East Carolina opens play in the American Athletic Conference Tournament at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth against Tulsa today at 12:30 p.m. (ESPNU).
“It’s an exciting time of the year with conference tournaments,” said Pirates coach Mike Schwartz on Tuesday.
ECU (14-17, 7-11 AAC) has a 5-game losing streak. The Pirates closed the regular season with an 82-72 loss to Charlotte on Senior Day on Saturday. Prior to that, ECU was on the short end of an 80-77 overtime score at Southern Methodist.
“It’s been a difficult two weeks. Schwartz said. “Some disappointing games, in terms of results. It’s been a challenge for us the last couple of weeks, particularly the last two games, and it’s going to be a great test for us to go play a very good Tulsa team that I think is playing very good basketball right now.”
The Golden Hurricane (16-14, 7-11) is coming off a 75-70 win over No. 24 South Florida, the AAC regular season champion and the top seed for the league tournament.
‘Refresh mindset’
The Pirates can’t dwell on recent misfortunes as they meet Tulsa for the second time this season.
“You have to have that refresh mindset,” Schwartz said. ” … We’ve played solid basketball over the last two games, and at times some of the best basketball we’ve played late in the season. It’s just about a reset mindset, and sometimes that’s easier said than done.
“Our guys have been great in practice the last two days coming off of obviously a really frustrating loss versus Charlotte on Saturday. We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to get back to doing what we were doing well when we were playing good basketball.”
Tulsa tandem
Freshman guard P.J. Haggerty is averaging 20.9 points for the Golden Hurricane and Cobe William, a senior guard is scoring at a 13.2 clip.
“They are as talented a backcourt as you’ll find in this conference in terms of just everything,” Schwartz said. “The way they play, they get to the free throw line, shoot the basketball, score the basketball. So yeah, it’s a huge concern, particularly because you look at the Charlotte game and their backcourt really hurt us.
“They had 47 points between their starting backcourt (Lu’Cye Patterson, 27; Nik Graves, 20) in the game on Saturday. So yeah, it’s a great challenge for us against what is one of the best backcourts, if not the best backcourt in the conference.”
Haggerty shot 14 free throws at home against the Pirates on Jan. 7.
“He’s number two in the country getting to the free throw line,” Schwartz said, noting that post player Zach Edey of Purdue is No. 1. ” … This is an elite guard. … That’s a huge piece of how he scores and how Tulsa does what they do on offense.”
Playing every day
The Pirates could potentially play four straight days in the league tournament.
ECU had games on three consecutive days in the TowneBank Holiday Classic, Nov. 19-21.
“Tournament basketball is always exciting,” Schwartz said. “If you probably ask the guys, they probably would love to play games every day as opposed to being in practice every day and then more. … That all being said, I think you’ve got to approach it one game at a time.”
Malonga progressing
Freshman post player Cyr Malonga had 10 points and nine rebounds in 33 minutes in the recent overtime loss to SMU.
“It’s a progressed thing,” Schwartz said. “We’ve seen it in Cyr all year. … He made the moment happen and I think we all know it was the SMU game. He made that happen. We’ve all been pushing him towards that and more importantly he’s been working towards that.
“It just doesn’t happen as quick as I know everybody wants things to happen. He’s a freshman and P.J. Haggerty is a dynamic freshman. He’s someone that was at TCU last year. He sat out, so he’s a freshman playing eligibility wise, but he had a year in college.
“It’s very rare for true freshman — where a year ago today — they were in high school games to just step right in and in November and December hit the ground running and have that kind of impact. I think he’s made a lot of real impactful moments every day in practice, in games. But I think in the SMU game, I think it finally clicked in his own head what potentially he’s capable of doing when he’s consistent. And it’ll still be a struggle. He’s still young, obviously. The Charlotte game wasn’t as good as the SMU game for him, obviously, but I think he has really earned this opportunity with the way he’s worked.”
Looking to reserves
The ECU bench could become increasingly important during a run in Fort Worth.
“It’s always important,” Schwartz said. “We’ve not been a team that has had incredible production and depth all year in terms of the stat sheet. So, I think it’s even tenfold now when you go into a tournament if you’re fortunate enough to play beyond the first date.
“But it doesn’t matter. On the first date, if we think back to last year, I think Dave Kasanganay, a walk-on, had his career high in the South Florida game when we won that first round game. And I don’t think anybody would’ve walked into that game and predicted that. So, no different than Tulsa, no different than the other teams in this league. You go all hands on deck, a reset mindset, everybody’s got a fresh start. Guys that maybe didn’t play will play. This is tournament basketball. That’s what makes it so fun this time of year.”
Seedings, bracket
ECU is the No. 8 seed in the AAC tournament and Tulsa is No. 9, based on the Pirates’ 62-57 head to head win in Greenville.
The winner meets USF on Friday at noon.
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