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Ten More Years of Purgatory For ETSU Basketball?
The Bucs left the Minidome for Freedom Hall a decade ago. And it isn’t the rosy situation ETSU would like you to think.
On Thursday, November 6 the Johnson City Commission and ETSU approved an agreement that would keep ETSU playing at Freedom Hall for the next 10 years.
This is a move that will keep the ETSU men’s basketball program mediocre for the next 10 years and who knows what else.
Yes, ETSU has won two Southern Conference titles since moving there. The unspoken “town and gown” divide between the City of Johnson City and ETSU seems to have been laid to rest with the Bucs utilizing a city facility rather than their own on-campus venues for games.
But how much of the basketball team’s success is the facility, and how much of it is coaching?
ETSU men’s basketball called the Minidome their primary home for 37 years. They won nine regular season conference championships there, or roughly 24 percent of their seasons playing there ended with the Bucs finishing in first place.
At Freedom Hall, it’s two championships in 10 years, or 20 percent.
In the last 15 seasons at the Minidome, ETSU posted only two losing seasons; one because of a scandal where the star player was kicked of the team for allegedly receiving…
