News, Analysis and Opinion from Bonesville's Denny O'Brien

Pirate Notebook No. 111
Friday, February 28, 2003

By Denny O'Brien
Staff Writer and Columnist

Moments after his team fell 73-70 to East Carolina in late December, Marquette coach Tom Crean said the Pirates didn't have many weaknesses.

As the season has progressed, the gap between East Carolina and its Conference USA rivals has become increasingly evident. Pound for pound, man for man, the Pirates just don't match up with their tradition-steeped brethren.

Since that historic win over the nationally-ranked Golden Eagles, ECU has visited victory lane just twice, causing some Pirates fans to scratch their heads in bewilderment and ask the question: What's with this Jekyll and Hyde bunch?

Others might pin the Pirates' steady plunge towards the bottom of the league standings on a disruption in chemistry caused by senior point guard Travis Holcomb-Faye's suspension and later reinstatement, which was due to his academic performance.

The fact of the matter is, fourth-year coach Bill Herrion's team doesn't suffer from a split-personality disorder, and while Holcomb-Faye's irresponsibility in the classroom certainly didn't advance the Pirates' cause, it certainly isn't the main source of their woes. Instead, the Pirates were able to mask their flaws early with the help of a schedule front-loaded with a healthy diet of cream puffs.

Sure, Ole Miss (12-12) and Virginia Tech (10-16) knock heads in two of the nation's premier conferences — SEC and Big East — but neither is expecting postseason bids and the Pirates had the luxury of entertaining both the Rebels and Hokies at home. Add to that the fact that East Carolina was handled easily in its own gym by George Mason and destroyed at Coastal Carolina, then suddenly that record-breaking 10-2 start doesn't seem overly impressive, does it?

Each night presents a new headache for the Pirates, who outside the confines of their hostile-towards-the-enemy home court, don't boast a decided advantage over any of their conference foes. Big, strong, defensive-minded teams overpower them in the half court, while quick, athletic teams outrun them.

In fact, outside of their tenacity on the boards and gutty defensive instincts, there is very little the Pirates have done consistently well in conference play.

When you factor the Pirates have shot an abysmal 36 percent in league games, creating ample opportunities to clean the glass, their rebounding numbers should come as no surprise.

For East Carolina to even have a chance in a league chock-full of heavyweights, it needs a monumental performance, accompanied by a frigid night from the opponent. The Pirates got both Wednesday in Cincinnati and still came away empty-handed.

"If I've got to go in and applaud them for their effort on the 25th game of the year, then we've got something wrong going on here," Herrion said. "If you really want to be good and you want to try to win in this league, you have to play hard every single day you step on the floor, whether it's practice or a game. Collectively, we have not done that as a basketball team this year."

That's a recipe for disaster for ECU, which unlike many C-USA teams, can't put forth a C- effort and expect a victory. With a roster laden with one-dimensional players, anything less than 110 percent won't get it done in a four or five-bid league.

There is simply no hiding the fact that Herrion needs to land a few bona fide blue chippers with multi-dimensional arsenals in order to compete in C-USA.

Moussa Badiane, for example, provides a dominant shot-blocking presence in the middle, but he lacks the necessary bulk to bang with most centers and is still raw offensively. Gabriel Mikulas possesses a nice shooting touch and solid low-post moves, yet he lacks the quickness and tough-guy presence to match up defensively against most of the league's power forwards.

The Pirates' weaknesses extend to the perimeter, too, where they are shooting an arctic-like 28 percent from three-point land. Going into the season, Herrion thought he had the answer to their outside woes, but freshman Belton Rivers has struggled with his shot from the get-go, while junior college transfer Luke MacKay has yet to receive enough minutes to find his rhythm.

Face it, without a legitimate spot-up shooter, it's difficult to win in the college game, especially at the C-USA level.

The good news is the disappointing season will soon end, enabling Herrion and his staff to focus their efforts on upgrading recruiting to a new level. The bad news is, this league is stocked with guys like Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Tom Crean, and Bobby Huggins, all of whom should keep their programs at an elite level.

As inconceivable as it may be, Herrion will have to out-sell the Skip Prossers and Pet Gillens of the world in order to compete in C-USA.

"We haven't been able to beat out some of these ACC people for in-state kids, so we've had to get a little bit creative with how we recruit," Herrion has said. "I don't really think that we're going to break that ice and break that barrier here until we start winning more basketball games. The greatest promoter and selling point that you have with any sport or any team is to win games."

The way it's looking, though, Herrion will have to break the recruiting barrier before he starts winning on a more consistent basis.

If not, the Pirates could lose their lone advantage in C-USA — a home court environment that is intimidating to visitors.

It's always easy to second-guess a decision from the sidelines. However, you can't help but wonder if the Pirates would have gotten a better shot Wednesday night at Cincinnati had they not taken a time out with less than two ticks on the clock.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has always used the approach of not calling a TO in the waning seconds, which keeps the opposition from setting its defense. He prefers to let his best ball-handler take his man off the dribble and either pull up for a jumper or dish to an open man.

The Blue Devils coach says its a scenario his team works on extensively in practice throughout the season.

With better than four seconds remaining, sending an outlet to Holcomb-Faye and letting him create something with the dribble may have been the Pirates' best option. Running a play and getting an open look with 1.8 seconds to play is a low-percentage scenario, to say the least, especially with a defender heavily guarding the inbounds pass.

Officials have been the source of frustration for a couple of C-USA coaches over the past week.

Following the Pirates' 71-66 loss to Charlotte Saturday, Herrion had a few choice words about the manner in which the game was called, especially during the closing seconds when Pirates forward Erroyl Bing was whistled for his fifth foul.

Pitino didn't wait for the final horn in Louisville's loss to Cincinnati Saturday. He voiced his opinion heavily throughout the game, which earned an ejection with 11 minutes to play.

When asked about C-USA's officiating Monday, Huggins seemed a bit surprised that his colleagues have taken issue with the league's officials.

"You're supposed to call what they tell you to call," Huggins said. "We sit in meetings every year and we watch tapes of what points of emphasis are going to be.

"Most guys take that and show their team and say, 'This is what we can do and this is what we can't do'. We actually bring officials and kind of show them what the points of emphasis are and what we've got to spend time working on to keep guys from getting into foul trouble."

Easy for him to say. It would be interesting to hear Huggy Bear's comments if he were in Herrion or Pitino's shoes.

About the only question mark facing Marquette going into the season was its ability to replace star point guard Cordell Henry.

Sophomore Travis Diener has provided that answer and has quickly emerged as one of the best floor generals in the league.

Heading into last night's showdown with Louisville, the Golden Eagles playmaker was averaging 10.9 points and 5.7 assists per game. Diener has also filled the leadership void, which was another concern heading into the season.

"It's a process," Crean said about Diener's transition. "It's a gradual process. What I think I've learned more than anything this year is you can't rush it with players. You've got to keep teaching it, you've got to keep preaching it, and you've got to keep showing them things, but it has to come to them.

"I think that's what's happened. That's why Travis has emerged even more for our team because he is so competitive and he's so focused. He's understood his responsibilities on this team so well. That's what leadership is."