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East
Carolina Basketball
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Pirate Notebook
Special
By Denny O'Brien |
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Editor's Note: When Bill Herrion took
over East Carolina's basketball reigns, he left a solidly successful Drexel
program for one which had languished in mediocrity. Denny O'Brien recently
interviewed Herrion about the state of Pirate hoops three seasons later.
Here is the transcript of the interview:
Q & A with Bill Herrion
©2001 Bonesville.net
 Q:
What are your thoughts about the jump to Conference USA?
A: Obviously, it's a great challenge. You're talking about going
into a basketball conference that, arguably, is probably one of the top
three, four, five, six basketball conferences in the country. I think it's a
league that's going to get tougher, and tougher, and tougher. When you add a
Rick Pitino at Louisville and a John Calipari at Memphis -- guys that have
proven with other programs where they have coached national championship
caliber teams -- it's a great challenge for our basketball program.
Q: What do you have to do to become competitive?
A: We have to recruit to that level. You're only going to be as
good as your players in your program. What Conference USA has done for us
is, when we go out and recruit, it has opened so many doors for us. Now,
that doesn't necessarily mean that you are automatically going to get the
top 25-50 kid in the country. But what I think what happenes now with East
Carolina basketball, which hasn't happened in the past, especially locally
here in North Carolina, I think now we become a viable option for a kid.
We're in ACC country. So many of these kids grow up with ACC basketball,
and that's all they know. This is no disrespect to the conference that we
came from, but the kids just weren't dying to play in the CAA.
I think we have to be realistic with this whole thing. I don't think
we're ready right now to go head to head with a Duke or a North Carolina on
a kid. But to be honest with you, we've got to get the kids that N.C State
is getting, that Wake Forest is getting, that Clemson is getting. That's the
kid that we've got to get.
Q: With five returning starters, it looks like you couldn't have
picked a better year for the jump.
A: Yeah, we're starting to piece the program together. We've got a
young nucleus of players coming back from last year's team -- our top three
or four leading scorers are back. (Gabriel) Mikulas was the rookie of the
year in the CAA. Erroyl Bing was on the All-Rookie team. We've got a good
corps of young players at least to build on.
Q: What does Mikulas need to do to be successful in C-USA?
A: You're talking about a young man that has only completed his
freshman year, and we have him for three more seasons. I think what he has
to do is, number one, he has to get stronger physically. The conference that
we are going into, you're going to be playing against a pretty physical guy
on a nightly basis. We've got to move him away from the basket more. Last
year, he was strictly a back to the basket, five man for us. I think we've
got to get him a little more versatile, playing inside and out. I think he's
a kid that's got a great, great future in our basketball program.
Q: What do the newcomers bring to the program"
A: We've got four new faces in the program. Jonathon Moore is a
local product from Raleigh Milbrook High School. He was a highly rated kid
when he came out of high school. He was a non-qualifier academically, so he
sat out last year. He did a great job in the classroom and took care of
business. He's a Conference USA-caliber athlete. As we build this program,
and put the pieces together, we think he's a 6'7", 6'8" kind of perimeter
player that is very athletic, that is long, that can score. He is going to
be a good player in our program.
Devin Boddie is a 6'1" point guard out of Jordan High School, was first
team all-state last year in North Carolina. He's just a solid program-type
player. Great kid. Great family. Great attitude. I think he is going to be a
quality player.
Moussa Badianne is a 6'10" kid out of Paris, France. He's a big man that
is very athletic, very long. He gives us something that we haven't had here
in my last two years at East Carolina with his ability to block shots and be
an athlete around the basket.
Then, we took another kid, right before school started, a kid by the name
of Brahin Howard. He's about a 6'10" freshman out of Philadelphia.
We're happy with those four guys.
Q: What are the characteristics you like to see in your teams?
A: Every good program has to have a trademark, and you have to
have something that you stand for. What we haven't stood for so far at East
Carolina in basketball is a winning tradition. We just haven't won
consistently enough. I think where it has to start with our basketball team
is we have to play hard.
I don't think anybody knows quite yet just how we'll do in this league.
Everybody always asks me "how do you think you'll do in C-USA?" I just don't
have an answer yet. We don't sit down and try to look at how many games are
we going to win, and how many games are we going to lose. I think we've got
to play hard, we've got to compete hard, we've got to continue to make the
players that we have in our program better. Then, I think the wins and
losses will take care of themselves.
I don't know exactly where we are right now. Are we here? Are we there? I
don't know what that gap is quite yet until we go through it.
Q: How, if at all, have your goals changed now that you're in
C-USA?
A: My first two years over here, we were in the CAA. We were in a
conference where it was a one-bid league. The winner of the conference
tournament in March was going to the NCAA. Our goals were always to win our
league championship and win our conference tournament.
Now, we're in a national conference where four or five teams are going to
go to the NCAA tournament, and three, four, or five teams are going to go to
the NIT. I think our goal right now realistically is that we want to be in
the post-season. Whether it is the NCAA or the NIT, our goal is still to
make it to the post-season. Another goal, that you always have to have, is
we want to get better as the season goes on.
Q: What are the challenges of trying to build a basketball program
in the shadows of the football program?
A: When I took this job two years ago, I said to myself, "If they
can win in football, they can win in basketball." Everybody has always told
me that North Carolina is a great state for basketball, so why can't we win
in basketball. I think there are enough good players to go around in this
state.
I think the effect that a successfull football program has on our
basketball program, is that football gets so much national exposure on
television and going to bowl games -- I think that helps our basketball
program. I'm not ashamed or embarrassed that when I go out on the road
recruiting, and I leave this area to go across the country, when you mention
East Carolina or they see it on your shirt, the first thing people say is
"You guys have great football." So, the better off our football team does,
and the more success it has, it benefits our basketball program. There's no
question about it.
Send an e-mail message to
Denny O'Brien.
02/23/2007 01:41:32 AM
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