The 30th anniversary of East Carolina’s last trip to the NCAA basketball tournament was last year, which was also Mike Shwartz’s first season as coach of the Pirates.
Given the parity in the American Athletic Conference this season and ECU’s current trend of defying the program’s tradition of hoops struggles, the Pirates would appear to have a chance to end their string of absences in March Madness.
It would be as simple as making a run through the AAC Tournament for the league’s automatic berth.
It’s all right for Pirate Nation to dream, but Shwartz must remain immersed in reality and that includes preparing for a matchup at Rice on Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPNU).
ECU (14-12) has won three straight and is 7-6 in the AAC, a program record for wins in the American.
The Owls (10-16, 4-9 AAC) have been gathering momentum as well with a 94-71 triumph at Alabama-Birmingham on Wednesday night.
“Getting ready to play a team that quite honestly, I think is playing as good as anybody in the conference right now in Rice,” Schwartz said Thursday. “I look at them over the last six games, and they could very easily be 5-1 in the last six games. Two losses. One in overtime. One one possession game. Then they won two games, and then last night, obviously, they had a very, very impressive win (at UAB). So, I think this team’s play is as good as any team in the league right now.”
The Pirates can’t dwell on the win streak if they are going to extend it. Rice represents the business at hand.
“I have so much respect for Rice and Coach Scott (Pera) there,” Schwartz said. “I’ve known him for a long time. … I just think they’re really hitting their stride in terms of how well they’re playing. Last night, they scored 90-plus points. I think last night’s win at UAB is as good of a win as anyone has in this conference to go on the road. And a team that’s basically top four in this conference, and to win handily the way they did.
“So, the preparations are over. You need to play good defense to give yourself a chance on Saturday. Rice is a really good team.”
The Pirates have done some basic things well on a consistent basis over the last three games, which the Pirates coach addressed after an 81-67 win over Tulane on Sunday.
“It is that third straight win, because we’ve had that opportunity two other times in conference play and we weren’t able to capitalize. So, to be able to do that, and honestly, I think we’ve played three of our best, most complete games of our last three games on both sides of the ball.” Schwartz said, “Defensively today versus a team, again, I’ll say it, I think they’re as good of an offensive team as there is in this league. And then offensively, over the last three games to be at 21 assists, 18 assists, and then 25 assists. I think that is showing that the team really being connected on offense.
“The assist numbers show me and our staff that we feel like we’re playing the right way on offense right now.”
Patience helped the Pirates offensively.
“It goes hand-in-hand with the assist,” Schwartz said. “Because the more you share the ball, the more you’re thinking,’ You can take a lot of quick shots versus a defense like this, versus a zone defense that matches up.’
“I mean, you can go get some early shots, and not that they would not be good necessarily. … We took some. … And they’re not necessarily poor shots, but there’s good shots and there’s great shots. There’s knowing the clock, there’s understanding time and score, and I think over the last three games, our guys are really starting to understand that, and understand, ‘I have a good shot, but a quick swing, moving the basketball, a skip pass, getting the ball out of the paint, cutting without the basketball.’
“We got three times at least (Sunday), cutting without the basketball. We scored late in the shot clock, which was something we had worked on. So, I just think it’s an understanding, but yes, 50 percent (11 for 11 on 3-pointers vs. Tulane), we’ll take that. I hope we can bottle that up.”
The crowd got excited about ECU’s defense against the Green Wave.
“I felt that, and I don’t always feel what’s going on,” Shwartz said. “I felt it on a couple of possessions, particularly in that first half where we forced a 30-second clock violation, and we forced a couple plays like that where we were scrambling and rotating and getting there, and yeah, I did feel that. And we work on that every day.
“I give our staff so much credit in terms of what all the coaches do to get the guys ready in a short time, but just that next play mentality, getting to the next guy, particularly versus a team like this that has five guys out on the court that really can go get it any way they want. So that was great to feel in the building.”
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