Game Program Feature: Mixing The Old With The New
October 29, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Originally printed Oct. 23, 2014 in the First and Goal football game program
By Jody Jones,
Assoc. Director of Media Relations
The tale of last season's East Carolina men's basketball team has been well chronicled. After suffering major personnel losses from the 2013 CIT Championship team, when the Pirates won 23 games, they were dealt two more severe blows just days before the start of practice and faced with the challenge of replacing four starters.
In addition to the loss of seniors Maurice Kemp and Miguel Paul, the Pirates had to replace a pair of 6-foot-8 forwards in Robert Sampson, who transferred to Georgia Tech, and Ty Armstrong, who left school three days before the official start of practice.
Five games into the season; ECU was also faced with the task of playing without 6-foot-10 center Marshall Guilmette, who suffered a season-ending injury.
The Pirates were able to offset the departure of more than 70 percent of its offense and rebounding and produce a 17-win season with a return trip to postseason play. It was the third time in four years under coach Jeff Lebo that ECU had won 17 or more games.
The upcoming 2014-15 season will be much different for ECU as it is greeted by the anticipation of its first year in the American Athletic Conference, where it will go head-to-head with the likes of reigning national champion Connecticut, Cincinnati, Memphis and SMU just to name a few.
"It's a jump up in the quality of opponents in our league," Lebo said. "Last year, the American had five teams at one time that were in the top 25 in basketball. That's going to force us to grow our program and grow it rapidly."
While the Pirates return 80 percent of their starting lineup, one cannot overlook the absence of Akeem Richmond and Brandan Stith. Richmond was the team's leading scorer and led the nation in 3-point field goals made. Stith averaged a team-best 6.3 rebounds in 19.5 minutes per game.
Lebo is hoping the addition of several newcomers will compensate for the personnel losses his team encountered.
"We're going to have a lot of guys that are going to have to play for us that haven't played," Lebo said. "Whether its guys that were hurt last year or guys that were sitting out, it takes time for them to get back into the rhythm of playing in game situations."
Despite the loss of Richmond, the Pirates are expected to be strong on the perimeter once again with the return of senior Paris Roberts-Campbell along with the arrival of Florida State transfer Terry Whisnant.
The veteran Roberts-Campbell, who has played in 100 games in his three-year career, is coming off his best season in which he more than doubled his scoring average and posted career-highs for 3-point field goals made (59), rebounds per game (4.2) and assists (98) in addition to leading the Pirates with 53 steals.
Whisnant is one of the newcomers that Lebo and the Pirates are counting on to make an immediate contribution. A native of Cherryville, Whisnant will be playing his first season at ECU after sitting out 2013-14. He started 19 games as a sophomore at FSU in 2012-13.
"Terry can really score the ball," Lebo said. "He's very athletic and has great speed, plus he can really shoot it. He started a lot of games at Florida State and I think that will help us because in our jump to elite competition, he will not be in awe."
Another first-year Pirate, Lance Tejada, is expected to provide perimeter help this season. Tejada was an all-state player at Blanche Ely High School in Miami, averaging 23.3 points per game.
He is expected to compete with senior Antonio Robinson and junior Prince Williams for playing time at the point guard position. The duo combined to average 14.1 points and 6.2 assists per game last season and helped ECU post the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in Conference USA.
Another pair of freshmen that look to have a bright future for the Pirates are B.J. Tyson and Grant Bryant. Tyson, who was enrolled at ECU last season but not on the roster, was an all-state player at Anson High School where averaged 26.0 points and 8.3 rebounds, while Bryant compiled 18 points and 14 rebounds per contest at Kell (Ga.) High School a year ago.
Greg Alexander also has the ability to shoot the ball from the perimeter. He saw action in eight games last season and will be working hard to get more time in 2014-15.
When Marshall Guilmette went down with an injury last November, the Pirates immediately experienced a deficiency of inside depth. But this season, depth on the frontline could be an asset.
As one of East Carolina's top outside shooting threats, Caleb White is certainly more of a perimeter player than an inside performer. White, the team's leading returning scorer, posted the second-most points and third-highest scoring average by a freshman in school history last season; starting the final 30 games of the year, finishing 12th in C-USA with a 37.6 3-point field goal shooting percentage.
The Pirates will again have Michael Zangari in the post. The 6-foot-9 forward started every game last year and averaged 8.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, while leading the team in field goal percentage (.512).
The health of Guilmette will be essential to the Pirates' frontcourt. He missed the final four games of his freshman season and last 29 of his sophomore campaign due to separate injuries. He averaged 7.0 and 4.4 rebounds in the five games he played last season.
A pair of newcomers could figure prominently in Lebo's plans. Kanu Aja gives the Pirates a big body inside at 6-foot-9 and 245 lbs. He helped City College of San Francisco compiled a 60-3 record during his two years of junior college. A transfer from Winston-Salem State, Michel Nzege is another transfer that the Pirates expect to offer some quick assistance especially on defense.
Keith Armstrong and Uyi Edosomwan offer the Pirates additional strength off the bench.
"I think most of the guys understand what is expected of them," Lebo said. "Again, we're going to have a lot of guys that didn't play last year that are going to be expected to play major minutes for us and contribute a ton."
The Pirates will make a record 17 combined television appearances between ESPNEWS, ESPNU and CBS Sports Network with and additional seven games broadcast on ESPN3.
