Fresh Faces Report To Campus

GREENVILLE, N.C. --- ECU's 2018 freshman class reported to campus on Wednesday and officially enrolled in the university's second summer session of classes, thus initiating their Pirate basketball careers.

Newcomers Tyler Foster (Baltimore, Md.), Jayden Gardner (Wake Forest, N.C.), Tae Hardy (Decatur, Ga.), Rico Quinton (Newbern, Tenn.) and DeShaun Wade (Charlottesville, Va.) will each get their first taste of college life over the next 37 days.

Summer session two runs for approximately five weeks with final exams taking place on July 27. The Pirates are permitted four hours of skill work per week during that period before practice begins in earnest in late September.

"I think we've got good character with this group," ECU Head Coach Joe Dooley said. "These are guys that we can go forward with and are going to help us build this program. Hopefully they'll have success like last year's freshmen class. I'm sure they'll come in eyes wide open."

Those five new faces join returning starters Isaac Fleming and Dimitrije Spasojevic, American Athletic Conference Rookie-of-the-Year Shawn Williams and sophomores K.J. Davis and Justin Whatley for the 2018-19 season. Virginia Tech transfer Seth LeDay is also back after sitting out last season in compliance with NCAA rules.

The five returning scholarship lettermen combined to average 35.5 points, 12.6 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game last season. Fleming ranked second in The American in assists per game (4.8), while Williams was the conference's top free throw shooter (.878) and was third in 3-point field goals made per game (2.4).

Davis, Fleming, LeDay, Whatley and Williams were each enrolled in the university's first summer session of classes along with walk-ons John Whitley and Addison Hill and were able to receive skills instruction from the coaching staff in addition to developing their bodies through the strength and conditioning program.

"We're in much better shape," Dooley stated. "The weight room gains have been very good; our body fat is down. Our ability to get through drills and do things is much further along than it was earlier."

With the entire roster now on campus, Dooley plans take full advantage of the extended opportunity given by the NCAA to get to know his personnel the remainder of the summer.

"We're going to get some offensive skill work in," he explained. "It'll give us a chance to evaluate and see how we want to play. We're not really sure yet how we want to play because we haven't seen all the pieces together. We have some concepts, but I think the next few weeks will give us a clearer picture of what we want to do."

Players Mentioned

K.J. Davis

Isaac Fleming

Addison Hill

Seth LeDay

Dimitrije Spasojevic

Justin Whatley

John Whitley

Shawn Williams

Footer