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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, January 20, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Shakeup preceding
road trip
By
Brian Bailey
©2008 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
On normal days, the East
Carolina basketball team
is divided into two
colors, a purple squad
and a black squad. It’s
for scrimmaging
purposes, to pit the
first team opposite the
second squad.
Everyone dressed in
purple on Monday.
The Pirates
were beaten 88-67
by Texas-El Paso in a
game that ECU coach Mack
McCarthy said his team
played well in spurts.
On Monday, McCarthy said
that’s how the team
practiced last week,
well in spurts, and that
wasn’t good enough.
Starting slots would be
earned this week,
starting on Monday.
Two of the last three
teams to visit Williams
Arena were tall and
talented. Both of those
games had similar plots
and endings.
Wake Forest came to town
in December. Yesterday
the Demon Deacons took
over as the nation’s top
ranked college
basketball team, and the
lone unbeaten on the
season.
You’ll recall that East
Carolina battled the
Deacs in the first half
and trailed by only
41-37 at intermission.
Wake then outscored the
Pirates 54-17 in the
second half to put an
exclamation mark on
a 95-54 win.
Wake Forest has since
beaten North Carolina on
their rise to the top of
the college basketball
world. Wake is playing
like a Final Four team
for sure.
Wake’s closest call to
date came against UTEP,
the Conference USA team
that put on Saturday's
show at Williams Arena.
The Deacons beat the
Miners 82-79 in the
semifinals of the 76
Classic in Anaheim, CA.
Wake guard Jeff Teague
hit two free throws with
:14 left to win it. UTEP
missed a three pointer
to tie it in the final
seconds.
Teague had 29 points for
Wake Forest, while
Stefon Jackson had 31
for the Miners.
Wake Forest coach Dino
Gaudio called his team’s
win over UTEP a
“character win.”
Fast forward to this
past Saturday. Jackson
had 19 points in the
Miners' win over East
Carolina.
McCarthy told me last
week that he thought
UTEP could battle
Memphis for the
Conference USA title. I
think many at Williams
Arena would agree after
watching the Miners on
Saturday night.
The Pirates once again
battled hard against a
much bigger and more
talented opponent. ECU
trailed by as many as 17
early in the game, but
rallied to cut the lead
to three just before the
half. The Pirates
trimmed that lead to two
at one point, but then
the Miners put the game
away with a 16-0 run.
I came away really
impressed by UTEP’s
Randy Culpepper.
Culpepper is listed at 6
foot even, but he can’t
be 5-10. One thing is
certain: He can
absolutely jump out of
the gym.
I have never seen an
opposing player put on a
show like Culpepper did
during warm-ups before
the ECU game. He was a
one man, slam dunk
competition. It was like
watching Babe Ruth take
batting practice.
Several of us, fortunate
enough to be in the
coliseum that early,
were thoroughly
entertained!
Culpepper doesn’t even
start for UTEP, but he
is an outstanding
player. I found this
link on YouTube of
another impressive dunk
for the talented
sophomore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGq442uRH0Y&NR=1
Coach Mac said some
things went the way he
had hoped they would.
Turnovers turned out to
be the difference.
"If you told me we were
going to out-rebound
them and shoot more free
throws than them, I
would have thought we
had a really good chance
to win the basketball
game," said McCarthy.
"But I had no idea we
would turn it over 19
times. They`re pretty
good defensively;
they're long and they've
got some size which
bothers you, but they're
not really even a
pressing team.
"They smelled some blood
tonight and we didn't
handle that well.”
One thing particularly
stuck with the Pirate
coach.
"Once they made their
little run, I thought we
hung our heads a little
bit, which bothers me,"
he said. "We played an
awful lot like we
practiced this week,
just OK. That's not good
enough against a good
basketball team, which
they are."
After a brief break last
week, the schedule
really gets tough now.
The Pirates will spend
most of this week in
Texas, visiting Houston
on Wednesday and then
taking on Southern
Methodist in Dallas on
Saturday.
The Pirates fly back
home just in time to
welcome Memphis to town,
and then head back to
Houston to take on Rice
to wrap up the month.
As Coach Mac has said,
there isn’t really a
team that his Pirates
can’t beat; nor is there
a team that can’t do the
same to ECU.
That’s the beauty of
playing the game.
BB
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01/20/2009 02:50:14 AM |
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