Spring Break
McCarthy hopes Pirates continue improvement
Kellen Holtzman
Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: Sports
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Now entering his second season and first without an "interim" tag, McCarthy is aiming to take the team a step closer to its first winning season since 1996-1997.
Last season the Pirates finished 11-19, but gave fans a glimpse of the potential the program has with wins over N.C. State, Houston and George Mason.
"We're really excited about the second year of our program going forward," said McCarthy on Monday. "…We've got a long ways to go, but we feel like we're on the right track. We finished strong with three wins in our last four regular season games. We didn't finish the [Conference USA] tournament like we wanted to but we feel like we did make some positive steps. Now we'll try to grow on that."
One of the challenges for McCarthy will be replacing six outgoing players with five freshmen and a transfer walk-on.
A rash of off-season attrition overshadowed the news that McCarthy would be retained as Head Coach for the next five seasons. ECU expected to replace seniors Darrell Jenkins, Cory Farmer and Taylor Gagnon, but replacing six players came as a surprise.
Forward Gabe Blair, one of the top rebounders in C-USA, decided to transfer to Wichita State. John Fields, another low post presence and talented shot blocker, will be suiting up for rival UNC-Wilmington next season. Guard Brandon Evans left the Pirates for the Spartans of UNC-Greensboro.
Sam Hinnant will be one of two seniors, along with James Legan, expected to pick up the slack and provide on and off the court leadership.
"We're all on the same page," said Hinnant. "Last year, we had some teammates who only cared about themselves but this year everybody is worried about the team and not about their own individual stats. We just want to come out and play hard for East Carolina and not for ourselves."
Hinnant emerged as ECU's most reliable scoring threat last season averaging 11.0 points per game and netting 30 points twice, against N.C. State and Houston.
Hinnant will be the centerpiece of a backcourt that features his classmate James Legan. Hinnant and Legan are the biggest reason why the Pirates had the top three-point field goal percentage in C-USA last season. The two combined for nearly 130 total made three-point shots in 2007-2008.
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