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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Friday, April 4, 2003
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By Brian Bailey
Sports Anchor of WNCT-TV 9 |
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Mazey getting cranky about Pirates' shortcomings
©2003 Bonesville.net
East Carolina needed a Luke Cherry grand slam to get by Duke on Wednesday
night at Harrington Field. For Cherry, it was only his second career home
run. It was a big one, though, and really got the Pirates out of an
offensive jam.
Pirates Coach Randy Mazey was obviously frustrated with his team’s
efforts afterwards — so frustrated, that he took a friendly stab at the
media after the win.
“It was poorly pitched, a poor offensive effort, poorly officiated,”
Mazey said. “I did a bad job of coaching. We made a lot of base running
moves. That was just a bad game all around. Fortunately, we got the win.
I’ll have to go home and watch the highlights. You guys probably did a bad
job of filming for all I know.”
Mazey certainly shoots from the hip and he doesn’t sugar coat things. He
seems to be getting more and more irritated with this team as the offense
sputters.
The Pirates have had nice success in league games to date, playing at a
.666 clip. Thus far, the Pirates have taken two out of three from Houston,
Cincinnati and Charlotte, and stand just a half game behind league leader
Southern Miss.
A Tuesday evening
in Autumn
The Pirates are back on the ESPN midweek schedule this fall, matching up
with Houston on Tuesday night, September 30th at 7:30, in a Conference USA
football game.
ECU will also be on ESPN on Labor Day Monday, visiting Cincinnati.
I like the holiday Monday game, because it doesn’t take away from a home
weekend in Greenville.
On the other hand, I despise the midweek game, because it swipes away one
of those precious fall football Saturdays that many of us treasure.
I understand the argument that East Carolina needs the national exposure.
I also understand that the conference needs ESPN. It’s just that I don’t
think anyone needs college football on a Tuesday night.
If we can’t have a college football playoff because of the time that
students would miss class, then how can we justify midweek games? The ECU
student athletes will miss classes on Monday to travel, and then Tuesday to
play in the game. Wednesday is a question mark at best, depending on how the
travel arrangements play out.
I say keep the games on Saturday!
Blind squirrel theory comes through
A blind squirrel does indeed sometimes find an acorn.
For the first time that I can remember, I’m in first place in the office
pool. I should win, unless something really crazy happens in New Orleans.
Maybe it was the pressure of putting my picks in print. That was a first
for me, and I was very fortunate to get a couple of picks right.
Just in case you missed it, I correctly selected Kansas to win the West
Regional, Syracuse to win in the East, and Texas to take the South.
My only error was in the Midwest, where I chose tournament favorite
Kentucky. I should have stayed with my pick from the heart, but Marquette
really looked like a reach when this tournament started.
The Kansas-Marquette match up is an intriguing one, for sure.
Will Tom Crean and company be satisfied by just getting to the Final
Four? Probably not. Still, the pressure of a Final Four usually works
against a relative newcomer. That’s especially true when you’re going up
against a Kansas team that has Final Four experience.
I’ll take the Jayhawks to meet Texas in the national championship game in
an all Big 12 final. I’ll take the Jayhawks to beat the ‘Horns, and then I
say that Roy Williams will pack his bags and head to Chapel Hill to replace
Matt Doherty.
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02/23/2007 01:25:08 AM
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