|
Insights and Observations
-----
|
Henry's Highlights
Thursday, February 26, 2004
By Henry Hinton
Broadcaster & Owner
of Greenville Cable 7 |
 |
Snakebit Pirates held out for
hope and found it
�2004 GoPirates.com/Bonesville.net
 |
AUDIO: Midweek
Tip-Off
with Henry Hinton, Mike Steele & guests Bill
Herrion & Mike Brey:
Select clip... |
|
|
A lot of teams would have packed it in and given up
after an eight-game losing streak topped off with some close �shoulda,
coulda, woulda� losses. Not the Pirates. That is a credit to Bill Herrion.
East Carolina has a chance to pull its overall season
record back even at 12-12 with a win this Saturday against South Florida in
the final game in Greenville for this season (1 p.m. tip-off).
Herrion admits the game is a huge one as his Pirates
continue to fight for one of the spots in the C-USA Tournament in Cincinnati
in two weeks.
He cautions, however, that even a win over the Bulls on
Saturday might not get the job done.
�Not definitely,� says Herrion. �What we�ve been
selling to our kids is that we have a three-game season. We�re playing the
best we�ve played all year, but a win Saturday doesn�t definitely put us in.
But it puts us in the driver�s seat.�
The Pirates are battling Tulane and Houston for a spot
in the league tourney March 10-13 in the U.S. Bank Arena.
That the Pirates are even a contender at this point could be considered
amazing. Not many teams go through the adversity of losing their top scorer
and hitting a losing skid and come out on the other side playing their best
ball of the season.
That is exactly what Herrion has been able to get from
this team.
�When you look at how we started the season, we took
care of business in non-conference going 8-1,� Herrion said. �Then we had a
tremendously tough stretch.�
Tough indeed. When the league schedule started at home
with UAB in early January, expectations were high.
�It started with that game at home with UAB (71-69 loss
on January 7),� he said. �We never could get the lead and get over the hump
in that game. If we could have ever gotten the lead in that game we would
probably have won it.�
At that time no one knew how good UAB was in spite of
its 22 win season in 2002-03. With that in mind, it was hard to tell how
good the Pirates were.
Turns out, they are pretty good. But pretty good teams
need some breaks, too, particularly in a conference that could send six
teams to the NCAA Tournament.
�We�ve lost six conference games by six or less.
Obviously the Charlotte game (96-90 overtime loss on February 7) was a
heartbreaker at home. Realistically there are three game that if we had
back, that UAB game at home, the game at Houston and the Charlotte game�
..well, we could have won those game,� Herrion says.
Progress is a relative and sometimes elusive concept.
It seems, however, that ECU has made great strides in a year that has had
some unique twists and turns.
With that Saturday home finale with USF followed by a
grueling week on the road at Marquette and Southern Miss, this team still
has a mountain to climb.
Don�t make your reservations in Cincinnati quite yet.
But Herrion has his team playing its best basketball of
the year at just the right time, and with a little help in the league ECU
still has a great chance to make the conference tourney.
And if it does� ..you can believe that there is not one
team who would count the Pirates as a sure 'W.'
Progress? Yes.
 Send an e-mail message to
Henry Hinton.
Click here to dig into Henry Hinton's GoPirates.com
archives.
02/23/2007 10:13:14 AM |
