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BAILEY'S
TAKE ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the
Anchor Desk
Tuesday,
December 6 2011
By Brian
Bailey |
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Pirates look for more Morrow
By
Brian Bailey
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East Carolina hopes to
snap a two-game losing streak tonight when Atlantic 10 member UMass
visits Williams Arena for the first-ever matchup between the two teams.
In order to win, this East
Carolina team will need much more from Morrow — as in senior forward
Darrius Morrow.
Morrow was held scoreless
on Saturday in the Pirates'
loss to Charlotte. It was the
first time in Morrow’s 99-game career that he failed to score a single
point.
“If you thought you were
surprised, how do you think I felt,” said ECU coach Jeff Lebo after the
team practiced on Monday. “He was surprised. He wants to play well. He
just never got into the flow. When he didn’t score early he was trying
to make his moves too fast.
"He wasn’t aggressive in
his post-ups, which he usually is. He was posting up six feet from the
paint which is unlike him.”
Morrow knows he’ll be
counted on to score, especially with this Pirate team struggling to find
the basket.
“That was new to me,” said
Morrow when asked about being shut out against the 49ers. “I usually
don’t struggle like that. I just have to have a short memory of it all
and just get ready to play tomorrow night.”
Morrow was 0-8 from the
field in the Charlotte game.
“I was off my game,”
Morrow explained. “I give credit to Charlotte. They had a good defensive
game plan. It was mostly me, 80 percent mental and 20 percent what they
did.
"I’m just going to come
out tomorrow with a whole different focus and try to get back on track.”
The Pirates have been ice
cold of late. East Carolina shot just 33 percent from the field in the
loss to Old Dominion last week.
The Pirates followed that up with a 32 percent effort against the 49ers.
Coming up tonight, the
Pirates look to snap their mini-skid with a talented Massachusetts team
coming to town.
“They are extremely
athletic,” said Lebo. “They are extremely fast. They averaged (shooting)
28 threes a game. The average 17 offensive rebounds per game. They have
a terrific point guard who has great speed.”
That speed is a huge
concern. Lebo says his team hasn’t seen speed like this so far this
season.
“They are the fastest team
that we will have seen to date,” said Lebo. “They press every possession
full court so we’ll have our work cut out for us.”
On offense, Lebo knows his
team has to find a way to put the ball into the basket. It sounds so
basic, but it’s extremely frustrating when the shots aren’t falling.
“We have to make them
defend,” Lebo continued. “If we get into a running game with them, then
that falls right into their style of play. When they make double-figure
threes, then they usually win.”
East Carolina is just 1-7
against A-10 members since the 2006-07 season.
The Pirates host the
Minutemen tonight, and then take the next ten days off for exams before
visiting UNC-Greensboro on December 16th.
BB
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Brian Bailey Archives
01/03/2012 02:39 AM |
East
Carolina head basketball coach JEFF LEBO
and senior forward DARRIUS
MORROW
discuss the Pirates' home matchup tonight
against UMass (recorded by Brian Bailey).
Replay
Monday night's BRIAN BAILEY SHOW,
featuring guest East Carolina assistant
basketball
coach KEN POTOSNAK. Eastern North Carolina's longest running
sports radio call-in show airs each Monday
night at 7 p.m. on Pirate Radio 1250 and
930.