SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Mar. 4, 2026) – After a dominant regular season campaign, ETSU men's basketball reaped another bushel of rewards for months of hard work.

Brooks Savage was named the 2026 Anton Foy SoCon Coach of the Year on Wednesday as voted on by the men's basketball coaches in the Southern Conference. Cam Morris III won ETSU's second consecutive Defensive Player of the Year award, and Jaylen Smith was named Sixth Man of the Year. Morris and Brian Taylor II were second team All-SoCon, while Blake Barkley was third team All-SoCon and Morris and Allen Strothers were All-Defensive Team selections.

Savage enters the tournament 59-39 in three seasons at ETSU and led the Bucs to their first SoCon regular season title since 2020, winning the league by two games. The outright crown is ETSU's sixth ever and just the third in the last 20 years. Savage is the fifth coach to win the award, joining Les Robinson (1990), Ed DeChellis (2001, 2002), Murry Bartow (2004), and Steve Forbes (2020). Bartow won an additional Coach of the Year award in the Atlantic Sun in 2007, making Savage's win the seventh victory total among that elite fraternity at ETSU.

Morris is the only player to rank in the top 10 in the SoCon in both blocks (36, fourth) and steals (37, ninth). He averaged 13.6 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game for ETSU this season, scoring in double figures 23 times and 20 or more points six times. He shot 55.1% from the field, which ranks third in the SoCon and 32nd in the country at the start of tournament play. He is the second Buccaneer to win SoCon Defensive Player of the Year and the second in as many years, joining Karon Boyd in 2025.

Smith averaged 8.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game in 31 appearances with 28 games off the bench. He played 20 or more minutes as a substitute 22 times this season and 25 or more minutes 13 times. He led the team in steals (41) and scored in double figures 13 times, including 28 against Central Arkansas on Nov. 29 and 17 against The Citadel on Jan. 23. Smith leads all SoCon players with 10 or fewer starts this season in points and leads all players with 15 or fewer starts in made three pointers, assists, and steals. He is the only player with fewer than 25 starts in the top ten in each of the latter two categories.

Taylor is ETSU's leading scorer this season with 449 points at 14.5 points per game, shooting 46% from the field, 35% from three with 47 makes, and just under 80% from the free throw line. Taylor ranks third on the team with 123 rebounds, 88 assists, and 37 steals. Taylor hit double-digit points 25 times this season with seven games of 20 or more points and recorded the fourth triple-double in program history with 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists against Central Arkansas on November 29.

After averaging single-digit points and fewer than four rebounds per game through his first six games, Barkley broke out with 21 points at Dayton on December 2 and followed that up with 20 points and 10 rebounds against South Alabama three days later. From that point, Barkley scored in 17 of his next 19 appearances, including four more double-doubles and four additional games of 20 or more points. Barkley is the team's leading rebounder this season with 169 at a 5.8 per-game rate, is the team's second-leading per-game scorer at 14.2, and is second in the SoCon at 84.6% from the free throw line, which sits tenth in ETSU history for single-season free throw percentage.

Strothers was one of only two Buccaneers to start all 31 regular season games, alongside Taylor. He leads the team with 98 assists and is second with 39 steals, ranking seventh and eighth, respectively, among his SoCon peers. He has been especially judicious with the ball running the point this season with a 2.58 assist-to-turnover ratio, ranking third in the conference and 60th in the country. His ATO is currently tied for seventh in a single season at ETSU among players with 30 or more assists.

The Bucs are the number one seed in the 2026 SoCon Men's Basketball Championship and will open their run in the quarterfinals at noon on Saturday at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville. Their opponent will be determined Friday night by the winner of the game between Chattanooga and The Citadel, and the winner of ETSU's quarterfinal will face the winner of Mercer and Western Carolina.

For more information on ETSU men's basketball, go to ETSUBucs.com.