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Pirate Notebook No. 45
Wednesday, January 23, 2002

By Denny O'Brien
Staff Writer and Columnist

East Carolina's Conference USA history spans just five games, three of which were played in Greenville. But in that span, the Pirates' home floor � Minges Coliseum � has developed quite a reputation among players and coaches around the league.

Since hosting Cincinnati in the historic C-USA opener on January 5, East Carolina fans have shown increased interest in their basketball program, evidenced by near-capacity crowds for both the Cincinnati and Louisville games.

Student attendance has reached all-time heights, stirring new levels of enthusiasm and rekindling the nickname 'Minges Maniacs' that was intermittently popular during the Eddie Payne and Joe Dooley eras.

This time, the motley collection of exuberant faithful seems bent on making the moniker stick.

ECU students are allocated the entire lower level of 8,000-seat Williams Arena, much like the choice seats enjoyed by the Cameron Crazies at Duke. Though the Maniacs are still behind the Crazies when it comes to basketball-cheer savvy, young fans who learned as freshmen how to boo football officials with the best of them are quickly discovering that heckling a high-profile hoops coach from close range can be an enthralling experience.

"They have a very strong homecourt advantage," Pitino said after his Louisville team fell to the Pirates. "This is a neat place. I remember when I visited here � what was it, 25 years ago? They served 3.2 beer. It wasn't as high in alcohol content. I think they're serving regular beer now."

It isn't alcohol that has ECU fans in a frenzy, rather the higher-proof basketball that is being served in the school gym. Gone are the days when mid-major programs made weekly stops in Greenville. Those have been replaced by regular visits from national powers.

The head-first leap into the big-time is already paying dividends according to head coach Bill Herrion, who dreamed of sell-out crowds when he first arrived on campus.

"Our first home game against Cincinnati, we had four or five recruits in, and obviously it was a great atmosphere," Herrion said. "The kids really enjoyed it.

"This is what I envisioned when I came down here to interview two-and-a-half years ago, and I left a great, great situation up in Philadelphia. When I walked into this arena on my visit, nobody was in the arena � it was empty. I looked around and I said, 'You know what, I can't wait until the day that we get this program to the point where every seat in this building is filled.' "

That day still hasn't come, though the Pirates are getting closer. Cincinnati and Louisville provided near sell-outs, while the Charlotte crowd approached 6,500.

The packed houses and ticket scalpers will come, but ECU's third-year head coach is already convinced the atmosphere during the Pirates' first three conference home games is unrivaled by the league's other home floors. The arena's cozy confines, coupled with the crowd's raucous mentality, has brought the noise to deafening levels, which has energized the scrappy Pirates at crucial times.

"The homecourt atmosphere that we have right now, I don't know if anybody else has it in this league," Herrion said. "Our fans are just doing a tremendous job getting behind this basketball team.

"Our fans helped us win (the Louisville) game... Our fans helped us stay close in the Cincinnati and Charlotte games, and I hope our fans appreciate the effort that these kids are putting out. Now, the challenge is that we need it every night. From here on out, that's how the gym should be."

Pirate fans will get the chance to add to their reputation tonight against DePaul, another program steeped in tradition, coached by former Florida State architect Pat Kennedy.

Kennedy, who will miss tonight's game because of back problems, did some research into ECU's home court advantage, hoping to prepare his team for what lies ahead.

"East Carolina is a very scary team," Kennedy said. "They beat Louisville at home by ten points, and they played Charlotte really tough at home. It looks like they are a really good home team."

Part of that is a credit to the enthusiastic efforts of the Minges Maniacs, who are certain to make their presence known to Blue Demons' assistant coach Tracy Dildy, who will be filling in for his ailing boss tonight.

Few expected DePaul to contend for the C-USA championship this year. Yet, few expected the Blue Demons to finish in the American Division cellar, the spot they currently hold.

When the Blue Demons (7-9, 0-5 C-USA) face East Carolina (7-10, 1-4) tonight in Greenville, they hope to add company to their misery, which a win over the Pirates would accomplish by knotting the teams at at the bottom of the division with 1-5 records. A victory would also go a long way toward alleviating much of the frustration that has set in with the Demons' five-consecutive losses entering tonight's contest.

"To beat Temple on the road and to beat Missouri, and then come back from the new year and not be able to capture a win here at the beginning of Conference USA play has been very difficult for us," Kennedy said. "The kids have been doing a very good job of staying positive and keeping their heads up.

"We've just got to continue to work through practice, through tape sessions, and really breaking down the games through tape sessions."

Those lengthy film sessions have served a constant reminder of the Blue Demons' many flaws, one of which is the inability to play solid defense.

"Problem number one is we can't stop anybody," Kennedy said. " We stopped Temple, we stopped Missouri at 60 (points) or under, and now in conference play, we're giving up 80-plus points to people. You can't win giving up points like that.

"One of our problems has been at the wing position. We're playing four new guys, and we're playing by committee. Until we shore that up, we're not going to put ourselves in a position to win."

Opposing wing players have enjoyed great success against the Blue Demons. Cincinnati's Leonard Stokes toasted DePaul for 36 points on 14 of 18 shooting. Marquette's Dwayne Wade went 13-for-18 from the floor, burning the Blue Demons for 35 points en route to an easy 87-68 win.

Overall, DePaul is yielding more than 82 points per contest in league play, while allowing conference foes to connect on 50 percent of their field goal attempts and almost 40 percent from behind the arc.

But the problems don't end there for the struggling Demons, who have been bedeviled on the offensive end as well.

"Our second problem has been offensive consistency � being able to play offense for 40 minutes. We had a five-minute drought where we didn't score against Marquette," Kennedy said. "Up until then, it was a good basketball game.

"We had droughts in the first half against Cincinnati, South Florida, and Saint Louis. Then, in the second half, we played those teams basket for basket. We've got to find a way to eliminate our offensive droughts."

Part of the reason for DePaul's offensive woes is the defection of players to the NBA in recent years, including all-everything forward Quentin Richardson. The string of early departures has left several holes, which have been filled with inexperienced players.

"The toughest thing about it is finding guys that can consistently answer," Kennedy said. " When you're not sure about who your go-to guy is going to be, day in and day out, it makes it more difficult. You've got a lot of guys playing different roles."

When push comes to shove, Kennedy will likely turn to his big men tonight. Forward Andre Brown (6'9", 230) leads DePaul in scoring with 13.9 points per game, while center Sam Hoskin (6'9", 260) is tossing in 12 points per contest.

The frontcourt tandem looks to give the Pirates plenty of problems on the boards, too, averaging 8.2 and 6.9 rebounds respectively.

Since defeating the Pirates in Greenville, Charlotte has beaten Saint Louis and South Florida in succession to up its league record to 4-1, good enough to tie Marquette for second in the C-USA American Division. With upcoming games against Louisville and East Carolina this week, Lutz sees a good opportunity for his team to move closer toward securing an NCAA berth, though he admits knocking off the Cardinals and Pirates will be no easy task.

Lutz is especially wary of a dangerous ECU team, one that gave his 49ers a run for their money despite playing one of their best games of the season.

"We were fortunate to win at East Carolina," Lutz said. "We played one of our better games.

"East Carolina, being an in-state school, is going to be very excited to play when they come in here," Lutz said. "They had that big win against Louisville, which gave them some confidence, despite their loss at Saint Louis."

Charlotte's fourth-year head coach also said Monday that there are no gimmees in C-USA, which is shaping up as one of the nation's deeper leagues.

"That's the thing about this league," Lutz said. "You can be riding high and playing well, but you better be ready for the next game. Anybody can beat you in this league. We know we have to be ready for Louisville, and then follow that up with an in-state rival in East Carolina."

Charlotte will have the home court advantage in its favor on Saturday. That should be a comforting thought for Lutz, as East Carolina has yet to secure a road win this season.