East Tennessee State is on top of the SoCon Basketball mountain for the first time since the 2019-20 season after it claimed the 2025-26 regular-season crown. The Bucs took down UNC Greensboro (12-17, 8-8 SoCon), 87-75, at Bodford Arena Saturday evening to secure at least a share of the league crown.
When Furman (18-11, 9-7 SoCon) picked up a 76-67 win over Wofford (18-11, 10-6 SoCon) later Saturday night in the I-85 rivalry clash, it meant that the Bucs won the outright SoCon title.
It’s been quite
the week for ETSU basketball, as the Bucs started it with a historic win at Furman to garner a season sweep of the Paladins for the first time in 32 years. The Bucs got another strong performance from Brian Taylor II, who has strung together three really strong performances dating back to his 28-point effort in an overtime loss at Samford last weekend.
In ETSU’s win at Furman during the mid-week, Taylor posted 17 points in a huge 78-69 road win at Timmons Arena before capping the week off in style, as he finished with 25 points in helping lead the Bucs past the Spartans in a title-clinching effort.
In that win over UNCG, Taylor II sizzled shooting the basketball, and while Milton Matthews III went off against the Paladins, it was Taylor that did so against the Spartans. He finished the contest with 25 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field, including going 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
The SIU-Edwardsville graduate transfer added two rebounds and a pair of assists and only turned it over once in the win. Three other Bucs joined Taylor in double figures in the road win, with Cam Morris III adding 15 points, while Jaylen Smith and Isaiah Sutherland added 12 and 10 points, respectively off the bench.
The other major piece of news to come out of the game was Blake Barkley’s return to the lineup for ETSU after missing the game at Furman on Wednesday night with a minor lower body injury. He just missed the double figures scoring mark, as he finished the night with nine points and five rebounds in 31 minutes of action.
UNCG was able to also place four in double figures, with KJ Younger leading the way with 20 points. The freshman guard from Matthews, N.C., connected on 7-of-13 from the field and was 5-for-9 from 3-point range.
Three other Spartans joined Younger in double figures. Justin Neely added 18 points and five rebounds, while Valentino Pinedo just missed a double-double by adding 14 points and nine rebounds. Freshman guard Noah Norgaard rounded out the UNCG players in double figures with 13 points and three assists.
After having a winning streak of four games coming into the week, the Spartans have now lost back-to-back games at Western Carolina and at home vs. ETSU on Senior Day.
As far as the game was concerned, ETSU clung to a 68-65 lead with just under six minutes remaining when the Bucs put together a 10-0 run to increase the margin to 13 points with 2:24 remaining and were never really threatened the rest of the way as they held on for the win.
Also not to be overlooked in the win was the Bucs’ overall offensive efficiency, which saw them shoot 60% (33-of-55) from the field, which was the best shooting effort of the season and best since equaling that total back on Feb. 1, 2023, in a win over Wofford.
With the No. 1 seed now secure, the Bucs have a pair of tough games remaining to close out league play, hosting Wofford on Senior Night at Freedom Hall on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before traveling to Mercer to face off against the Bears in a key regular season in a 4:30 p.m. EST contest at Hawkins Arena.
While the Bucs have already clinched the league, the remaining two games against two other teams battling for the No. 2 seed will have a big impact on just how the seeding shakes out.
East Tennessee State’s week started in Greenville, where the Bucs would make a little history with a trip to face off against SoCon road nemesis, Furman.
Two teams battled hard, but during one stretch in the middle of the second half, ETSU caught fire and knocked down seven straight shots in a 20-4 run, including going 5-for-5 from 3-point range over a roughly a five-minute stretch, as the Bucs picked up their first regular-season sweep of Furman in 32 years with a 78-69 Southern Conference road win Wednesday night before a crowd of 2,500 at Timmons Arena.
Matthews III, who had a total of 67 points scored in the 16 games he’s seen action in this season, finished the night with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range, leading three Bucs in double figures off the bench, as ETSU’s bench out-scored Furman’s 34-10 in the game.
Matthews’ 18 points eclipsed his previous season high of 14 points in the season-opener against Converse. The graduate senior and former NAIA All-American saw 24 minutes of action in the win over Furman, eclipsing his previous season-high of 16:14 of court time in a 42-point win over Louisiana-Monroe.
The 6-foot-3 graduate transfer from Florida A&M averaged 14.7 PPG and shot 37.3% from three in his time with the Rattlers last season, but he fell behind on the depth chart early in the season. With Barkley missing the game due to injury, Matthews got his opportunity to shine, and he didn’t disappoint. In addition to his 18 points, Matthews added a pair of steals and two rebounds.
It also shows that ETSU is malleable in the ways it can beat an opponent, which is the sign of many championship-ready teams. For a lot of the night with Matthews out there, it allowed ETSU to properly space the floor and spread-out Furman with essentially four guards on the floor, and as a result, the Bucs were able to get a lot of good looks for Matthews, especially in scramble situations off of winning 50-50 duels for loose balls.
An excellent coaching job by Brooks Savage, as the Bucs looked more like Furman, both spatially and statistically, than Furman did.
Brooks Savage is the SoCon Coach of the Year
First off, I’d be remiss if I didn’t get a tip of the cap at least to Wofford head coach Kevin Giltner, Samford’s Lennie Acuff and The Citadel’s Ed Conroy for the coaching jobs turned in by all three this season, however, as the SoCon season has transpired, it’s become apparent that Savage has done the best job of any in the league this season.
Savage took over an ETSU program that Desmond Oliver left in disarray four years ago. Now three years into his first of what figures to be several high-profile coaching stops over the course of his career, Savage has made an appearance in the SoCon title game in his first year, coached his team to a third-place finish and Quimari Peterson to the league’s Player of the Year honor last season, and in year three, has brought the first regular-season conference title back to Johnson City for the first time since the Steve Forbes era and the 2019-20 season.
Making his coaching job even more impressive was what the Bucs had to replace. I looked back at what I wrote in the preseason as a part of ETSU’s preview and I included it below. It’s been neat to see all of it start to come together for Savage this season. He’s been a lot more calmer this season, and it’s very much what I noticed about Forbes’ Bucs back in 2019-20 when he was at the helm of ETSU. In italics below is what I wrote in the preseason.
From the 2025-26 ETSU Preview I wrote back in October:
For Brooks Savage, now it’s on to the tremendous haul brought in from the transfer portal for the Bucs. A total off 11 newcomers will be a part of ETSU’s roster for the upcoming season, with 10 of the 11 being transfers, while also adding one exceptionally talented high school signee.
Savage’s third major haul from the transfer portal appears to be one that, at least on paper, looks like not only the most talented, but one that most fits the identity of what Savage is truly trying to establish, which is all about building a team that dictates the rules of engagement on both ends, picking points in the game to run but not playing fast as an identity, without compromising its “elite-ness” defensively.
Savage’s first two teams as the head coach have lived up on the defensive end of the floor, however, on the offensive end, the Bucs have shown flashes but nothing like the consistency and versatility that Savage wants, which was something he was able to get out of his teams under Forbes as the offensive coordinator at Wake Forest. This mix of players brought in by Savage and staff looks more on par with the type of team identity he wants in Johnson City and the type of identity he had in Winston-Salem as the Demon Deacons’ offensive coordinator.
In adding even another element that we really couldn’t know from a media perspective until the season got underway and the Bucs started to string together wins, was what I have noticed off the floor as a media member this season is a good culture. That’s not to say that the culture in the previous two seasons was bad by any stretch under Savage and staff, but it’s more that this one has the special ingredients usually associated with teams that have gone on to win championships in this league. I have been watching this stuff awhile, and more often than not, you can tell what teams are going to be by watching their body language.
This season, I’ve noticed Savage have a calmer demeanor with his team, as well as the other interactions between players and staff give off good vibes. This is the right mix, and when you have the right mix, it makes it a joy to coach that team.
I don’t people a lot of people realize that the toughest part of the job for a coach is not actually coaching the team, but seeing it in their respective minds as a finished product and the pieces, personalities and willingness to role acceptance all as a finished product from the outset, and long before it becomes an actual reality.
It didn’t really dawn on me until I had a conversation with Forbes. I remember speaking to him about this very thing in his last season at ETSU. It was one of those rare moments that Forbes gave you that made him so unique as a coach, and for me as a media member, a joy to cover. He didn’t dance around words or dress up cliche’s. He just gave you the raw unfiltered truth. It’s one of the reasons I developed a really good bond with him because of his genuineness.
I paraphrase a conversation that Forbes and I had in February 2020 following ETSU’s home win over Furman. The ETSU Hall-of-Fame head coach told me how much he liked coaching that 2019-20 team because it was so easy to coach and the players show up wanting to learn and have a great desire to learn and be better each day.
Forbes went on to say that sometimes there have been teams he coached in his career at all levels (JUCO included) that he said were harder to get up every day and go coach because their overall priorities and values weren’t focused on the right things, which made for a longer and more grueling season. Forbes finished up by saying that he never lost his joy to coach, but that some teams definitely made the job more fun in certain seasons than others and said that it’s a real treat to get a team like the one I have this year (2019-20) and you cherish those teams and never forget them.
I haven’t had this similar type of conversation with Savage, but it would appear from his countenance that he’s enjoying this season. They say coaches as well as people in general often wear their emotions the sleeve, and some are more emotionally plugged in than others. If you’ve watched Savage coach, you’ve noticed he is fiercely passionate. Just ask any official in the SoCon haha….My point is Savage smiles more and even without him saying he’s having fun, although I’m sure he has, he really looks like he’s having a good time.
Savage, at least in my eyes, is your SoCon Coach of the Year. To turn over a roster and find 11 unique personalities mesh with the four players that form the core of the roster of four returnees, and with personalities coming from different programs and different individual backgrounds and getting all those players in this NIL era to buy into a common goal is remarkable.
I’ll close by saying this. I think Savage’s job this season can really be summed up in two different players: Allen Strothers and Blake Barkley. Strothers is the one player that has seen ETSU’s program when the days offered an ominous picture of the future back in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Strothers isn’t a player who’s going to wow you with his scoring ability or his anything that he does specifically, but one character trait that stands out most for me and speaks to what Savage has developed in terms of culture is Strothers’ loyalty to stay and then not only stay, but see the return of trust and loyalty given him by Savage to not only trust him on the floor in key moments, but let him be the voice above all voices as the leader of this Bucs team.
As for Barkley, he wasn’t trusted or given a fair chance at Northwestern. Maybe some of that was due to injuries or just that Northwestern simply over-recruited and wasn’t maybe as fair as it should have been up front about the reality of playing time as they should have been from the outset, but whatever the case is, Savage saw something in Barkley that Chris Collins couldn’t.
I don’t know much about coaching I’ll admit, but I can tell you which coach was right and which one was wrong. It wasn’t whether or not Barkley could flourish, it was whether or not a coach was willing to devote the time and energy to develop him to reach his potential as a player. That has shown through this season with Barkley having an all-conference season in his first season in Johnson City. ETSU will be a tough out as the No. 1 seed in Asheville. Be sure to check back next week for my preview of the 2026 SoCon Tournament.
Power Rankings after the week of Feb.15-22
1. ETSU (21-8, 13-3 SoCon)
2. Samford (16-13, 9-7 SoCon)
3. Furman (18-11, 9-7 SoCon)
4. Mercer (18-11, 10-6 SoCon)
5. Wofford (18-11, 10-6 SoCon)
6. Western Carolina (12-15, 8-8 SoCon)
7. Chattanooga (12-17, 6-10 SoCon)
8. UNCG (12-17, 8-8 SoCon)
9. The Citadel (9-20, 6-10 SoCon)
10. VMI (6-23, 1-15 SoCon)
Mid-Major Madness All-SoCon Teams
**–I numbered the top 15 players from 1-15 in terms of what I have observed this season, and I also took into account injuries, which hurt guys like Furman’s Cooper Bowser and Asa Thomas, as well as probably put Wofford’s Kahmare Holmes down to second team rather than being a first-team pick. Other than that, these I felt were the league’s top 15 players in this order this season.
First Team
1. G- Baraka Okojie (Mercer)
2. F-Justin Neely (UNCG)
3. F-Cam Morris III (ETSU)
4. G-Alex Wilkins (Furman)
5. G-Jadin Booth (Samford)
Second Team
6. G- Kahmare Holmes (Wofford)
7. F-Armani Mighty (Mercer)
8. F-Dylan Faulkner (Samford)
9. F-Blake Barkley (ETSU)
10.G-Brian Taylor II (ETSU)
Third Team
11. G-Nils Machowski (Wofford)
12. F-TJ Johnson (VMI)
13. G-Cord Stansberry (Western Carolina)
14. G-Asa Thomas (Furman)
15. C-Cooper Bowser (Furman)
Honorable Mention
16.F-Charles Johnston (Furman)
17.G-Jordan Frison (Chattanooga)
18. F-Marcus Kell (Western Carolina)
19. G-Brennan Watkins (Chattanooga)
20. F-Braxton Williams (The Citadel)
All-Freshman Team
1. G-Alex Wilkins (Furman)
2. G-KJ Younger (UNCG)
3. G-Chace Watley (Wofford)
4. G-Tate Darner (Chattanooga)
5. G-Mario Tatum Jr. (VMI)
6. F-Brian Sumpter (Wofford)
7. C-Samuel Dada (Western Carolina)
8. G-Tahlan Pettway (Western Carolina)
9. G-Isaiah Campbell-Finch (Samford)
10.F-Cole Bowser (Furman)
All-Defensive Team
1. F-Cam Morris III (ETSU)
2. G-Allen Strothers (ETSU)
3. F-Ben Vander Wal (Furman)
4. G-Zion Wilburn (Samford)
5. F-Dylan Faulkner (Samford)
Award Winners
Player of the Year: Baraka Okojie (Mercer)
Coach of the Year: Brooks Savage (ETSU)
Newcomer of the Year: Justin Neely (UNCG)
Freshman of the Year: Alex Wilkins (Furman)
Defensive Player of the Year: Cam Morris III (ETSU)
Ultimate Glue Guy: Allen Strothers (ETSU)
Sixth Man of The Year: Jaylen Smith (ETSU)
Best Shooter: Jadin Booth (Samford)
Best Dunker: Cooper Bowser (Furman)
