Resilient ETSU Ready To Dance

East Tennessee State University senior guard Courtney Pigram said he wrote the words in the Buccaneers’ locker room before the season began. Two words, one goal: NCAA Tournament.

ETSU reached its long-deferred goal Saturday evening, after knocking off the Jacksonville Dolphins, 85-68, in the Atlantic Sun conference tournament championship game at Allen Arena in Nashville, Tenn.

The Bucs (23-10) earned an automatic bid to The Dance with the victory – the first time since the 2003-04 season ETSU has received the honor.

“It feels great,” Pigram said. “I’ve never felt like this before.”

Neither have many of this year’s Buccaneers.

ETSU began the 2008-09 campaign surrounded by questions. Would the Bucs be able to replace graduated senior starters Travis Strong, Kenyona Swader and Andrew Reed? Would senior forward Kevin Tiggs continue his ascension? Would East Tennessee State receive reliable, effective performances from freshmen Isiah Brown, Adam Sollazzo, Jarvis Jones and Seth Coy? And would coach Murry Bartow be able to surround ETSU’s big three of Pigram, Tiggs and Mike Smith with consistent efforts from a collection of role players that included sophomores Tommy Hubbard and Micah Williams, and senior Greg Hamlin?

Bartow and the Buccaneers answered all the questions with a resounding yes, as they fought off a late-season slide to become the best team the Atlantic Sun has to offer. And then they drove the answer home by punching the program’s first ticket to The Dance in five years.

“It feels good,” Tiggs said. “I can’t wait to get there and see what it has to offer.”

Tiggs and his ETSU teammates will learn the identity of their first-round opponent March 15, when the NCAA announces pairings for the 65-team tournament in a national television broadcast. First-round games are scheduled for March 19 and 20 in multiple cities across the nation.

But before the Bucs attempt to keep their memorable season alive and capture the first-ever NCAA Tournament victory in the school’s history, it’s worth looking back at what ETSU accomplished – and overcame – this year.

The Buccaneers began the season without a legitimate post player. The ever-improving Brown filled the void. At 6-foot-8, 210 pounds, Brown evolved from a question mark into an asset as ETSU piled up wins and confidence. Meanwhile, Hubbard, Hamlin and Coy helped fill in the gaps in the paint, giving the Bucs a rebound-by-committee foursome that selflessly embraced the dirty work.

“I’m still in the process of learning,” said Brown, a redshirt freshman. “But for the whole time of last year, while I was watching and just sitting there, the coaches were constantly working with me. And now that I’m on the court, it’s just second nature.”

East Tennessee State lost senior point guard Jocolby Davis to a wrist injury before the year began. Davis never played a game for the Bucs, forcing ETSU to turn to freshman Adam Sollazzo and Pigram for on-the-court direction. Pigram played like a veteran leader, while Sollazzo exceeded expectations, averaging 3.0 points and 2.0 assists per game, and playing key minutes in during the Buccaneers’ stretch run.

Tiggs transformed from a wealth of untapped talent and potential upside into a serious Division I force. He averaged 21.5 points – placing him No. 17 in the nation – 4.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists per contest. He was arguably the top player in the A-Sun. And he captured the conference tournament’s most valuable player award.

Meanwhile, East Tennessee State built up and exhibited a component that was lacking from the 2007-08 Bucs squad: defense. Spurred by the work – and consistent positive reinforcement – of assistant coach Scott Wagers, ETSU showed off a deadly full-court attack the Buccaneers dubbed the black press. Jacksonville suffered from the rush Saturday – the Dolphins were held to 39.7 percent (23 of 58) shooting from the field and 29.2 percent (7 of 24) shooting behind the 3-point line. And the Bucs held Jacksonville below 69 points – a number Bartow held up as ideal last season, but one East Tennessee State was seldom able to limit its opponents to.

Wagers said ETSU bought into a pack mentality, and that the Buccaneers set the tone for their black-hole type defense during a preseason trip to Toronto, Ontario.

“We wanted to become a pack; move as one,” Wagers said. “It’s worked out great.”

The Bucs also endured a late-season slump by Pigram, who is still East Tennessee State’s go-to player when a long-range shot or in-your-face scream is needed. The senior guard and former A-Sun player of the year lost his shooting touch while ETSU hit the wall from Feb. 9 to 23. Pigram shot 25 percent (16 of 64) from the field during the stretch, and the Buccaneers went 1-4. But Pigram dug deep, and he found his range and confidence just in time for the start of the Atlantic Sun tournament.

Now, Bartow, the big three and seven all-for-one role players are NCAA Tournament-bound.

“We’re playing pretty well right now. And we’ve played pretty good over the last two weeks,” Bartow said. “We obviously know kind of what our seed will be in the tournament. You obviously are going to be … playing a top-15 team in the country. But the last two times ETSU has been in the tournament, we’ve had a chance.”

btsmith@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2569