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FOOTBALL |
Season taking its toll |
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One of my media partners took time
out to ask East Carolina coach
Ruffin McNeill if he was okay after
McNeill met with the media late
Saturday night following the
Pirates' 22-17 home loss to South
Florida. He beat me to the question. ...
More from
Brian Bailey... |
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Audio:
Ruff post-game |
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ECU
coach Ruffin McNeill
spoke with reporters
after the Pirates' loss
to USF (recorded by Al Myatt;
file photo):
Select audio clip... |
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FOOTBALL |
Kevin's Keys to the Game |
East Carolina
comes into tonight's game
with South Florida at 4-5
and reeling after back to
back losses to Temple and
Connecticut. The Pirates are
trying to figure out how to
work through their offensive
struggles
...
More from Kevin Monroe... |
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FOOTBALL |
Ruff puts priority on 'head'
coaching |
Being
a Football Bowl Subdivision head
coach can involve supervising game
plans, maximizing recruiting,
directing staff, responding to
media, making appearances and in
Ruffin McNeill's approach, being a
father figure to over 100 young men.
This week the East Carolina head coach also has been just that, a head
coach, shaping the mental side for the Pirate players ...
More from
Al Myatt... |
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FOOTBALL |
ECU's finances get a boost |
East
Carolina is changing its
stripes. Or more accurately,
its trading in its swoosh
for three stripes. Athletic
director Jeff Compher broke
the news Wednesday when he
announced that the school
has agreed to a 10-year
exclusive partnership with
adidas ...
More from Brett
Friedlander... |
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By
Al Myatt
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
VIEW MOBILE VERSION OF THIS PAGE
East Carolina will be entering the realm of the unknown in several areas
as it hosts Grambling State in its basketball opener on Friday at 8 p.m.
"We don't have any film on Grambling or anything," said sixth-year
Pirates coach Jeff Lebo. "They've got a whole new team so it's a little
uneasy right now because I don't know what to prepare for. We've got
some stuff from last year but they've got a whole new group. Since we
can't really know what they're going to do, we're really kind of
focusing on ourselves."
Even with the internal focus, there are some factors to be determined.
"We've got a long way to go, trying to figure out our rotations and
stuff," Lebo said. "It's going to be a work in progress here early."
Grambling is actually a footnote in some important Pirate history. East
Carolina defeated the Tigers en route to the NAIA baseball championship
in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1961.
Grambling used to produce a lot of NFL players.
Former Elizabeth City State player and coach Shawn Walker directs the
current Tigers in hoops. Grambling was 2-27 in Walker's first season in
2014-15.
"They didn't have a great year last year," Lebo said. "Sometimes as a
coach when you don't have a great year, you kind of change your systems.
That's the one thing you worry about in these games early. You don't
have a lot of film. You don't really know their personnel. You don't
know what they're going to do. That's the one big concern."
Lebo and staff will be prepared to make adjustments on the fly.
Walker's roots in the region as a former high school player at Plymouth
led the Tigers coach to seek the matchup with the Pirates. Walker played
one season at Campbell before transferring to Elizabeth City.
"He wanted to come back to this area and bring his team back," Lebo
said. "Obviously, he's got friends and family in Eastern North
Carolina."
ECU is not contracted to visit Grambling in return.
Guilmette will be missed
It was announced during the preaseason that Marshall Guilmette's career
has ended due to medical reasons. As a redshirt sophomore last season,
the 6-feet, 11-inch Guilmette averaged 26 minutes, 10.3 points and five
rebounds in the last seven games. He scored 18 points in a first round
win over Central Florida in the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
Just how ECU will fare without Guilmette is another element of the
unknown confronting the Pirates.
"First of all, for Marshall, it's just unbelievably difficult news for
him," Lebo said. "He's worked awfully hard to try to get himself
healthy, to give himself an opportunity to play. When you grow up
playing a game and it's part of your life and somebody says you're not
going to be able to play it anymore, especially at an early age, that's
really tough news. I hate that for Marshall. It was a difficult process
for him to go through to get that news and not be able to play anymore.
"It's a tremendous blow to our team. It's hard to find 6-11 guys who can
shoot and pass and are experienced. You saw at the end of last year when
he was healthy and when he was practicing the last two-and-a-half months
of the season what an impact he could make for our team. The guy was
averaging double figures the last seven games. He helped us win a lot of
games with his ability to shoot. He was one of our best
back-to-the-basket scorers. We were counting on him to be a big factor
for us this year and next year. It's a blow to our team.
"The tough news for him is that he's not going to be able to play and
for us, that he's not going to be in there. It's going to give an
opportunity for some other guys that are going to have to step up and
play. It certainly was a blow to what we thought we were going to have,
especially inside, for the next two years."
New rules in effect
The shot clock has been shortened from 35 seconds to 30 and there are
new rules designed to eliminate some of the physicality of defenses amid
concerns about offensive productivity in the college game. Lebo noted
that 69 fouls were called in ECU's first scrimmage.
The new regulations will result in some tactical experimentation.
"We fouled a lot," Lebo said. "We're trying to get used to how the
officials are going to call the games. I think early it's going to be an
adjustment for everybody. We'll see once they turn on the lights and put
some people in the stands. I think you're going to see a lot of fouling
here early in college basketball as they try to clean up off the ball
cutting, ball screening, illegal screening, those kind of things where
the game has gotten so physical.
"We have had a lot of fouls. That's standard. Usually early, you have a
lot of fouls."
Turnovers remain a bad thing. Lebo saw too many in the preseason.
"Our big thing was we've turned the ball over a lot," said the Pirates
coach. "That's been a concern of mine. We've had so many turnovers in
our first two scrimmages. Ball security, taking care of the ball,
decision making, being able to not have the live ball turnovers
turnovers are bad but when they're live ball turnovers that result in
what we call pick sixes where you turn it over and the other team gets
a layup or a fast break opportunity, we've got to be able to clean that
up. That was the big thing for us in the scrimmages that was a negative.
I thought rebounding the ball we did a pretty good job. ... We got
pretty good looks, but it's just been the amount of turnovers and the
kinds of turnovers early.
"That's pretty standard most of the time, fouling and turnovers early.
We've got to be able to clean that up a little bit. You can't beat
anybody having a lot of turnovers. I don't care who you play. That's
going to be the big emphasis for us here in these first couple of
games."
Leadership needed at point
The Pirates graduated Antonio Robinson at point guard from a team that
was 14-19 with a 6-12 record in the AAC. Robinson was solid in terms of
taking care of the ball and defending.
Senior Prince Williams and sophomore Lance Tejada return with experience
at the point. The Pirates also brought in Charles Foster from Vincennes
(IN) University.
"It's still up in the air right now," Lebo said. "One day it's Prince,
one day it's L.T., but both of them are experienced that can play that
position. I'd like to see them both get in there and play together some.
L.T. has really worked on his shot. Hopefully, he'll be a little more
consistent shooting it for us this year. He's worked hard in the
offseason. That looks a little bit better. Now we've got to work on both
of them knowing when to shoot. If they cut down on some of the shots
that were maybe marginal shots, that will help their percentages. We've
been working with them on that. Again, they've got to take care of the
ball and get us into offense. Those guys are experienced. They've been
through it. Prince has been through it. L.T. has had a year under his
belt.
"I do feel good about those two. Charles is a little bit farther off
right now than them. He's obviously a new player. He'll probably see a
little bit of time there but we also can play him off the ball a little
bit, too. He's a pretty good shooter."
Looking for scorers
Freshman guard B.J. Tyson led ECU in scoring last year with a 12.5
average. Forward Caleb White averaged 12.2 points last season as a
sophomore.
Guard Terry Whisnant left the program after averaging 12.3 points and
hitting 37 percent of his 3-point attempts last season.
"We thought we had Terry and Marshall back," Lebo said. "That's a lot of
points in those areas that have been proven. ... The guy who has been
scoring a little bit for us has been Kentrell Barkley (6-5 freshman from
Northern Durham). He's given us a little bit of scoring but he's a
freshman. We don't have to have guys like getting a lot of points but I
think we're going to have a lot of guys that are going to have to get us
six, seven points a game.
"Michel Nzege has got to be efficient for us and get us some baskets.
Lance Tejada and Prince are going to have to be able when their
opportunity comes to score the ball. Maybe they can score a little bit
better than Antonio, but Antonio was a senior and had a great senior
season at the point guard for us.
"That's a big question for us, being able to be consistent scoring the
basketball at a variety of spots. Mike Zangari is a guy who's going to
have to be able to step up and score some baskets for us. He's a guy who
has shot it well in preseason in practice from the perimeter so
hopefully that can continue."
Tougher schedule, western venture
The nonconference schedule is tougher. The Pirates aren't playing any
programs that aren't Division I.
ECU will be playing in California for the first time.
"We've got a very tough schedule here early," Lebo said. "Grambling here
at home and, obviously, Charlotte (Nov. 16), who's got a new coach in
Mark Price. They've always had a good program in the state. Obviously,
going out to play California (Nov. 20), who's Top 10 and San Diego State
(Nov. 23), who in some polls is Top 25, we'll get tested very early, and
away from home early, which is always difficult when you play away from
home against Top 10 and Top 25 people."