East Carolina Opens New Season Against Grambling State
November 12, 2015 | Men's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The East Carolina men's basketball team opens up its 2015-16 slate on Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m., inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum against Grambling State. The game is part of a doubleheader with ECU volleyball team which host Memphis at 5:30 p.m. Anyone purchasing a ticket to the basketball game will receive free admission to the volleyball match. Friday's game will be broadcast on the ESPN3 and the the Pirate-IMG Radio Network.
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. This will be the 11th consecutive season in which the Pirates have opened at home, but their first season lid-lifter against a Division I opponent since 2006.
The Pirates and Tigers will be the first meeting on the hardwood since 1982, which resulted in a 64-61 Pirate victory at the Bayou Classic in Lafayette, La.
NOTABLE POINTS
?The Pirates enter Friday's night game having won five consecutive non-conference home games. ECU was 6-1 against teams outside The American here a year ago. During the previous five seasons, ECU has compiled a 34-7 record in non-conference home games.
?Grambling is one of three historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) on the Pirates' schedule this season. ECU will also host North Carolina A&T on Dec. 13 and South Carolina State on Dec. 22. It has won 11 in a row over HBCUs with a 9-0 record under coach Jeff Lebo.
?Juniors Caleb White and Michel Nzege are each expected to make their second-straight opening night starts. Nzege had 18 points and 12 rebounds in the 2014-15 season opener against N.C. Wesleyan, while White netted 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Last season's other opening night starters were Marshall Guilmette (injured), Terry Whisnant (professional) and Antonio Robinson (graduated).
?East Carolina has scored 97 or more points in three of its past four home openers.
?An East Carolina victory will be the 299th win of coach Jeff Lebo's career.
ABOUT GRAMBLING STATE
?The Tigers are entering their second season under head coach Shawn E. Walker, a native of Roper, N.C. and two-time all-conference guard at Elizabeth City State University.
?Grambling finished the 2014-15 campaign with an overall record of 2-27 and 0-18 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The Tigers were picked to finish 10th in their conference in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches and sports information directors.
?Grambling has lost 28 consecutive games against Division I opponents with its last victory coming against Jackson State in the first round of the 2014 SWAC Tournament.
?Grambling returns five letterwinners from last year's squad and welcomes nine newcomers.
?Among those returning are the team's second leading scorer from a season ago, senior Mark Gray (10.5 ppg). Gray was also the Tigers' leading rebounder last season (5.9 rpg) and top free throw shooter (.755). He led the team with 105 made foul shots and was second on the unit with 17 made 3s.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
?The Pirates' roster features 15 players (12 scholarship) representing seven states with as well as Australia and Switzerland.
?Eight players are listed a 6-foot-7 or taller and five stand 6-foot-3 or shorter.
?Six players hail from the state of North Carolina (three walk-ons) and two from Florida with no other state represented by more than one player (Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia).
THE SCHEDULE
? East Carolina's 2015-16 men's basketball schedule includes 13 games against teams that participated in postseason play last season with 10 games versus teams that competed in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT.
? The Pirates will play a pair of road games against teams ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25: No. 14 California (Nov. 20) and No. 20 UConn (Feb. 7). ECU also has three road games at team receiving votes in the AP preseason poll: SMU, Cincinnati and San Diego State.
? East Carolina's non-conference includes three games against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association (College of Charleston, UNCW, James Madison), two from Conference USA (Charlotte, Florida Atlantic) and two from the MEAC (N.C. A&T, South Carolina State).
? This year's slate features three first-time opponents: California, San Diego State and South Carolina State. The Pirates will also be playing on the west coast and in Las Vegas for the first time.
LEBO BEGINS SIXTH YEAR AS HEAD COACH
? ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo begins his sixth season at the helm of the Pirate basketball program. Lebo is the only the sixth coach in the school's 83-year history to sit in the head coach's seat for a minimum of five seasons.
? Lebo enters the season just two victories shy of 300 career victories. He won 75 games during four season at Tennessee Tech, 40 in two years at Chattanooga , 96 in six years at Auburn and 87 in his first five seasons at East Carolina.
? Lebo needs 13 victories to become the third coach in school history to win 100 games. Howard Porter won 182 games from 1948-59 and Tom Quinn recorded 102 victories from 1966-74.
SOUTHPAW SHOOTERS
? East Carolina is one of just five teams in NCAA Division I with four or more left-handed shooters (Kentrell Barkley, Grant Bryant, B.J. Tyson and Caleb White).
? Arkansas State and Oakland (Mich.) each have five southpaws on their team, while Canisius and Texas-Rio Valley Grande also have four lefties.
DUAL THREAT
? The duo of ECU junior Caleb White and sophomore B.J. Tyson rank as the second-highest scoring combo in The American entering the 2015-16 season. The two averaged a combined 24.8 points per game last year, trailing only Tulsa's senior backcourt of James Woodard and Shaquille Harrison.
HOME COURT SUCCESS
? East Carolina has posted a winning record at home each of the last five seasons under coach Jeff Lebo. The Pirates have won over 67 percent of their games inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum since the 2010-11 season, compiling a 59-28 record.
? The Pirates have compiled a record of 37-9 at home in non-conference games over the previous five seasons.
? East Carolina is 11-5 at home against fellow North Carolina institutions the last five years and have a trio of instate opponents on its 2015-16 home slate.
? During its first season in The American, ECU posted a 5-4 record at home which included its first-ever victory over Cincinnati and just its second win over Memphis in 17 all-time meetings.
WHITE CLOSING IN ON MILLENNIAL MARK
? Junior wing Caleb White enters his third season as a part of the Pirate Nation needing 174 points to become the 27th all-time member of East Carolina's 1,000-Point Club.
? White will look to become just the third Pirate to score more than 1,000 points in his first three seasons since freshman were ruled eligible for competition in 1972.
? White became just the second player at ECU to score more than 800 points through his sophomore campaign last season (Lester Lyons, 932, 1990-92).
? He scored over 400 points in each of his first two seasons, averaging more than 12 points per game.
TAKING OVER THE POINT
? East Carolina has three true point guards on scholarship this season with each looking to take over the starting job from Antonio Robinson, who graduated after leading The American in assist/turnover ratio last season.
? Senior Prince Williams' handed out 121 assists and averaged 26.5 minutes per game as a sophomore two years ago, playing in all 34 games with 10 starts. Last season he came off the bench and averaged just 10.1 minutes per game. He has 157 career assists against 113 career turnovers.
? Junior Charles Foster is in his first year with the Pirates after transferring from Vincennes University. He averaged 14.4 points and 5.4 assists per game last season with a 3.0 assist/turnover ratio. Foster also shot 41.5 percent from behind the 3-point line during his final junior college campaign.
? Sophomore Lance Tejada spent his freshman season as Robinson's understudy. He saw action in 33 games, averaging almost 14 minutes per game with 55 assists and 15 total steals during the year to go along with 4.1 points per game.
| East Carolina Game 1: Grambling State | |
| Date | Friday, Nov. 13 |
| Time | 8 p.m. EST |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum) |
| Live Game Coverage |  Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | ECU Pirates On Demand (Listen Live) TuneIn Radio Online (within the app search ECU or Pirate IMG Sports Network) Online: ESPN3 |
| Live Stats | GameTracker |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  |
