Most Georgia State basketball games start the same macho way.
An opposing player drives down the lane, attacking Eric Buckner at the center of coach Ron Hunter’s various zone defenses. The player rises for a layup. Buckner blocks it. Another player tries a pull-up shot a few feet away a few minutes later. Buckner blocks it. The attacks stop for a while, leaving Buckner feeling satisfied and angry. He’s proud to do his job, but wants to do more.
“I think I can’t get any blocks, but I know at the same time they aren’t coming all the way in because I’m down there,” he said.
A slender 6-feet-10 with a 7-3 wingspan, Buckner’s hands may hold Georgia State’s hopes of winning the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.
Coach Ron Hunter said if his team wants the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament that comes with winning the CAA, it will have to use its defense to win four games in four days. Doing so will require a lot from Buckner. Georgia State will play Hofstra at 8:30 p.m. Friday in Richmond. The winner will face third-seeded George Mason on Saturday.
“What Buck does is cure all of our ills,” Hunter said. “When we give up penetration, or give up a matchup, when you have the big fella back there, it covers up all the ills.”
Buckner is Georgia State’s single-season (106) and career leader (154) in blocked shots, all accumulated in the past two seasons after he transferred from Gulf Coast Community College.
“He’s able to change a game defensively,” Delaware coach Monte Ross said. “What happens, blocking shots is one thing, but he starts altering shots and having people thinking about it going in there.”
Hunter described Buckner as a poor-man’s version of Alonzo Mourning: an intimidating presence on defense with a reliable jump hook on offense. Buckner says he can’t be compared with Mourning. Perhaps because, unlike Mourning, who was known as a shot-blocking phenom in high school, Buckner never tried to develop that skill until this season.
Before Hunter arrived, Buckner was prone to foul trouble on defense, leading the team with 98 personal fouls last season. His fundamentals weren’t great. Instead of using his height, he would squat to jump. Doing so would disrupt his timing, causing him to hit hands and forearms rather than basketballs. He had only 49 blocks, a total not fitting his height and jumping ability.
Hunter and his staff taught him to jump straight up, without crouching first. He has been called for 86 fouls this season. More important, Buckner began reaching shots that used to elude him. He swatted away nine in the season’s first three games. He added five more in the next two games before blocking seven against Liberty and eight against Florida International two games later.
Soon “one of the nation’s leading shot-blockers” began appearing after his name, and he began earnestly working on a craft that Hunter says could lead Buckner to the NBA. Though the season isn’t finished, he has more than doubled his blocks total.
“There’s been times where I’ve blocked shots but not like this year,” he said. “I knew I could do other things. I can jump high, but I never paid attention to the shot blocking. Not until I saw I was ranked in the nation. I guess that’s what really got my attention.”
Buckner finished fifth in Division I with 3.5 blocks per game, 1.3 behind the leader, Kentucky’s Anthony Davis.
Hunter said Buckner is the perfect shot-blocking machine. He has the natural height to intimidate. He’s also very quick off his feet. He rarely jumps into opponents, but goes straight up. Lastly he’s got great anticipation.
“He has a special gift,” Hunter said. “I tell him this all the time. I think this special gift can make him a lot of money in the NBA. Even the shots he blocks don’t go out of bounds. He saves them.”
He blocked one shot and altered another in the first few minutes against Old Dominion on Feb. 22. While the Monarchs kept attacking as rebounders, they began to limit drives to the basket. In the second half, they tried again, leading to Buckner’s favorite blocks this season.
The Monarchs’ Dimitri Batten picked up a loose ball and accelerated for the free-throw lane in the second half. He cupped the ball in his hand and took off a step later, preparing for a tomahawk dunk. But Buckner was there and met Batten in the air. Buckner blocked it. Richard Ross picked up the loose ball and tried a jumper. Buckner blocked it. Two blocks in two seconds.
“Few guys in the world that can change games by blocking shots, and he can do that,” Hunter said.
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