Coming off a disappointing season, East Carolina hopes to be one of the most improved teams in the country in 2007-08 and the Pirates have good reason to believe that they will be as their roster has matured.
The Pirates began the 2006-07 season as one of only a handful of teams in the country to have four or fewer returning letterwinners. As the new season approaches, the Pirates have doubled their number of returning lettermen and have a redshirt freshman that practiced all of last season now eligible for comeptition. Couple that with a talented junior college transfer and 10 of the 14 players on the roster have college experience, which should pay dividends and allow the four incoming freshmen a chance to learn from the upper classmen.
In charge of leading the turn around is former Chattanooga and VCU coach Mack McCarthy, who served as associate head coach at ECU the past two years. McCarthy was elevated to head coach following the resignation of coach Ricky Stokes. McCarthy takes the reigns with 16 years of heading coaching experience and over 300 victories, which included five trips to the NCAA Tournament and two appearances in the NIT.
"I think we have a deeper team," said McCarthy. "We have more competition at each position. The past two years we haven't had a lot of competition at practice and it wasn't much of a learning experience, but from day one this year guys have gotten after each other. They have pushed each other in the individual workouts and that alone will make us better.
The Pirates welcome back four starters from last year including, passer-friendly Darrell Jenkins, all-freshman team forward John Fields, leading rebounder Gabe Blair and guard Cory Farmer. The foursome account for 55 percent of the points scored, 52 percent of the rebounds, 53 of the shots taken and 55 percent of the minutes played. Jenkins and Farmer, both junior college transfers, makeup two-thirds of the Pirates' senior class.
The only fourth-year senior on the roster is 6-6 forward Taylor Gagnon (2.0 ppg and 2.2 rpg in 2006-07). Gagnon, who played in all 30 games last season, earned a spot on the team as a walk-on prior to the start of the 2004-05 season and has been an irreplaceable part of the program.
Jenkins, 5-11 from Anaheim, Calif., led the team in scoring (12.3 ppg) as a junior while leading Conference USA in assists per game (5.5), setting an ECU single-season assist record (166) along the way. Fields, 6-11 from Fayetteville, N.C., was the Pirates' top postman, finishing the year as the team's third leading scorer (9.8 ppg) and second leading rebounder (5.9 rpg). Fields also led C-USA in field goal percentage, shooting 62.4 percent from the floor to become the first freshman ever to lead the league in that category. Farmer, 6-3 from Charlotte, picked up his scoring at the end of the season and finished the year with the team's highest three-point percentage (34.5 percent).
Brandon Evans, a 6-2 rising sophomore from Jackson, Tenn., showed flashes of brilliance last season and figures to be among those that will play a more signifigant role in 2007-08. Evans averaged 3.5 points in 13.1 minutes per game.
Other returning players include junior Sam Hinnant, who missed the final 16 games of the season due to an injury he suffered prior to the start of conference play. Hinnant earned C-USA All-Freshman Team honors in 2005-06 by averaging over 10 points per game. Although his numbers wer down at the start of the season, Hinnant appears to be on track to resume full workouts by the time practice begins in October. Sophomore Greyson Sargent, who earned his way onto the team as walk-on last year, returns as well.
They will be joined by four freshmen, including three from North Carolina, and one junior college transfer. As high school seniors 6-7 forward Daquan Joyner, 6-2 guard Jontae Sherrod and 5-11 guard Brock Young were each selected to play in the North Carolina High School East-West All-Star Game as was 6-5 guard Jamar Abrams for the Virginia North-South All-Start game. James Legan, a 6-3 guard from Galena Park, Texas, signed with the Pirates during the spring period after leading Lon Morris College to the Region XIV championship and earning all-region honors.
"I think our style of play will change due in large part to our numbers," McCarthy said. "Because of our depth we can keep fresh people in there and hopefully be able to play faster in both directions. We want to extend our defense with our athleticism and get easy baskets in transition."
Now with an added year of experience, the Pirates are ready to put last season behind them and move forward.
