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College Sports in the Carolinas

Don't miss Al Myatt's profile of ECU Chancellor Steven Ballard in the 2004 Bonesville Magazine.

View from the East Monday, October 18, 2004 By Al Myatt

Basketball Bucs hope to Cook up tasty dish

©2004 Bonesville.net

Coach Bill Herrion began stirring the ingredients for the 2004-05 East Carolina basketball team this weekend with the official start of preseason practice.

With some key personnel to replace and a cattle drive of new players to indoctrinate to the college level, it's difficult to say when Herrion will declare the dish ready.

Last year, the team theme was: "The time is now." This year, the theme needs to be: "Give it some time."

Regardless of the timetable for Herrion's sixth Pirates creation to jell, he will have to serve it up for public consumption within a month. ECU opens the season against Pepperdine at noon on Nov. 17 in the Black Coaches Association Invitational at the RBC Center in Raleigh.

Early sampling will be available in home exhibitions against Newberry on Nov. 4 and Barton on Nov. 11.

Gone are staples such as wing scorer Derrick Wiley, selfless rebounder Erroyl Bing and cunning post player Gabriel Mikulas. The Pirates also will be without guards Belton Rivers and Frank Robinson, who leaped out of the frying pan following a 13-14 season in 2003-04 in which ECU fought its way back into the Conference USA Tournament after missing the event in 2002-03..

Herrion has restocked the personnel cupboard with seven new players.

"I think having new faces with young energy and young enthusiasm is positive," said the ECU coach.

In that case, the Pirates are as positive as a red car battery cable. It's a good spin from the coach because experience voids are significant.

Wiley, who frequently punctuated his postgame comments with the phrase, "You know what I'm saying?" often did the talking offensively for the Pirates, leading the team in scoring 16 times last season as a senior.

Bing was ECU's high man in rebounding nine times. The ECU staff sought a clone with the signing of physical junior college forward Mike Castro.

The Pirates lost Mikulas on the eve of a 76-66 home loss to Louisville, but the adjustments his absence necessitated may be a blessing this year.

In particular, Moussa Badiane's game evolved when the Argentinean's broken arm was in a sling.

"When we lost Gabe for the season in January, it was devastating," Herrion said. "However, in a very unfortunate way, it forced Moussa to grow up quickly. He had to stay out of foul trouble, stay on the floor, and get minutes. He did a much better job of that as the year moved on.

"I think his offensive game improved as the year progressed," said the ECU coach.

Badiane led the Pirates in dunks with 32 and, like Bing, topped the club nine times on the boards. And, of course, the 6-foot-10 Badiane makes like a fly swatter at the defensive end, needing 53 blocks to become the career leader in C-USA. He had 90 rejections last season as a junior.

"We all know what a great shot blocker he is," Herrion said, "but what we need now is for him to become a more consistent rebounder, offensively and defensively, and a bigger threat offensively. Those are things that come with experience, maturity and physical development."

And time.

"With his physical development and strength, his game is going to take another jump," Herrion said of his beanstalk in the paint.

Sophomore guard Japhet McNeil and junior forward Corey Rouse also are among the known commodities. McNeil ran into something of a wall during league play in C-USA as a freshman but should benefit from the learning experience.

"He's got great quickness and is as good as an on-the-ball defender as I've coached," Herrion said of McNeil, who drew a team high 11 charges as a freshman.

Added strength should help McNeil's contributions.

"He's got to shoot the three better (24.4 percent last season) and his decision making with the basketball has got to be better (58 turnovers)," Herrion said.

Rouse also has gotten stronger, working on his upper body this summer after having a knee scoped.

"He's gotten so much stronger and looks great physically," Herrion said. "He has always given us great production in terms of minutes played. He's very athletic, always around the basketball, plays up on the rim, has a long body and we're expecting him to become the player that we thought he'd be coming out of (Kinston) high school."

Herrion has some potentially strong ingredients to face a schedule that includes significant non-conference challenges (the 8-team BCA, South Carolina in Mobile, Ala., on Dec. 20, and a trip to Clemson on Dec. 29) before the Pirates head into C-USA, which will be full strength for one final season before Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette and others depart for new league homes.

"The biggest challenge we have right now is figuring out how we can be more consistent in January and February," Herrion said, referring to the meat of the league slate.

ECU won three of its final four regular season games last season to make the league tournament field and also won its first two C-USA road games in program history at South Florida and Southern Miss. Many of ECU's losses were competitive, compared to strings of blowouts in previous seasons.

Pirate fans will definitely need to buy a program at the outset to identify the new arrivals and, depending on the fortunes of the football team, currently 1-4, there may be an unprecedented degree of anticipation for hoops.

Who remembers that the 1991-92 ECU cagers lost at Duke, Cincinnati and Tennessee before the football team rallied past N.C. State in the Peach Bowl to complete an 11-1 season?

A good football team takes attention away from the start of basketball season — and vice-versa.

New post player Charles Bronson, Castro, freshman wing players Tom Hammonds Jr. (yes, his son), and Jonathan Hart, versatile guard Marvin Kilgore, sharpshooter Josh King, and hometown walk-on forward Taylor Gagnon provide an interesting mix of talent.

Their abilities provide Herrion with a variety of lineup possibilities and styles of play.

"With so many perimeter players, we have a lot of options, "Herrion said. "I think this is the quickest and most athletic team we've had here collectively. Early in the year we may press and try to force the tempo to get easy baskets.

"In order to do that we're going to have to defend, compete hard on every possession and rebound the basketball."

The proof will be in the pudding as they say and when preseason conversation gives way to the reality of results, ECU's main dish figures to depend a lot on its Cook.

For the Pirates, that of course is sophomore guard Mike Cook, whose emergence as a freshman coincided with ECU's improved competitiveness down the stretch.

Blessed with a body that football coach John Thompson would covet in an outside lineacker, Cook (6-4, 220 pounds) stirred the offense from lukewarm to piping hot at intervals last season. He led the team 13 times in assists while managing 10.4 points per game on his way to All C-USA freshman team honors.

A product of Herrion's Philadelphia pipeline, Cook must step up in the group context. It's his team now and his leadership will be essential to the integration of the incoming players and to the establishment of a healthy chemistry overall. He made a successful transition last season and can relate to what the new players face.

Without a successful leadership transition among the players, especially in light of personnel losses and the volume of recruits, there is danger. Cook needs to be a beacon or the Pirate ship could wind up on the rocks of inexperience.

Without Wiley, Bing and Mikulas, Cook becomes the man.

"He is going to have to score for us more this year," Herion said. "When you put the ball in his hands and give him the green light, he can go get baskets. The strength of his game is his physical strength and physical abilities. During the second half of the season, he proved he was very difficult to guard.

"He can put the ball on the floor and get to where he wants to go against anybody."

The Pirates in general and Cook in particular are works in progress, a new formula just placed into the crucible of preseason practice.

Will the mix rise — or explode? Cook appears to be the main ingredient. His personal improvement should benefit the entire club.

"He's got to shoot the three better (19.5 percent) and he's got to get better defensively," Herrion said. "His three-point shooting will definitely get better. He's worked very hard on every part of his game this summer. He's a year older, more mature and more experienced, and has a chance to be a special player down the road."

The sooner, the better for Cook — and ECU.

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02/23/2007 12:46:42 AM
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