should be proud of an amazing 2019-20 season.

East Tennessee State Basketball finished with a 30-4 record, joining only Gonzaga, Liberty, and San Diego State as the only teams to eclipse 30 wins this season. The Buccaneers also had an active 12 game win streak which culminated in a 72-58 win over Wofford to add the Southern Conference Tournament championship to its regular-season SOCON title.

Coach Steve Forbes has been quickly building something special at ETSU, and the 2019-20 season certainly felt like the culmination of this success. Through five seasons as head coach at ETSU, Forbes has a remarkable 130-43 (.751) record. He has finished no worse than third place in the SOCON standings, and the Buccaneers likely would’ve earned its most favorable NCAA Tournament seed since 1991 when East Tennessee State was a #10 seed.

Forbes’ best teams have been built around great guard play with this season being no exception. ETSU had a well-balanced offensive attack with a guard leading the team in scoring in all but three games. Here’s a look at how many games each ETSU guard led the team in scoring:

  • Boyd III – 9 games
  • Hodges – 7 games
  • Williamson – 7 games
  • Good – 5 games
  • Tisdale – 3 games

It’s one thing to have five guys capable of leading the team in scoring on any given night. But to have five guards with the ability to fill it up in different ways gave ETSU the gift of being able to capitalize on mismatches and feed the hot hand. The nature of such a well-rounded team also limited the pressure on any one particular player to try to do too much.

This versatility also paid dividends on the defensive side of the ball where the Buccaneers were able to consistently disrupt ball handlers. ETSU turned over opponents at a very high rate on its way to ranking second in the Southern Conference in defensive efficiency.

Put it all together and you get one of the best mid-major teams in 2019-20 and a season fans won’t soon forget. So let’s take a closer look at the season in review as well as take a peak into what next season might look like.