East Carolina basketball coach Mike Schwartz doesn’t see a team that is 10-14 overall and 2-9 in the American Athletic Conference when he looks at Wichita State.
He doesn’t see a team that the Pirates were able to defeat on the road, 54-52, on Jan. 24.
He doesn’t see a team that is 2-9 in its own road endeavors.
Schwartz sees a team that took No. 24 Florida Atlantic to overtime on Sunday. He is cautious about complacency where the Shockers are concerned.
ECU (12-12, 5-6 AAC) hosts Wichita State on Thursday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).
“We’re going to face a Wichita State team that is playing their best basketball this season,” Schwartz said Wednesday. “They’ve been playing good basketball all year. We know that they just came off of a tough overtime loss, but a really good team and we know what kind of challenge it’s going to be for us.”
Sustaining success
The Pirates are coming off an 84-73 win at Texas-San Antonio on Saturday in which Brandon Johnson scored 30 points and Jaden Walker had 13 assists.
“I want him to keep shooting, yes,” Schwartz said of Johnson, who was seven of 11 from beyond the arc. “Yeah, it was good. It was good for us as a team to shoot the ball around and obviously Brandon sparked that, and those four or five days that we had leading up to that game, they were beneficial. We worked really hard, the whole team because of those prep days”.
Changes in style
ECU and its upcoming foe have evolved since their initial meeting this season.
“Both teams are playing a little bit differently on offense.” Schwartz said. “Hopefully playing a little bit better and we just know what kind of test it’s going to be. A challenge for us.”
ECU won with 54 points in the first game with the Shockers and scored 84 in a win the last time out.
“I don’t think we’ve had enough games where we have scored in the 70s or 80s to say, ‘Hey, we feel comfortable playing in that area,” Schwartz said “If somehow we shoot the ball better like we did the other day as the season goes down or our offense clicks, and we’re working on that every day, believe me, we spent a lot of time working on our offense and we did a lot of things that week leading into the UTSA game that paid off.
“We’ve continued to do those things and continue to add, and all teams are evolving this time of year. So, I can’t say that I know we can play any style. Most of our games have been low-scoring games, but I hope, and we are striving for our offense to be able to score 70 plus points. That gives us a better opportunity if our defense is strong.”
AAC road wins
Three of ECU’s five AAC wins have been on the road.
“We have to really try and build a strong success rate at home,” Schwartz said. “We haven’t had that this year in conference play to the level we’d like. We have five wins, and we have three of them on the road in conference play, so that’s a positive because winning on the road. which is extremely hard in conference.
“It says something about our ball club. But by the same token it’s frustrating, because we haven’t been able to capitalize on some of our home games. Obviously, we’ve had a couple that have come down to the very last possession, but even with that being said, yeah, you need to take care of home at all times.”
Practice this week
ECU has been actively preparing for Thursday’s matchup.
“We’ve been on the court,” Schwartz said. “We try and manage what we do on a day-to-day basis, but by no means was it just rest, and we didn’t approach it like, ‘Hey, we got to play a game on Wednesday because we didn’t have it, or Tuesday because we have an extra day.’
“We have a game plan. This plan is put in months back, looking at sports performance, looking at their bodies, looking at what we’re doing, time on the court. And then when you have an extra day instead of a Wednesday game, you play Thursday, you plan accordingly knowing that we play again on Sunday (at home vs. Tulane).”
Parity in AAC
Schwartz isn’t misled by Wichita State’s record. It is a function of the balance in the AAC.
“Their record has zero indication of how good of a ball club they are,” he said. “I know that for a fact. I know that from their talent, their coaching staff and the program that they have, this is a team that can beat anybody in the league, could go win the conference tournament and I would not be surprised at something like that.
“That’s how good of a team and coaching staff that they are. From that being said, I saw a statistic the other night watching a game in our league that 50 percent of the games in this conference have been decided by six points or less. Two possessions have decided over 50 percent of the games. All that tells you is there’s great parity in this league.”
Diboundje’s status
Quintin Diboundje had 13 points at Florida Atlantic on Jan. 2, but has played sparingly since then after injuring an ankle in that matchup.
“He’s not back 100 percent,” Schwartz said. “He played in the Charlotte game (Feb. 3) and it’s not like he’s been 100 percent in all the practices. He’s nursing a serious injury. … There’s days that he feels better and there’s days that it hurts a little bit more. We’ll see where he is at game time tomorrow.”
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