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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, March 10, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Pirates playing well
despite five-game skid
By
Brian Bailey
©2009 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
For teams like East
Carolina, “March
Madness” starts this
week. Win and advance.
Lose and all thoughts
turn to next year.
Odds are certainly
against the Pirates
pulling off four wins in
a row to extend their
season. East Carolina
opens with Tulane, and
then would take on
home-standing Memphis in
game two.
The Pirates come into
the tournament play
riding a five-game
losing streak. That’s
the bad news. The good
news is that this team
played its best game in
some time in Saturday
night’s 74-71
loss at Central
Florida.
“We played really,
really hard,” said ECU
coach McCarthy on the
loss. “We hadn’t played
well in a long time. We
didn’t get the win but
we put ourselves in a
position to win. We came
back after a week off
and played like we can
play.
"It came down to making
a play down the stretch.
They made one and we
didn’t.”
The Pirates take on the
Green Wave in the final
game of the day on
Wednesday in Memphis.
East Carolina
beat Tulane in
Greenville
69-66, but lost
to the Wave 73-64 down
in New Orleans.
“I think it’s a tough
match up,” explained
McCarthy. “Their wing
players are 6-6 and 6-7.
Those guys are guarding
(Sam) Hinnant and
(James) Legan. They
don’t let you score a
lot of points. We like
to score a lot of
points. We got them in
foul trouble here and
they got us in foul
trouble down there. It
may come down to
something as simple as
that.”
The Pirates certainly
don’t have history on
their side.
“We talk about the
'firsts' that we’ve done
this year,” continued
McCarthy. “The first win
over UCF, the first time
we did this or that. We
do want to break these
kinds of streaks.
Obviously we’ve never
won a tournament game in
Conference USA. I don’t
feel any pressure, but I
think our kids will put
some on themselves.
"I think this team
played well enough in
our last two games to
have more confidence
then a team on a
five-game losing streak
should have.”
Prep regionals delivered
Everyone at East
Carolina should be
congratulated after
another successful run
for the Eastern Regional
basketball tournament.
The North Carolina High
School Athletic
Association should
certainly take notice.
Greenville has hosted
the regionals now for 19
years.
Dr. Jimmie Grimsley and
his army of workers had
the event running
smoothly from the first
tip on Tuesday night to
Saturday night’s finale.
The girls' event at Rose
was just as successful.
The boys' semifinals
featured Bertie, coached
by former ECU star
Lester Lyons. Lyons
looks like he could
still average 15 points
a game.
It was great to see
Lester, and relive the
memories of that 1993
ECU team that beat the
odds and won the
Colonial Athletic
Association title. The
Pirates went on to lose
to eventual national
champion North Carolina
in the first round of
the NCAA Tournament in
Winston-Salem.
Bertie lost in the
semifinals to eventual
Eastern Regional
champion Northern
Guilford. Lester had
tears in his eyes as he
faced the media after
the loss. You could tell
by his eyes and with his
words that he is an
outstanding leader of
men!
Busy time for ECU
baseball
It’s another big week
for the Pirates in
baseball. East Carolina
welcomes UNC-Asheville
for a pair of games
before hosting UCLA in a
cross-country series.
Some of the luster of
the three-game set with
the Bruins has been lost
with UCLA’s 2-10 record.
The Bruins opened their
year with two wins over
Cal Davis. UCLA dropped
the third game of that
series, then lost to Cal
Santa Barbara, Cal
Riverside, Rice in 10
innings, Baylor, Cal
Irvine, and Pepperdine
before dropping three
close games to Oklahoma.
That’s 10 straight
losses for a team that
was ranked as high as
9th in the nation.
UCLA is still a very
talented team. The
Bruins have a played an
extremely difficult
schedule and come to
Greenville thinking
sweep.
The Pirates
stumbled against a
very good Georgia
Southern team
on Sunday for the
squad’s second loss of
the year. While the
Pirates take on UNC-Asheville,
UCLA has a couple of
midweek games against
Cal Santa Barbara and
San Diego State.
The best case scenario
for ECU is for the
Pirates to take the
series from UCLA, and
then see the Bruins
bounce back, win a bunch
of games, and get back
into the national
rankings.
Despite the record, the
series with UCLA will
feature some outstanding
baseball talent.
BB
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03/10/2009 01:34:19 AM |
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