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SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
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Pirate Notebook No. 294
Monday, January 15, 2007

By Denny O'Brien

Stokes' critics off the mark

By Denny O'Brien
©2007 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.

Ricky Stokes should be comfortable in the hot seat. That's exactly where many who follow East Carolina basketball placed him the moment he replaced Bill Herrion as the Pirates' coach.

That cartel of Internet crusaders has second-guessed almost every decision Stokes has made since he took over in 2005. Like vultures on a carcass, these keyboard carnivores have swarmed on Stokes like he was their last meal.

They've questioned his recruiting, game preparation, and in-game strategy. They've criticized his sideline mannerisms and the colors worn by his daughter in the stands.

Some have even suggested he is the hardwood version of ECU's all-time football flop, John Thompson, a comparison so humorously absurd it makes the balmy weekend weather seem seasonal.

Just why Stokes has been the primary target for the message board militia isn't completely clear. Perhaps it has much to do with the love affair this group had for Herrion. Or maybe it's because they attribute Stokes' hiring to favoritism — not his ability to build a program.

Because it certainly shouldn't be tied to the results on the floor. That rationale would be fair only if ECU had a longstanding tradition for success on the hardwood.

And it doesn't.

At best, East Carolina is a program that historically has ranked in the bottom half of its conference on a near-annual basis. That hasn't applied to the Pirates only once in the past decade, when the Pirates finished third in the CAA in Joe Dooley's second season.

Otherwise ECU has been a basketball abyss. And neither Stokes nor AD Terry Holland contributed a single scoop of the shovel to digging the black hole in which Pirates hoops has almost always existed.

But both are focused on a formula they hope will lead to an ascension to a level of respectability that East Carolina has yet to reach with any consistency.

That blueprint began to unfold last year with gutting almost the entire roster and restocking it with new faces. So far, that has produced a 5-10 record and several lopsided defeats.

What did you expect?

With so many young pieces, it will take time for the puzzle to come together. It already should be evident that Darrell Jenkins is one of the most talented point guard ever signed by ECU and that John Fields and Gabe Blair have as much upside of any inside duo in school history.

All that's needed is more experience and better team chemistry, not to mention the continuous netting of improved talent along the recruiting front. The latter is one area in which Stokes already has proven himself, to which Virginia Tech's success in the ACC will attest.

Whether or not Stokes is the solution to East Carolina's long-suffering hoops program remains to be seen. But it's certainly too soon to definitively state that he isn't.

Bury the black

Unlike Duke, East Carolina won't be a part of March Madness this year, but the Pirates at least are beginning to impersonate the Blue Devils.

If you've had an opportunity to catch ECU on the road, you've probably noticed the Pirates' new look away from Minges Coliseum. Ugly black duds have been the attire of choice, a break-away from the normal purple or gold tanks and shorts.

Like almost every club in Major League baseball and now many in college athletics, East Carolina apparently has given in to the trend to adopt black as a team color. But unlike most, sporting all-black isn't going to have much marketing bang for ECU.

Seriously, when's the last time you saw an ECU hoops jersey of any color in your neighborhood Foot Locker? Adding black to the equation certainly won't address that issue.

But it could easily get the Pirates lost in a case of mistaken identity. Because on the road, they look a lot more like Iowa or Southern Miss.

Buzz the Brickhouse

About the only thing worse than ECU's all-black attire is its abysmal production from the foul line.

Following their 64-47 loss to Rice on Saturday, the Pirates were nailing only 57 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe. That includes a 36 percent mark by Fields, 44 percent for Jeremy Ingram, and 46 percent for Blair.

Now that's charity.

Perhaps ECU should consider taking its free throw woes to the doctor, as in "Shot Doctor" Buzzy Braman. A former Pirate who played in the mid-70s, Braman has been the shooting instructor for the Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards, as well as several individual NBA standouts.

Braman also shot his way into the Guinness Book of World Records for most consecutive free throws made. It's safe to say that no current Pirate is a threat to break that mark this season.

At least not without his help.

Send an e-mail message to Denny O'Brien.

Click here to dig into Denny O'Brien's Bonesville archives.

02/23/2007 02:05:25 AM

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