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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, January 15, 2002
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By Brian Bailey
Sports Anchor of WNCT-TV 9
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Cards Live by the Three; Tennessee WR Commits
©2001 Bonesville.net
Pitino Set For Minges
Debut
It may not mean a lot
to Rick Pitino, but it is another watershed night for East Carolina’s
basketball program. Another 'big-time' program will play on the Williams
Arena floor, and a near- sellout crowd is expected.
The Cardinals are set
to work out at home before flying out to Greenville. The team isn’t expected
in town until late Tuesday night, and Coach Pitino is not expected to do any
game-day interviews.
Pitino will meet with
his local media, though, just before leaving town on Tuesday evening.
Louisville will limp
to town, having lost freshman Carlos Hurt. Hurt is just that, suffering with
a bulging disc in his back. The freshman was coming on strong at the point
for Coach Pitino.
Both Louisville and
East Carolina look to fire up the threes on Wednesday night.
Louisville broke its own league
mark with 40 three-point attempts against Texas Christian on Saturday. The
Cards first set the mark last week with 37 attempts against Marquette.
For the Cards,
tomorrow night’s game is the start of a stretch that will include four road
games in five contests.
If the Pirates are to
win, they need to hold Louisville under 80 points. The Cards have won 32
straight games when they have scored 80 points or more.
Emotions Run High in Hoops
Emotion is a key
element in any sport. Over the last four days, I’ve had the chance to see
three area games from press row. It was a great tripleheader, and emotion
was at the center of each game.
Thursday night I was
at Duke, watching a very emotional Blue Devils team playing with a purpose.
Duke Coach Mike
Krzyzewski was as emotional as I have ever seen him. He picked up a
technical foul early in the game that really got Cameron Indoor Stadium
rocking.
Coach “K” had told his
players that others were calling them soft, that this team wasn’t as good as
other Duke squads.
The team bought it,
and dominated Georgia Tech in a physical battle.
Bill Herrion is always
emotional. His sweat and blood will someday turn this East Carolina program
around. Herrion had his team battling Charlotte early Saturday afternoon.
Granted, the Pirates
didn’t rebound well enough to win. Emotionally, though, Bill Herrion has
this team believing that they can play in this league.
Herrion has only an
0-3 Conference USA record to show for a whole lot of work. Nobody's team
plays harder. Louisville will find that out first hand tomorrow night.
On Sunday, I had a
chance to go to Raleigh. North Carolina State rode an emotional wave to the
halfway mark of the first half against Duke.
OK, so emotion can
only go so far. Mike Dunleavy took the fire out of the Pack with a sizzling
first half of his own.
Still, the emotional
crowd for State was the loudest crowd that I have ever been around when
their team trailed by more than 25 points. They were vocal to the very end.
It was interesting to
see the various degrees of emotion in the three games. As Bill Herrion has
said, in order to be competitive in C-USA, his team has to have the same
type of effort for every game that it put forth in a respectable loss to
Cincinnati game on January 5.
It will be difficult,
but the fans need to keep coming out. Williams Arena can be a tough place to
play — WITH an emotional crowd on hand.
Football Team Picks Up Recruit from
Spurrier’s Old School
East Carolina has
picked up another commitment for football. Bryson Bowling, a wide
receiver-defensive back from Science Hill High School in Johnson City, TN,
has verbally cast his lot with the Pirates.
New Washington Redskins'
Coach Steve Spurrier is a graduate of Science Hill High School. Bowling
picked ECU over Clemson, Georgia Southern, East Tennessee State and Western
Carolina.
Click here for more details on Bowling.
Send an e-mail message to
Brian Bailey.
Click here to dig into Brian Bailey's Bonesville
archives.
02/23/2007 01:22:22 AM
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