CHRONICLING EAST
CAROLINA & CONFERENCE USA
SPORTS
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View from the East
Friday, February 17, 2012
By Al Myatt |
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Challenges outnumber bodies for ECU
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Jeff Lebo |
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(File photo by Al Myatt) |
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By
Al Myatt
©2012 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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If East Carolina
basketball coach Jeff Lebo didn't shave his head, there might be a few
more gray hairs detectable during this 2011-12 season. The Conference
USA schedule is demanding enough but the Pirates have had to negotiate
league warfare at less than full strength. Much less.
Last Saturday
in a 78-68 loss at Marshall, ECU
was without two VIPs (very important players) — small forward Erin
Straughn, who was absent due to a death in his family, and frontcourt
performer Maurice Kemp, who sustained a toe injury on the eve of the
trip.
That's a combined 16.6
points, 46.8 minutes and 11.0 rebounds that wasn't even in uniform.
At 6-foot-8 and 180
pounds, Kemp, who averages 10.4 points and a team-high 6.4 boards, is
sort of an oxymoron of a power forward. Still, there's no means to
measure desire, and his mantra is "whatever coach Lebo and the team need
me to do."
Right now, ECU (12-12, 3-8
C-USA) needs him to summon some healing power.
The Pirates had already
lost four man Austin Steed to graduate school academic issues between
semesters. Yasin Kolo, a 6-foot-10 freshman, didn't figure as a major
contributor in the rotation when he went out early in the season with a
foot condition but he might have been called on to provide some help
under the circumstances that have emerged.
Straughn is back but Kemp
has not practiced this week as ECU has been preparing to play at Central
Florida (18-7, 7-4) on Saturday night. Earlier in the week Kemp was
projected as a game time decision. His conditioning and timing would be
factors even if it is determined that he is physically capable of facing
the Knights.
"He's just started walking
on it some today," Lebo said Thursday. "Right now, I would say it's
doubtful."
The Pirates coach has been
trying to put together the personnel puzzle despite missing a number of
pieces, the most significant at the moment being the slender transfer
from Miami Dade.
"It really hurts us," Lebo
said of the attrition up front. "We lost Steed at that position. Now
we've lost Kemp at the position so you're two men down at the same
spot."
Sophomore Robert Sampson
is the starter by default.
"What it does is it forces
you to have some emergency situations there in case you have fouls,"
Lebo said.
Senior center Darrius
Morrow is one potential solution in ECU's contingency plans.
"Morrow can go there
(power forward) but that means (Darius) Morales is in the game," said
the Pirates coach.
Morales, a sophomore who
will be making something of a homecoming to Orlando where he played on
the high school level at Timber Creek, has yet to inspire confidence
from his coach.
"Erin could play there in
an emergency situation defensively," Lebo said. "Offensively, he hasn't
learned the package at that spot. He never really plays it."
Another man missing in
action at this time is almost more than ECU can handle.
"It really affects what
you do but we have to work through it," Lebo said with his trademark
stoicism. "It's all part of the game."
Different circumstances
ECU plays the Knights
under different circumstances than those that produced
an 81-63 Knights win in Greenville
on Jan. 7. In that game, the Pirates were coming off
a 78-76 league loss at Southern Miss
three nights earlier. ECU has had more time to prepare this go-round but
so have the Knights, whose last outing last Saturday produced a 78-74
loss at Southern Miss.
"They've had a week to get
ready for us and we've had the same," Lebo said. "They whipped us pretty
good here. (Point guard A.J.) Rompza played terrific. (Isaiah) Sykes
scored the ball. They just whipped us. They whipped us on the glass.
They whipped us one on one. They've got a good team. They're tough to
beat at home. I think the only team to beat them there this year has
been Southern Miss (78-65, Jan. 28). They're 13-1 at home. They've got
some size. They've got some experience.
"They've got a lot of
weapons that they can throw at you so it's hard sometimes to prepare for
who it's going to come from. It can come from (Marcus) Jordan (one of
Michael Jordan's sons). It can come from Sykes this year. He's probably
one of the most improved players in Conference USA. ... He didn't play
or score much for them last year."
Sykes had 20 points and 10
rebounds at ECU earlier this year as the Knights won the rebounding
battle, 46-29. Rompza has 44 assists and 35 steals in 13 games with just
13 turnovers. He missed his team's first nine games due to penalties
arising from NCAA violations. Knights coach Donnie Jones sat out the
first matchup in Greenville in related sanctions and assistant Shawn
Finney guided the club.
Keith Clanton (6-9, 245)
carries All C-USA credentials for UCF. Josh Crittle (6-9, 260), a
transfer from Oregon, is another big body to throw at the size- and
depth-challenged Pirates.
"They've got some nice
pieces there," Lebo said. "They're playing very well. We didn't play
particularly well when we played them the first time and they played
pretty daggone good. They made shots. Hopefully, we can turn it around
this time."
UCF's victory in ECU's
second league start this season stopped a string of four straight wins
for the Pirates in the series. Jordan was not a decisive factor in the
first meeting this year with 12 points on four of 11 field goal
shooting, including a woeful one of seven from behind the arc. But
Jordan has been playing much better at home, where he averages 17.7
points and makes 41.8 percent from the field compared to 12.9 points and
32.8 percent on the road.
"He was solid," Lebo said
of Jordan's game at Greenville. "He didn't really need to be a deciding
factor. In that game, Rompza and Sykes really hurt us. Rompza made some
threes (3-for-4) and Sykes really hurt us in the open court, getting
layups and he hurt us on the glass. He hurt us one on one, driving the
ball to the basket. They were the two guys who really hurt us."
Getting on the boards
Despite the manpower
situation being what it is, Lebo said the Pirates will have to do a
better job in the rebounding department than in the first game with the
Knights in order to compete.
"Our last five games we've
done a much better job of rebounding the ball," said the ECU coach. "
... We've had trouble at the end of shot clocks being able to defend one
on one. We've got to be able to do that this game because they've got
some guys who can play one on one. The other area, which makes them a
little different is that their bigs can shoot the three. Clanton will
shoot threes. ... He's a tough matchup because he can post. He'll shoot
the three. He's got a nice pump fake and a quick first step to drive it.
And he's a pretty good passer. That's why he's a first team all
conference player. ...
"(Tristan) Spurlock comes
off the bench at 6-8 and shoots threes. Typically, you don't see that.
One of those guys will step out and shoot. Sometimes they have two on
the court together. You can get really spaced out trying to get the
shooters, which opens up driving lanes.
"We've got to do a good
job of being able to guard the ball, whether it's on the post or on the
perimeter. We've struggled in that area all year. We've guarded the
action (ball and player movement within an offense). When the action
breaks down and it gets to be man on man, we haven't been able to get
enough stops."
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