JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Nov. 3, 2024) – Year Two of the Brooks Savage era commences Monday night when the ETSU men's basketball team hosts Newberry in the 2024-25 season opener. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside Freedom Hall.
 
GAME INFO
DATE: Monday, Nov. 4
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Freedom Hall 
TEAMS: ETSU (0-0) vs. Newberry (0-0)
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ (Keith Brake & Bruce Tranbarger)
LIVE STATS: ETSUBucs.com
RADIO: WXSM-AM 640 (Jay Sandos)
TWITTER: @ETSU_MBB
TICKETS: ETSUTickets.com
GAME SPONSOR: Pepsi
 
ABOUT THE BUCS

• ETSU finished the 2023-24 season with an overall record of 19-16 in head coach Brooks Savage's first season
• The 19 wins were the most by a Buccaneer squad since ETSU won a program-record 30 games in 2019-20
• The Bucs reached the Southern Conference championship game last season after ETSU knocked off No. 10 VMI, No. 2 UNCG and No. 3 Chattanooga before falling to No. 1 Samford in the title game
• ETSU was picked to finish third in the SoCon Preseason Coaches Poll … The Bucs picked up two first-place votes, while reigning champion Samford was pegged number one and Chattanooga was selected season
• Jaden Seymour and Quimari Peterson landed SoCon preseason honors
• Jaden Seymour enters his final year in the Blue & Gold needing 77 points to get to 1,000 career points and needs 88 points for 1,000 points as a Buccaneer
• ETSU received 19 votes in the preseason CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll
• Monday marks the 106th season opener of ETSU men's basketball … Overall, the Bucs are 62-41 in the previous openers (please note, results are missing for the 1920- 21 and 1932-33 seasons) … The Bucs have reached the century mark in six of those openers, including five since the 1988-89 season – three of those times the Blue and Gold reached the NCAA Tournament
• Since 1981-82, ETSU has won 39 of its 43 home openers … The Bucs have won 34 of their last 37 home openers, including nine of the last 10
• Since Feb. 16, 1987, in a game against Davidson, the Bucs have made at least one 3-pointer in 1,159 consecutive games ... ETSU was 0-for-8 in that 1987 game ... With Western Kentucky going 0-for-21 from beyond the arc on Nov. 9, 2023 at Wichita State, the Bucs now have the third-longest streak in the country behind Duke and UNLV … UNLV tops the list with 1,227 games
• ETSU opens with three straight home games and play six of its first eight games inside Freedom Hall … The Bucs went 10-4 at home last season – their most wins since 2019-20 when ETSU won 16
• In his six seasons with the Bucs – first five as an assistant (2015-2020) and last year as a head coach - Coach Savage's teams are 77-16 inside Freedom Hall (.828-win percentage)·      The Bucs return 10 players from last year's 2023-24 roster
• ETSU only lost 8% of its scoring and 9% of its minutes played from last year's roster to the transfer portal – the fewest amount of production from any SoCon program  
• Coach Savage and his staff brought in five new players to complete the 2024-25 roster … The five newcomers include four transfers – Curt Lewis (Missouri), John Buggs III (North Texas), Davion Bradford (Wake Forest) and Roosevelt Wheeler (VCU) … In addition, true freshman Brandon Crawford is the fifth Buccaneer newcomer

ABOUT NEWBERRY  

• Newberry is a Division II school and a member of the South Atlantic Conference
• The Wolves finished the 2023-24 season with an overall record of 8-17 last season and went 7-13 in conference play
• Newberry is led by first-year head coach Marcus Kirkland … Kirkland was previously the associate head coach at Wingate
• Drake Downs and Malakhi Stremlow were named as Players to Watch in the South Atlantic Conference
• Downs led the team in scoring and rebounding as he averaged 12.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game
• Stremlow missed the 2023-24 season with an injury, but he averaged 8.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game as a junior in 2022-23
• The Wolves also return veteran guards James Lovorn, Malik Joseph and Andrew Robinson and forwards Devario Sheppard and Booker Cussac … Lovorn, Joseph, Sheppard and Cussac combined to start 68 games last year

SERIES HISTORY

• Monday marks the fourth all-time meeting between the two programs
• ETSU has won all three meetings in the series – the last being a 79-50 victory in the 2019-20 season opener … The Bucs went on to win a program-record 30 games and won both the SoCon regular season and tournament titles
• The Bucs defeated the Wolves 125-74 back in 1989 and secured a 97-81 win in 1986

UP NEXT
ETSU continues its three-game homestand when the Bucs host Eastern Kentucky in the SoCon/ASUN Showdown Friday night at 7 p.m.
 
SEASON TICKETS
Fans can still purchase season tickets for 2024-25 Buccaneer basketball by calling 423-439-3878 or visiting ETSUTickets.com.
  
For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's basketball tab.