Pirates Tip Off Season Against N.C. Wesleyan
November 13, 2014 | Men's Basketball
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| East Carolina vs. N.C. Wesleyan Nov. 14, 2014 | 7 p.m. EST Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum | Greenville, N.C. |
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SETTING THE SCENCE
? East Carolina is opening its 83rd season of intercollegiate basketball, 51st as a Division I institution, Friday night against NCAA Division III member N.C. Wesleyan. The game serves as the Pirates' opening round contest of the Gulf Coast Showcase, which will be held Nov. 24-26 in Estero, Fla.
? The Pirates are expected to be without the services of senior Paris Roberts-Campbell and junior Michael Zangari due to injury.
? East Carolina and N.C. Wesleyan are meeting for the third consecutive season and opening the season against each other for the second straight year.
? The Pirates have won five in a row in the series with the Battling Bishops and own a 6-1 all-time record against their eastern North Carolina foe.
? The Pirates have outscored the Battling Bishops 188-117 in their last two meetings combined winning by scores of 91-60 (2012) and 97-51 (2013).
? East Carolina has won its season opener each of the last 14 years and has won its home opener each of the past 12 seasons.
? ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo is 12-4 all-time in season openers with all four losses coming on the road. He is 16-0 in home openers.
? The Pirates have won 21 straight games against non-Division I opponents and 49 of their last 50 versus Division II and lower opponents.
? Seven newcomers could make their ECU debut tonight: Kanu Aja, Keith Armstrong, Grant Bryant, Michel Nzege, Lance Tejada, B.J. Tyson and Terry Whisnant.
? The Pirates open the season with three straight home games. After Friday's game versus N.C. Wesleyan, the will host UNC Asheville Sunday at 2 p.m. and then welcome Virginia University of Lynchburg to Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum Thursday, Nov. 20.
? N.C. Wesleyan is the first of five instate opponents ECU will face this season. In addition to the aforementioned home games against the Battling Bishops and UNC Asheville, the Pirates will also host UNC Greensboro while traveling to North Carolina and UNC Wilmington in December.
? East Carolina is 48-25 at home under coach Jeff Lebo. The Pirates are 27-6 under his direction in non-conference regular season games.
? The 2014-15 campaign is coach Jeff Lebo's fifth at ECU, tying him with Earl Smith (1945-46. `59-63) and Charlie Harrison (1982-87) as the third-most tenured coach in the history of the program.
PRC OUT TO START THE SEASON
? Senior Guard Paris Roberts-Campbell could miss 4-5 weeks due to a knee injury according to coach Jeff Lebo.
?Friday will mark the first time that he has missed a game in his ECU career. He had played in all 100 games the past three seasons.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
? The Pirates' 2014-15 roster features 16 players (13 scholarship student-athletes) representing nine states.
?There are eight Pirates who hail from the state of North Carolina, two from Georgia and Virginia with Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania each represented by one player.
?East Carolina has five players listed at 6-7 or taller and 11 players at 6-6 or shorter.
?The roster is comprised of three seniors, six juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen.
?ECU returns four starters and nine lettermen from last year's team. The Pirates are one of four American Athletic Conference teams that return three starters (Tulane, Tulsa) and one of four with nine or more lettermen.
SEVEN NEWCOMERS JOIN THE FRAY
? After sitting out the 2013-14 season due to NCAA transfer rules juniors Keith Armstrong (Robert Morris) and Terry Whisnant (Florida State) along with sophomore Michel Nzege (Winston-Salem State) are set to resume their playing careers.
? Kanu Aja is the lone junior college player that was added to the team for the 2014-15 season. He spent last year at the City College of San Francisco.
? The Pirates added a trio of freshmen to their team: Grant Bryant, Lance Tejada and B.J. Tyson. Tyson was enrolled at ECU during the 2013-14 academic year, but was not on the roster.
OPTIONS AT POINT GUARD
? East Carolina opens the 2014-15 campaign with a trio of options at point guard in senior Antonio Robinson, junior Prince Williams and freshman Lance Tejada.
?Robinson started 23 games at the point last season and averaged 2.7 assists per game. He led the Pirates in assists eight times.
?Williams started the first 10 games of the 2013-14 season at point guard before becoming the Pirates' sixth man. He led ECU with 3.6 assists per game, ranking ninth in Conference USA. He also finished the season with a 1.5 assist/turnover ratio, which ranked him 11th in the league.
?Tejada, the smallest among the threesome at 6-2, averaged 23.3 points and 4.5 assists per game as a senior at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, Fla.
GUILMETTE HEALTHY HEADING INTO SEASON
? Sophomore forward/center Marshall Guilmette enters the season with a clean bill of health missing the final 29 games of the 2013-14 season due to a right knee injury. He also missed the final five game of the 2012-13 season due to a separate injury.
?Guilmette was awarded a medical redshirt and has three years of eligibility remaining.
?He averaged seven points and 4.4 rebounds in the first five games of the 2013-14 season before having season-ending surgery. Guilmette has played in just 36 games in his ECU career, scoring 158 points and grabbing 94 rebounds.
PIRATES PICKED 10TH IN THE AMERICAN
? East Carolina was predicted to finish 10th in the 2015 American Athletic Conference standings in voting by the league's 11 head coaches.
RANKED FOES LIE IN WAIT
? East Carolina's 2014-15 schedule features five games against teams that appear in the AP preseason top 25, which was released Oct. 31.
?The Pirates will travel to Chapel Hill to face sixth-ranked North Carolina on Dec. 7, head to Dallas to take on 22nd-ranked SMU on Jan. 17 and face off twice against No. 17 UConn (Feb. 4 at UConn, Feb. 25 at ECU).
?Two other ECU opponents, Cincinnati and Memphis, also received votes.
SCHEDULING NOTES
? During the week of Thanksgiving, East Carolina will compete in the eight-team Gulf Coast Showcase at the Germain Arena in Estero, Fla. The tournament field also includes Evansville, Florida Gulf Coast, Fresno State, Green Bay, Hawaii and Marist. The Pirates will face Green Bay in the first round.
?There are only two first-time opponents on the schedule, Virginia University of Lynchburg and American conference member Temple, whom the Pirates will play home-and-home.
?There are six Sunday games on this year's schedule and nine Saturday contests. Eleven of those 15 games are all scheduled to begin before 5 p.m.
?For the first time in school history, ECU will play host to the reigning national champion when it welcomes UConn to Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum on Feb. 25.
?ECU will be playing Cincinnati for the first time since the Bearcats left Conference USA at the end of the 2004-05 season. Nine of the 11 members of The American are former C-USA members (exceptions are Temple and UConn).
ECU LIKES TO SHOOT 3s
? Over the past four seasons, East Carolina has averaged 22.1 3-point attempts per game and made an average of 7.9 per game.
?ECU led Conference USA in 3-point field goals per game each of the previous two seasons. The Pirates made an average of 8.50 3s per game a year ago and 7.83 the previous season.
?The Pirates have made 10 or more 3s in a game 41 times the past four seasons and have compiled a 26-15 ledger in those games.
?Four of the top five 3-point shooting seasons in ECU history have come under Lebo. Last year, the Pirates made an ECU record 289 3-pointers to break the former record set a year earlier (274, 2012-13).
?The top three season 3-point attempts totals in school history have each occurred in the three of the previous four years: 1. 786 (2013-14), 2. 784 (2012-13), 3. 720 (2010-11).
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
? East Carolina has won 67.7 percent of its home games under coach Jeff Lebo with a 48-23 record.
?The Pirates won their final four regular season home games of 2013-14 before losing to Wright State in the first round of th CIT.
?Lebo guided the Pirates to a school record 17 home wins during the 2012-13 campaign.
