From The Anchor Desk: Bailey's Take on Pirate Sports

BONESVILLE BYTES AUDIO — Brian Bailey Goes 1-On-1 with Belton Rivers: Select clip...

CABLE 7 AUDIO — The Brian Bailey Show with guest Greg Herenda: Select clip...

For East Carolina, that regular routine equals the Conference USA season. Game one is tonight, with UAB paying a visit.

CyberEast of New Bern

"Service While You Watch"

Need a quick repair on your computer?

How about a bigger hard drive or a DVD/RW-CD/RW?

Could a new SoundBlaster™ Audigy card and speaker system improve your experience listening to Bonesville.net's Windows Media features?

Call CyberEast of New Bern for an in-store appointment to get your computer geared up to meet your needs while you watch.

417-C Broad St., New Bern, NC

252-637-4443

cybereast.com

I say this is a critical match up, especially if the Pirates want take this program to the next level.

“I think it’s extremely important for us to win this game,” said Herrion. “Good teams win home games, and if you want to go to the postseason, you have to win at home.”

Of course, before you go to the next level, you have to figure out what that next level is. I say, it’s at least a .500 mark in league play, which would most likely land East Carolina in the NIT at the end of the season.

If you look at the schedule, 8-8 or better is a real possibility. If the Pirates can go 6-2 at home, then they only have to squeak out two road wins to go to 8-8.

It will be most difficult to win at Charlotte, at Cincinnati, at UAB or at Marquette. Those four games are winnable, but they will take some kind of effort.

Obviously, the move to one collective league alignment instead of the two divisions will help East Carolina. It’s hard enough to play Marquette, Cincinnati and Louisville once. Home and home sets with the big three are very difficult.

“We’ve got to figure out January and February in this league,” Herrion continued. “It’s our third year in Conference USA and we’ve got enough guys that have been through the wars. We’ve got to step our games up and prove that we can compete in Conference USA.”

Nolan Richardson’s Arkansas teams were famous for defense. Richardson called it his “40 Minutes of Hell” defense, and that philosophy won the Hogs a national championship.

Mike Anderson, who served a stint under Richardson at Arkansas, is in his second season as coach of the Blazers. Anderson has applied Richardson's philosophy at UAB.

“This is a very good basketball team,” said Herrion. “Mike Anderson has that same style of defense that Arkansas won a national title with in the 90’s. We will have to protect the basketball at all costs. If we don’t, it could be a long night at Williams Arena.”

Erroyl Bing says the Pirates should be ready for the variety of presses that they will see.

“We’ve been working on it all week,” Bing said Tuesday. “We were all disappointed with our game at Ole Miss, so I think we’ll bounce back tomorrow night against UAB.”

BONESVILLE ITEMS FROM WEEK NO. ONE OF 2004:
Ron Cherubini: Reflections - 01.07
— Note to conspiracy theorists: Count me in
Brian Bailey: From the Anchor Desk - 01.07
— UAB game has big implications
Nuggets: Notes from ECU and beyond - 01.07
Letter to the Editor: Jon Rogers, Alexandria, VA - 01.07
Cable 7 Audio: Midweek Tip-Off - 01.07
— Henry Hinton, Mike Steele, guests David Garrard, Bill Herrion
Pirate Radio 1250 Audio: Live@&5 Segment - 01.07
— Troy Dreyfus, Jon Ellerbe, guest Bill Herrion
Pirate Radio 1250 Audio: Sportsline Segment - 01.07
— Patrick Johnson, guest Denny O'Brien
Greg Vacek: Daily Web Headlines Roundup - 01.07
Denny O'Brien: Pirate Notebook No. 167 - 01.06
— Showdown with Blazers is Herrion's biggest
Bonesville: BCS needs major surgery - 01.06
Bonesville: Final AP & Coaches football polls - 01.06
Bonesville: AP basketball poll - 01.06
Cable 7 Audio: Brian Bailey Show - 01.06
— Guest Greg Herenda
Pirate Radio 1250 Audio: From The Locker Room - 01.06
— Kevin Monroe & Sean Farmer
Pirate Radio 1250 Audio: The Press Box - 01.06
— Troy Dreyfus, Brian Bailey, Jody Jones & Jim Gentry
Al Myatt: View from the East - 01.05
— 'Great night for purple and gold'
Bonesville: USC shares glory - 01.05
Bonesville: BCS looks to hoops for answers - 01.05
Letter to the Editor: P. Jeff Martin, Akron, OH - 01.05
Bonesville: Presidents say no, no, no to playoff - 01.04
Bonesville: Rebs scuttle Pirates - 01.04
Bonesville: Change inevitable for failed BCS equation - 01.03
Denny O'Brien: Pirate Notebook No. 166 - 01.02
— Pirates getting fortified for league gauntlet
Bonesville: Juco dragnet snares another tight end - 01.01

Just in case you missed it on Monday night, Texas beat Providence by a basket in overtime on a controversial call.

Forward P.J. Tucker, a burly freshman from Raleigh, made a lay-up at the buzzer, and after a long review the basket was scored.

It seems that the officials agreed that the ball was still in the player’s hand when the clock hit triple zeros. But, the ball left the player’s hand before the light came on.

According to my check of the rules, the officials were right, that the game isn’t over until the light comes on. But am I the only one that doesn’t understand why the game isn’t over when the clock shows all zeros.

Why does a light have to come on? Wouldn’t you think the light would just be used as an aid, and that the clock would be the determining factor?

I guess it’s just like the BCS in football, where somehow two plus three equals one!