If you want to see the
most exciting athlete on East Carolina's campus, book a ticket to the
women's NCAA Tournament.
That's where Lady Pirates
point guard Jasmine Young will be. Somewhere between Raleigh and Los
Angeles, she'll dribble her 5'5" frame through, around, and past
opposing defenders with dynamic skill and blazing speed.
She'll do it with enough
energy to fully power the building in which the Pirates play. And on the
odd chance that her tank runs low, there is plenty of firepower to help
fuel ECU should it make a deeper run than many expect.
Backourt mate Lacoya Terry
proved that much in the Conference USA tournament. The versatile combo
guard is equally comfortable leading the break or finishing it, and
creates match-up problems for almost every opponent.
Cherie Mills provides a
dominant inside presence who can relieve much of the pressure from the
Pirates' athletic guards. Nicole Day and Impress Manning are they type
of lunch pale performers essential to any team's success, while Jessica
Slack is an outside assassin who is capable of changing a game's course
in a couple of possessions.
Together they form an
entertaining, athletic bunch that is a microcosm of what Lady Pirates
basketball potentially could become — which is the next major sport at
East Carolina.
If ECU AD Terry Holland
can keep Sharon Baldwin-Tener away from interested suitors, there are
few roadblocks preventing the Pirates' future advancement. Given the
nature of the women's game, a regular presence in the national polls is
not out of the question.
Unlike the men's game,
membership in a power conference is not a prerequisite for long-term
success in women's hoops. That's been the case throughout the sport's
history, and there is no shortage of examples.
Louisiana Tech and Old
Dominion were powers during much of the 80's and 90's, while George
Washington, Middle Tennessee, Bowling Green, Wisconsin-Green Bay, and
Montana make up 25 percent of the current national rankings. And that
doesn't include six others currently on the wait list.
What's more, the Pirates
don't face the harsh history lessons of which the men's program is often
reminded. Though Duke, North Carolina, and N.C. State possess dynamite
programs, most of the mystique in the women's game is found in Knoxville
and Storrs, not Tobacco Road.
With so much of East
Carolina's talent packaged in the sophomore and freshmen classes, the
Top 25 is a realistic destination before they graduate. Baldwin-Tener's
proven ability to locate and lure major college talent only accentuates
that possibility.
So does her competence in
running a team.
Her performance over the
last month was one of the finest in recent memory at ECU, regardless of
sport. The achievement of going from 9-13 with postseason aspirations
seemingly on the backburner to 19-13 and a conference championship can't
be overstated.
Rarely does a team so
destined for the chiller find a pulse, let alone close a season among
the hottest in the country. Baldwin-Tener not only altered ECU's path in
midseason, she did so with a team short on upperclassmen.
And she just might have
shifted the program's culture in the process.
Just where ECU is seeded
won't be known until later tonight. The most likely guess is somewhere
between 11-14, even though ECU enters the tournament performing more
like a five or six.
The latter could become
more the norm for East Carolina in the very near future. Unlike some
sports, the climate is more favorable for that to occur.