East Carolina basketball coach Joe Dooley was obviously embarrassed with the way his team was playing defense this season. That defensive issue really stood out in ECU’s 85-75 loss to Coppin State. Dooley knew his club would have a chance to really work out some of those defensive kinks during exam week. With no games on the schedule, the Pirates did indeed go hard on … [Read more...]

I have deliberately refrained until now from commenting on the struggles of the East Carolina basketball team during the first month of its 2019-20 season. Considering the makeup of the squad with only two scholarship returners on the roster, one of which hasn’t played since the team returned from the Bahamas last month, it’s simply too early to make any rash judgments about … [Read more...]

GREENVILLE — East Carolina halted a 4-game losing streak with a 79-67 nonconference win over Campbell in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum on Saturday. Jayden Gardner had 22 points and four assists for the Pirates (3-7). Freshman Brandon Suggs had 16 points and nine rebounds as ECU came off an 11-day break for exams. The Pirates got 12 points from J.J. Miles. Freshman … [Read more...]

East Carolina put together strong efforts against nationally-ranked Cincinnati and Southern Methodist when the Pirates still had a shot at bowl eligibility in 2019, but the disappointment of the near-misses has its silver lining. Had ECU gotten a bowl bid, the coaching staff would have had to juggle its time and energy to prepare for a postseason matchup as well as nail down … [Read more...]

One year and one week ago it was all possibility, untempered by reality. Would you go back, if you could? Jon Gilbert and Mike Houston were still strangers to the Pirate Nation, but they were bathed in a sort of purple-and-gold glow at those consecutive press conferences on December 3 and December 4, 2018. They were symbols as much as men — harbingers of the new day that … [Read more...]