The East Tennessee State Buccaneers men's basketball team represents East Tennessee State University (ETSU), located in Johnson City, Tennessee, in men's college basketball. East Tennessee State is coached by Brooks Savage and currently competes in the Southern Conference. The team last played in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 2017. In March 2020 the Buccaneers won the SoCon championship.
History
Conference affiliations
Pre-1958 – Volunteer State Athletic Conference
1958–59 to 1977–78 – Ohio Valley Conference
1979–80 to 2004–05 – Southern Conference
2005–06 to 2013–14 – Atlantic Sun Conference
2014–15 to present – Southern Conference
Notes
Season-by-season results
The Les Robinson / Alan LeForce era
Commonly referred to as "The Glory Days" of ETSU basketball, between 1989 and 1992, ETSU won 4 straight Southern Conference titles while compiling 99 wins. During this 4-year period ETSU had wins over prestigious programs such as Arizona, NC State (3 times), Wake Forest, Cincinnati, BYU, Xavier, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Tennessee (twice) and Memphis. ETSU also suffered their most famous loss when they lost by 1 point to top ranked Oklahoma as a 16th seed in the 1989 NCAA tournament.
When Les Robinson left for NC State after the 1990 season, longtime assistant Alan Leforce took over a veteran team led by Senior Keith "Mister" Jennings. The team was ranked as high as 10th in the nation during the 1991 season and finished the year 17th in the AP poll and 15th in the Coaches poll. In the 1992 NCAA tournament ETSU upset the Arizona Wildcats in the opening round, but eventually fell in the second round to the Michigan Wolverines and the Fab Five.
The Buccaneers went into steep decline after that, bottoming out with a 7–20 record in 1995-96. LeForce resigned after the season.
The Ed Dechellis era
In 1996 Ed Dechellis replaced Alan Leforce who resigned after the 1995–1996 season. In 2001 Dechellis led ETSU to their first regular season conference title since the 91–92 season. In 2003 Dechellis helped ETSU win their first Southern Conference Tournament title and first NCAA berth since 1992. ETSU faced Wake Forest University in the first round where they lost in the final seconds 73–76 after having a chance to win the game with the last shot. After the 2003 season Dechellis left for Penn State.
Dechellis complied 105–93 record at ETSU but is mostly remembered for bringing prominence back to the ETSU basketball program that had struggled after the 1993 season.
The Murry Bartow era
In 2003 ETSU hired Murry Bartow after Ed Dechellis took the head coaching position at Penn State. Bartow took over a senior led team that won 27 games and nearly went undefeated in conference play in his first season; additionally, ETSU won their second straight Southern Conference Tournament and headed back to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. ETSU had another close call in the 2004 NCAA tournament when they lost to Cincinnati 77–80 in the closing seconds, much like the Wake Forest game the previous year.
In the 2005–2006 season ETSU left the Southern Conference to join the Atlantic Sun Conference after the school dropped football. During his time in the Atlantic Sun ETSU has received 4 postseason bids. Back to Back NCAA tournaments in 2009 and 2010, the NIT in 2007 and the CIT in 2011. The Buccaneers rejoined the Southern Conference as part of reinstating football in 2016. After 12 years, an overall record of 224–169 (with a record of 16–14, 8–10 in SoCon play in the 2014–15 season), and three NCAA appearances at East Tennessee State, Bartow was fired due a five-season tournament drought with declining team performance.