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News Nuggets, 03.06.06
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Tourney: Bucs set for late-night joust with UCF

Pirates prepare for late-night joust with Knights in C-USA opener

East Carolina will face Central Florida in the opening round of the Conference USA Basketball Tournament on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. EST. The tournament continues through Saturday at the FedExForum in Memphis.

UCF swept the season series from East Carolina, winning 64-59 in Greenville on Jan. 25 and 69-49 in Orlando on Feb. 22.

Regular season champion Memphis will be the No. 1 seed. The Tigers will have a first-round bye, as will No. 2 UAB, No. 3 Texas-El Paso and No. 4 Houston.

Wednesday's other first round matchups include: No. 7 Rice vs. No. 10 Southern Methodist at 1 p.m., No. 6 Tulsa vs. No. 11 Southern Miss at 3:30 p.m., and No. 8 Tulane vs. No. 9 Marshall at 7 p.m.

In Thursday's quarterfinal round, No. 2 UAB will take on the winner of the Rice-SMU game at 1 p.m. and No. 3 UTEP will face the winner of the Tulsa/Southern Miss matchup beginning at 3:30 p.m. No. 1 seed Memphis will take on the winner of the Tulane/Marshall game at 7 p.m., while No. 4 seed Houston will close out Thursday night against the winner of the UCF/East Carolina contest at 9:30 p.m.

The opening game of the tournament is a rematch of Saturday night's contest in Houston between SMU and Rice, which the Owls rallied to win 68-66. In the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 21 in Dallas, the Mustangs made a late run in regulation and won in overtime, 80-69.

Tulsa, which won a three-way tie-breaker with Rice and Tulane by winning head-to-head matchups with both teams, will look for its second win this season over Southern Miss. The Golden Hurricane posted a 72-63 win over the Golden Eagles in Tulsa on January 14.

Tulane and Marshall met for the first time ever on Feb. 4 in New Orleans. The Green Wave had their best defensive performance of the season in a 61-36 victory, holding the Thundering Herd to 24 percent shooting from the field.

Memphis will enter the tournament attempting to become the third different school in C-USA history (Cincinnati and Louisville) to win the regular season and tournament titles in the same season. The Tigers advanced to the championship game of last year's C-USA Championship at FedExForum, losing a heart-breaker to Louisville, 75-74.

FedExForum is a state-of-the-art arena in downtown Memphis. Quarterfinal and semifinal games will be on CSTV. The championship game will be on CBS, beginning at 11:35 a.m. (EST) on Saturday.

For ticket information, contact the ECU ticket office at 1-800-DIALECU or (252) 328-4500.

ECU spring drills: pads on, snap exchange off

East Carolina continues spring football workouts at the Cliff Moore practice facility today and will conduct sessions Wednesday and Thursday before taking time off for the university's spring break which begins Friday.

Upon its return to campus Monday, March 20, ECU will have two sessions to prepare for the first scrimmage of camp scheduled for Friday, March 24, according to the ECU sports media relations department.

ECU coach Skip Holtz has said a two-deep depth chart will be released following the first scrimmage. One position that remains wide open and filled with question marks is center. Holtz expressed concern about the basic center-quarterback exchange after Saturday's initial workout in pads, which went for over two hours.

"Our glaring concern right now comes at the center position,” Holtz said. "We must have put the ball on the ground 10 times or so (Saturday) during the quarterback-center exchange alone. This is something we’ll continue to address each day until we find the right personnel or combination. I know it’s still awful early but it is something we need to get rectified pretty quickly."

The contact session on Saturday was the first of 12 which will be conducted in full gear, including a pair of scrimmages and the Purple-Gold Spring Game on April 8.

“I was happy with the hitting out there and I thought we did a nice job of practicing together,” Holtz said. “I was also encouraged that we made some improvement passing and catching the football after a slow start in our first two days."

Despite the addition of pads, Holtz and his staff spent the majority of the session focusing on fundamentals while continuing a review of the Pirates' offensive and defensive playbooks.

ECU also worked through various team sessions towards the end of the practice period which was highlighted by a three-on-three drill which featured matchups between the Pirates’ tight ends, offensive and defensive lines, wide receivers and defensive backs, running backs and linebackers at point-blank range on a shortened field.

“I continue to be impressed with the progress of our three mid-year additions at linebacker (Orlando Farrow, Danny Muhwezi, Fred Wilson),” Holtz said. "They have come into camp ready to play. What’s nice about that is that it creates a lot of depth at that position where perhaps many of the younger guys can really make an impact on special teams and get additional experience there."

C-USA Scoreboard & Tournament Schedule

News Nuggets are compiled periodically based on material supplied by staff members; data published by ECU, Conference USA and its member schools; and reports from other sources. Copyright 2006 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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