East Carolina senior basketball
players Brock Young, Jontae Sherrod, Jamar Abrams and Chad Wynn
were in elementary school the last time East Carolina had a
winning season. That was long before Jeff Lebo took over the
program.Since going
17-10 when ECU was in the Colonial Athletic Association and Joe
Dooley was coaching in 1996-97, the Pirates had managed just one
non-losing season, a 14-14 mark under Bill Herrion's direction
in 2000-01.
The challenge got even tougher
when ECU moved to Conference USA in 2001-02. The degree of
difficulty decreased when Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette
left for the Big East Conference after the 2004-05 season but
coaches Ricky Stokes and Mack McCarthy weren't able to break the
Pirates' losing pattern.
That didn't mean that ECU
athletic director Terry Holland, a basketball coach of
considerable note at Davidson and Virginia, wasn't working on
the problem.
After dismissing McCarthy at
the close of a 10-21 season in 2009-10, Holland hired Lebo
shortly after Auburn had let him go.
The seniors were tired of
losing and became willing to work for their new coach. Lebo
emphasized mental toughness and was determined to instill more
effective play on the defensive end.
The Pirates talked about
putting an end to their losing ways. There were obstacles to
overcome. Injuries to Young and DaQuan Joyner shortened the
playing rotation, forcing other players to adjust their roles.
Big men Darrius Morrow and Wynn needed to lose weight to become
more effective.
"Since this summer, we've been
preaching that we want to have a winning season," Young said in
early December. We haven't had a winning season in 14 years.
That's like motivation for us every day in practice. We just try
to go hard every day in practice and get better as a team."
North Carolina coach Roy
Williams said when Lebo boarded the Pirate ship that ECU was
headed for better times on the hardwood — and he was right.
One of the early indications
that ECU might be headed for a turnaround season came on Dec. 1
when the Pirates
avenged an earlier loss to Charlotte
on a 3-point play by Morrow in the final seconds. ECU didn't
break through immediately but began playing more competitively
on the road.
The blowout losses on the road
and the late season fades that tended to characterize the
Pirates in hoops never materialized.
Senior Night was special as the
Pirates
beat Memphis for the
first time ever. The first-ever wins in the
Conference USA Tournament
ensued as well as the first postseason berth since 1993 when ECU
was
invited to play in the
CollegeInsiders Tournament.
The bottom line was
an 18-16 record. The
Pirates were also a best-ever 8-8 in C-USA regular season play.
"We had a really exciting
year," Lebo said. "Our team did a lot of nice things. The first
winning season in 14 years was quite an accomplishment. The
first time beating Memphis was something special. We had twice
as many Conference USA wins than they've had before. With the
(C-USA) tournament, we had 10 Conference USA wins. Five had been
the most before. We had our first win in the Conference USA
Tournament (beating
Central Florida for a third time) and also got a
second one (over
regular season C-USA champion UAB).
"We finished with a top 100 RPI
(ratings power index) with seven wins over top 100 RPI teams.
Our attendance was a lot higher than it's been in the past."
ECU averaged 3,750 fans at home
for the 2009-10 season. The average increased to 4,566 in
2010-11.
"And postseason play,
obviously, for the first time in a long time," Lebo said. "These
kids have a lot to be proud of, especially the seniors. They
could have laid down. They could have quit. They could have gone
through the motions. They could have transferred. They could
have done a lot of different things but they stuck it out and
not only did they stick it out, they had a great attitude about
it. They worked hard every day.
"They bought in to what we were
trying to do and good things happened for them. I'm really proud
for those four guys who stuck it out here and believed in what
we wanted to do. They really did some neat things here. I think
they overcame a lot of adversity, too. There were a lot of
people who were down on them, that didn't believe in them. They
had rough times here in the past but to see them leave here as
winners is something all four of those guys can be proud of.
They all love East Carolina."
The seniors were proactive in
making a difference in Lebo's first season in Greenville.
"It's always hard in a
transition year," said the ECU coach. "You've got a group of
guys who you don't know. They don't know you. ... You're trying
to figure out how everything is going to work — expectations and
what's practice going to be like, what's the coach going to be
like, what's our relationship going to be like. It takes a while
for that to happen where those parties believe and trust in each
other. We won some games. Certainly, that was helpful to the
mindset of the guys."
The Pirates matured during the
course of the season and focused on winning as their objective.
That became apparent to Lebo in the team's reaction to losing.
"I saw the team really grow,"
Lebo said. "Early when we lost games, I didn't see the hurt
after the game in the guys' eyes. I didn't see the hurt on the
bus afterwards. I didn't see the hurt when we went back to the
hotel. After our last game when we lost, it was a completely
different situation. I mean, we hurt. We looked like a team that
expected to win and didn't. It bothered our guys. It hurt our
guys. It frustrated our guys.
"Even though we lost, I
thought, 'We're going in the right direction here with our
team.' I saw it. I saw the body language. It was a
transformation as we moved through the course of the year. Our
kids invested a lot into the year. When you invest, you learn
how to play hard and play together. You're supposed to hurt at
the end when you don't win. I looked at them after that last
game and it was a different situation.
"These seniors have laid a good
foundation for our young kids. They'll want to work in this
offseason to get better. They've tasted a little bit of success.
They like the way it tastes and they'd like to have a little bit
more."
Young's leadership missed
A source of speculation for the
Pirates was how the season might have ended had not Young gone
out late in the C-USA quarterfinals with another knee injury.
The dynamic playmaker missed a decisive C-USA
semifinal loss to Memphis
and the overtime
loss at home to Jacksonville
in the CIT.
"It was gigantic," Lebo said.
"It was just huge. I hated it for Brock. He's had a lot of bad
luck as far as injuries were concerned. Obviously, he was a
really, really important piece to our team. He was a senior,
Sixth Man of the Year (in C-USA). He was like a starter. He
played starter minutes. He was our best ball handler, our
quickest guy, a guy who could break down pressure, our leading
assists guy. Not having him out there really hurt our depth.
"Not having him out there
really took a toll. He was just an important part of what we
were doing. You play at the end against good teams with good
players. You need to have everybody on deck. It was frustrating
not having him. I know it was frustrating for him, having a
chance to go to the postseason and not being able to be a part
of it on the court."
Young's absence changed roles
for his teammates.
"We had guys in different
positions," Lebo said. "We had really no backup point guard.
Corvonn (Gaines) had to play the majority of minutes there. He's
a different type of point guard. Against heat, pressure defense,
he struggles a little bit more. When you've got Brock in there,
you can play those two guys together. You've got two
ballhandlers in there. You can leave Brock at the point and that
pressure doesn't bother you quite as much.
"The big factor against a team
like Jacksonville, which really gets after you, has got great
quickness and they're really pressuring and denying — you need
somebody to break down the defense at that point against that
pressure and we didn't have that person."
Enter Miguel Paul
Missouri transfer Miguel Paul
has sat out the required season at ECU and is the heir apparent
to Young.
"Miguel is a guy we're going to
count on to play major minutes for us next year," Lebo said.
"He's got great speed with the ball. He's quick but he also has
great speed. He's got the ability to shoot. He's tough.
"He's got a good motor where he
doesn't fatigue. He's played at a high level against good
players at Missouri. He's been in tough environments, been in
tough practices, been through the ringer. ... I think he'll
really help us from a ball handling standpoint, a quickness and
a speed standpoint. He can really push it from end to end. We're
counting on him to be a major factor and he's itching to get
back out there.
"To sit out a year for a tough,
competitive kid like Miguel is hard but I thought he was really
helpful to Brock in practice and to Corvonn in practice. ... I
think we got better as the year went on because we got better in
practice. Miguel was a big key to pushing our guys in practice."
Morrow stepped up
Junior power forward Darrius
Morrow averaged 13.0 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds with
some huge games along the way in 2010-11, like his 33-point
effort in a
82-81 comeback win at
Marshall on Jan. 22 that included his decisive 3-point play with
five seconds left.
Morrow
became the first ECU player
to make the C-USA All-Tournament team.
"We had two guys who made
phenomenal transformations this year," Lebo said. "He made a
commitment to change his body. He lost almost 30 pounds from the
beginning of the season to the end. In his eating habits, he
made a commitment to change his attitude. By the end of the
season, he was saying the right things in the huddle and saying
the right things in practice. He was starting to be a leader.
"I think he saw the results he
was getting because he lost weight and he worked hard in
practice every day. He made that commitment to do that. He was
able to play longer, play harder, get better and lose weight.
"One thing I hope that will be
a chip on his shoulder for the offseason is that he made no
first, second or third team All Conference USA. That's something
I know he wants to do next year that he didn't achieve this
year. He knows that he wants to come back in here, instead of
271 (pounds) that he comes back in at around 240, where he ended
the season. It was amazing what he looked like at the beginning
to the end of the year.
"I think he was a big key with
his work habits, getting the rest of the guys to kind of follow.
Even though he wasn't a captain, the guys kind of looked up to
Darrius. They saw the transformation and they saw how hard he
worked. They saw his attitude was terrific and how it went from
one extreme to the other. That was big for us during the course
of the year."
Gaines and Erin Straughn saw a
lot of playing time in 2010-11 but will have to work in the
offseason to be prepared to take up the slack created by the
departure of Sherrod, who averaged a team high 15.6 points as a
senior, up from his 9.6 scoring rate as a junior. The returning
Pirates also have to compensate for the departure of Abrams, who
averaged 10.3 points.
"We'll have higher expectations
for Corvonn next year," Lebo said. "We need Erin to step his
game up to another level with his ball handling and the
consistency of his shooting. We need him to be a factor for us
defensively and rebounding the basketball. Erin was one of our
best rebounders (4.3 per game, second on team). We need him to
grow in the offseason, get bigger and stronger, so he can finish
in traffic.
"Robert Sampson improved
dramatically from the time he stepped foot on campus. Robert
wants to be good. He's like a sponge out there. He works hard
every single day. He listens and pays attention. This offseason
is going to be big for him, especially trying to put on 15
pounds of strength in the weight room. He got valuable minutes.
I think he'll be much more comfortable on the floor for us next
year."
Darius Morales is another
youthful frontcourt player.
"Great shot blocker," Lebo
said. "He's got to work on his offensive skills. He's got to put
on 15 pounds but he showed signs of being a factor for us on the
defensive end if he can stay out of foul trouble."
Pirates will sign one more
The departure of Wakefield
Ellison from the ECU program means an additional scholarship to
award for next season.
"We're going to get the best
available player, whoever that may be," Lebo said. "We'd
honestly like to have one probably at the three/four spot or a
big."