The East Carolina men’s basketball team started the season 10-3, but have dropped their last 4 games, and 6 of the last 7. It’s needless to say the Pirate basketball fans may have been given false hope early in the season. The one thing the Pirates have shown different this year is fight. The team has come back multiple times from double digits to win and have won six of their games by single digit margins.
However, since January 18th the team is scoring just 58.5 points per game and is shooting just 31.6% from the floor. When asked about the lack of offensive production Pirate coach Joe Dooley talked about how good the defensives the Pirates have faced of late have been, he mentioned Memphis, Cincinnati and Houston by name. Luckily the Pirates upcoming opponents don’t rank as high in defense. With that being said the Pirates have put up 72 and 54 points up on a Memphis team that has let up at lead 74 points in nine of their twenty-one games this year. It is clean if the Pirates want to have a solid finish in the conference standings the scoring has got to improve.
The scoring doesn’t have to be anything spectacular as the Pirates have been good at one end of the floor this year. The team has only let up 80 points twice this season and is ranked in the top half in defensive efficiency. The team is 49th in free throw percentage and have been doing a much better job getting to the line, thus giving their offense one bright spot.
Despite the slump the attendance seems to have stayed fairly consistent. Maybe the Pirate faithful can will their team to a few more wins this season as there are four home games left and the bottom two teams in the conference still have to visit Greenville.
-Phillip Pilkington