BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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By Brian Bailey |
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Pirates suffering from deep
freeze
By Brian Bailey
©2007 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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It was a lovely weekend
outside, with temperatures in the 70’s.
Unfortunately, it was arctic
cold inside for East Carolina’s hoopsters, with the Pirates falling to Rice
on Saturday night 64-47.
I haven’t found the words to
describe East Carolina’s shooting in the first half of the loss to the Owls.
Courtney Captain saved the
cause with a 4-7 performance from the field in the first half. Captain
scored ECU's first ten points, but just couldn’t keep up the pace to keep
the Pirates close.
While Captain was 4-7, the
rest of the squad was an abysmal 1-24 from the outside. That’s an
unbelievable four percent for Captain's teammates. To the team's credit,
several of the shots seemed to go half way through the hoop before rattling
out.
It was enough to make any
Captain abandon his ship. Courtney was obviously frustrated when he talked
to the media afterwards.
“When you shoot the ball and
it goes in and out, that hurts you,” said Captain. “Personally, I’d rather
shoot an air ball than for it (the ball) to go down like that. The rim, it
was like there was a hand in it, just throwing it back out.”
On the positive side, most of
the Pirates' misses were open looks. The team had plenty of good looks
against the Rice zone. The shots, though, didn’t fall at all.
This is a young team and there
will be more frustrations before things get turned around. I don’t think
this is a poor shooting team. Rather, it’s a team that certainly lacks
confidence in shooting the basketball.
For anybody that has played
the game, you know that some days you can hit from virtually anywhere on the
floor. Other days, it seems like you can’t throw it into the ocean. The
Pirates certainly missed the Atlantic on Saturday night.
Pirate baseball on deck
East Carolina’s baseball team
opened practice this past week. One of the jokes around town is that the
weather really doesn’t get cold in Greenville in the winter — until the
Pirate baseball team opens play.
The squad had great weather
for its first week of practice.
The team held intra-squad
scrimmages this past weekend. I had a chance to see some of Friday’s play
and was really impressed with Coach Billy Godwin and his staff.
The coaches used the
scrimmages to get a “live-game” feel to work on every aspect of the game.
It was the little things that
I was most impressed with.
After the defensive team threw
a runner out at second for the second out of the frame, Godwin told his
pitchers how important it was to go after that third out, to be aggressive
and go at the hitter to finish the inning, especially after a great
defensive play.
He applauded Ryan Tousley for
fouling off a tough, two-strike curve ball. Later in the count, Tousley hit
a towering home run to right center field. He praised the hitter for
battling tough and staying in the count, before hitting the home run.
Godwin also worked with his
base runners. With a runner at first, Godwin told his runners to be
aggressive, to get off as far as possible and still be able to get back
safely after the catch. If the catch isn’t made, Godwin wants his runner to
get to third base, not just to second.
Pirate assistant Link Jarrett
spent his time in the middle of the infield, working with the infielders on
defense. Jarrett also shared his thoughts on several of the players'
at-bats.
Newcomer Bill Jarman, who’s
anything but a rookie, spent his time in the first base dugout calling the
pitches. Jarman looks to be an excellent addition to the ECU staff, having
served as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Coastal Carolina for
ten seasons. Under his direction, the Chanticleer pitching staff was among
the best in the nation, finishing near the top in earned run average,
including seventh in 1999 and eighth in 2002.
I always feel like we get a
chance to cheat winter by playing baseball in early February. The Pirates
open the season with a three-game series against Liberty on February 9th.
BB
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04/21/2008 07:05:17 PM |