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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
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By Brian Bailey
Sports Anchor of WNCT-TV 9 |
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This March Madness is
maddening
©2004 Bonesville.net
Everybody has a bracket in the office pool this time of the
year.
And every office has at least some knucklehead who has
latched onto Nevada in the Sweet 16 but couldn’t name three schools in the
ACC or Conference USA.
That’s why they call it “March Madness.”
I still can’t believe that I lost 75 percent of my Final
Four on the first weekend. I should have known better then to go with
perennial disappointment Stanford. But the SEC certainly flopped with
Mississippi State and Kentucky going by the wayside. My only other Final
Four team is Oklahoma State. Please don’t bet too much on the Cowboys this
weekend.
Just in case you’re wondering which teams will lose next, my
new Final Four is Georgia Tech, Duke and Connecticut, along with Oklahoma
State.
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Pirate Coach John Thompson stayed with his loyalty for his
league when he was a guest on my Monday night show on Cable 7 and Talk 1070
AM (Replay
archive.) and selected UAB to make the Final Four. His picks
are the Blazers, along with Oklahoma State, Texas and Connecticut. Coach
Thompson likes the Cowboys to beat the Longhorns in the national title game
72-61.
Spring football returns
East Carolina’s football team was back on the practice field
on Tuesday afternoon. The Pirates had last week off for Spring Break. The
team will work out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before the spring
football game on Saturday.
According to Coach Thompson, James Pinkney is winning the
quarterback battle to date.
“James has really had a nice spring,” said Thompson. “We
will take a long look at all of our quarterbacks this spring, but so far
James has been the best of the group.”
This Pirate offense is working with its third offensive
coordinator in as many seasons. Patience may indeed be a virtue for this
group this year.
“I really like what Noah Brindise and the other coaches are
doing on offense,” said Thompson. “I think we have so much more diversity
there this season.”
The spring game is just an exhibition, but coming off a 1-11
season you get the feeling that Thompson would really like to put on a great
show on Saturday. However, he certainly doesn’t want to give anything away.
“You never know who’s in the stands,” explained Thompson.
“We’ll show some stuff, but you certainly don’t want to go out and show
everything with the chance that an assistant coach from a team from next
year’s schedule is watching.”
After yesterday’s practice Thompson was pleased with how the
team returned from the week off.
“I can see that the guys worked during the break,” said
Thompson. “It’s been a good day. This is a better football team then when we
started spring football. We just have to keep on improving.”
There is a scrimmage scheduled for this week, and then it’s
on to the “Pig-out” celebration. (View
complete details on ECUPirates.com.)
The Great Pirate Purple Gold Pigskin Pig-out Party is in its
21st year. It is truly a celebration of two of the favorite pastimes at East
Carolina, Pirate football and tailgating.
Here’s hoping for good weather for the pig-out this weekend.
Pirate baseball hits the road
The Pirate baseball team had a disappointing weekend, losing
two out of three in Conference USA play to Tulane.
Now, the Pirates take off on a nine-game road trip that is
full of potholes.
ECU first travels to Campbell for a game tonight, and then
heads to Memphis for a three game series starting Friday.
“We’ll have to play at our best against Memphis,” said Coach
Randy Mazey. “They are a very good team and we’ll have to be at our best to
win there.”
Then, the Pirates head south to UNC Wilmington, before
another key C-USA series at Charlotte. ECU then closes out the trip at Duke
before coming home to take on South Florida in league play.
If the Pirates are going to stay in the national rankings,
they’ll have to find a way to win six or seven of these games on the road.
And there’s nothing wrong with a nine-game winning streak to
move up in the rankings!
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02/23/2007 01:29:07 AM |
