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Pirates sail into uncharted waters

By Al Myatt
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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."

E-mail Al Myatt

PAGE UPDATED 11/12/15 04:28 AM.

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