East Carolina Coach Joe Dooley would have liked nothing more than to have come into this second stint in Greenville and won right away. That didn’t happen last year during a 10-21 campaign highlighted by the upset win over Cincinnati. This year, Dooley’s Pirates are off to a 1-3 start after falling to a big,… [ More… ]
Recent News & Features
Insights from Brett
UConn exit opens door for hot new rivalry
On Saturday East Carolina will be making its final football visit to Connecticut before the Huskies leave the American Athletic Conference to make a go of it as an independent. Their impending departure has sparked a vigorous debate over where the league should go from here. Should it rush right out and find a replacement… [ More… ]
Basketball News
Flames heat up, pull away
GREENVILLE — Hot shooting in the second half sent Liberty to a 77-57 nonconference win over East Carolina in Williams Arena of Minges Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. Over the last 20 minutes, the Flames (4-0) made 13 of 21 shots from the field for 61.9 percent. The visitors were even more accurate from beyond the… [ More… ]
Football Recruiting
Tackle took trek from ballboy to superstar
D’Anta Johnson has gone from ballboy to superstar for the Dinwiddie County (VA) High School football team. Next fall, Johnson hopes to make the leap from prep standout to major college contributor at East Carolina. The 6-foot-2, 275-pound defensive tackle made a verbal commitment to the Pirates on Halloween during a ceremony at Dinwiddie’s auditorium.… [ More… ]
VIEW FROM THE EAST
Pirate baseball works on ‘elite mindset’
East Carolina went through fall baseball camp with a focus on building the mental approach that produced a 47-18 record in Cliff Godwin’s fifth season as coach at his alma mater in 2019. “It was critical that we got everybody on the same page of our standards, what our culture is and showing up to… [ More… ]
The Bradsher Beat on ECU Football
Houston’s construction project on schedule
In the good old days of sportswriting, when print was king and everyone knew what a catch was, I used to receive a stack of actual glossy football media guides every summer that, when piled on top of one another, could double as an ottoman. These magazines killed many trees, yes, but they also proved… [ More… ]
Basketball News
Appalachian State deals Pirates a road loss
BOONE — East Carolina was dealt a second straight competitive road loss, 68-62, at Appalachian State on Tuesday night. “We had some spurts and we had some inexperienced mistakes,” said Pirates coach Joe Dooley after ECU dropped to 1-2. The Pirates had won three straight in the series but couldn’t overcome a 22-point effort from… [ More… ]
From the Anchor Desk
Déjà vu all over again
Last week Pirate quarterback Holton Ahlers became the first East Carolina player in history to throw for over 500 yards in a game. This past week at Southern Methodist he came within two yards of duplicating the feat. One of Yogi Berra’s greatest quotes was thinking something was ‘deja vu all over again.’ Ahlers performance… [ More… ]
Inside Game Day Photo Feature
AT&T Stadium Gallery
WNCT-TV sports director and Bonesville columnist Brian Bailey and his wife, Melissa, arrived early and took a side trip to Jerry Jones country during their time in Dallas last weekend to cover the ECU-SMU game. The Baileys toured the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium and The Star, the Cowboys’ World Headquarters in nearby Frisco. Bailey brought… [ More… ]
Insights from Brett
Hope, promise wearing down Pirate Nation
It wasn’t a good weekend to be an East Carolina fan. On Friday, the Pirates’ basketball team, filled with promise thanks to an almost complete overhaul of its roster, saw a strong effort turn into a 62-57 loss at Navy thanks to one ill-timed second half scoring drought. It was a hauntingly similar scenario to… [ More… ]
Inside Game Day
Frustration mounts with narrow loss to Mustangs
DALLAS — Close doesn’t count for East Carolina coach Mike Houston and his first-year Pirates football team. For the second straight week, ECU had a chance to beat a nationally-ranked team and for the second straight week, the opportunity went unfulfilled as No. 25 Southern Methodist used an unlikely sequence in the fourth quarter to… [ More… ]