Mack McCarthy's Letters of Marque
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Each month Coach McCarthy will blog about the latest happenings in ECU basketball in his "Letters of Marque." In addition, he will answer selected questions regarding the program, the state of college basketball, and a myriad of other topics. Questions can be submitted by clicking the link below.
August 20, 2008
Week 14
Pirate Fans,
School started today and we've have already had team meetings with folks from compliance, student development, sports medicine, the equipment room, strength and conditioning and others. We will also be having meetings with local and campus law enforcement, campus leaders, athletic administration, faculty and staff, and many other groups. We will also be active in community relations projects. All of this will be done in addition to going to class, conditioning, lifting, study hall, tutors, small group instruction, free play, and just generally getting acclimated to this new team. You can see we've got quite a bit on our plates. A lot of progress has been made and some significant steps have been taken. I truly believe each of the returnees has improved. They all made progress due to the strength and conditioning program, and they all worked hard at their weaknesses, skill-wise. DaQuan Joyner seems to have made the biggest jump, mostly in terms of conditioning and confidence.We have a talented, but not very deep or experienced team. They genuinely like each other and get along very well. That will be important if we are to become the team we all desire.
This is final weekly blog of the summer, but we will continue to do the letters throughout the academic year, but monthly. Many of your questions will be answered via our website and the media coverage. I enjoy answering the specific questions, so the letters go on!
Again, we need your help. Our very attractive schedule will be announced soon. Buy tickets. Come to games. Be positive and supportive. We CAN do this, but not without you all. Thanks again and keep those questions coming. Go Pirates!
Mack
Brian,
Since we start school today, it appears that our roster is set other than a possible walk-on or two. We do need a couple big bodies. We were involved with a couple big kids who were available, but the best move for our long-term approach was to utilize that scholarship in the next class. None of the players available were the exact package we needed. A stop gap move might have helped us in the short-term, but this is best for the future of Pirate basketball.
Gregory,
Great questions! I've talked with many coaches and you can get as many opinions about the impact of the three-point line as you want. Everyone seems to have a different take. For instance, many coaches feel more people will play zone. However, Jim Boeheim thinks the line being moved back will hurt his patented 2-3 zone. I do think the space between the line and the post area might make for more post play. Also, I think the line won't hurt the good three-point shooters, but it might eliminate those marginal shooters from taking the long distance shot. It will still be a big part of our offense.
I know everyone makes a big deal of size (even I am guilty of this on occasion), but you can be a good defensive and rebounding team without overwhelming size. We will utilize a four perimeter players around one big offensive set a lot this season. We truly only have two post players--Morrow and Wynn--and even Darrius can step away from the basket and make plays. Therefore, it is inevitable that we will be unconventional offensively and defensively. That being said, we can still be very athletic and active and give people different looks to keep bigger teams from being at an advantage. We can play Morrow and Wynn and Abrams or Joyner together, too. Their skill level offensively allows us to do that, where the bigs we have had in the past had limited skills which kept us from utilizing bigger lineups.
August 13, 2008
Week 13
Pirate Fans,
Only one week until classes begin! Wow! Where did the summer go? I must admit I'm very excited to get all the guys back on campus and begin the individual workout sessions. They each improved a lot on their own over the summer, but now its time to help refine their skills. As a coach, being in the gym for practice is one of my favorite times.
Thanks again for all your questions this week. Next week will be my final blog of the summer, but we are considering updating the "letters" once a month during the school year. I've had a blast receiving and answering your questions throughout the summer. Thanks for your interest and making this feature on our website such a success. Talk to ya'll next week.
Mack
Greg,
You've asked some good scheduling questions regarding scheduling issues. I will address them in the order you asked.
Overseas tours: This is something we considered this year. You are limited to one of these every four years. The rules have tightened as to when you can go on these. You can do something over Labor Day and take the entire team, which was considered this year since we are so young. We debated the pros and cons and decided that getting off to a good start academically was the top priority. You can go in the summer, but we wouldn't have had enough players this year to go. Throw in summer school academic obligations and that made it tough to commit to going to Europe or wherever. Next summer we might be able to do this with eight returnees.
Exempt events: We will most likely be involved in one of these next season. We are still talking with ESPN about a tip-off tourney this year, but it doesn't look like it's going to work out. I've had teams that took great trips to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Costa Rico, and other destinations. There is really no downside to these, other than cost. You usually get to play three games, which count only as one. Many mainland events are now available, too, in very attractive locations.
Exhibition games: We debate the benefits of exhibition games versus closed scrimmages. Scrimmages are against Division I opponents, and the exhibitions are against Division II teams. Competition-wise we get more from the D-I opponents, but you make valid points that the "game-type" experience would be valuable to the team and the game operations folks, too. It would be particularly attractive to play an exhibition if we were to know we'd have a great crowd. Hopefully, those days are coming soon.
Non-DI games: We would prefer to play an all Division I schedule. This is a matter of budget as well as balancing the home and away schedule. None of the top teams in the country play more away games than home games. Unless you are willing to "buy" some D-I games, it's impossible to balance the schedule. Season ticket sales are affected, also. We played 19 home games last season and we will play 16 this year. We need to have a consistent inventory for budget purposes.
Carl,
We are going to have a "fan jam" event again this season. We will make the announcement soon about the details. It will be Friday, October 17th, the night before the Memphis football game. I thought last year was a great success and I look forward to making it even better this year.
John,
Chad Wynn has had a nice summer of improvement. He has done a lot of things in the weight room that I think will carry over to the court. He seems to be growing with confidence. In particular he has worked on his foot speed and agility. Last season was the first full season Chad had played in quite a while due to injuries and red-shirting. We are counting on him for much more production this coming season.
Nick,
The games with BCS type schools are tough to negotiate. Many people in the department are responsible for us being able to attract Clemson, NC State and Wake Forest to come to Williams Arena. It is financially a boost to our income, but getting those schools to give up a home game to play in Greenville is not easy. Those folks literally don't have to leave their building at all, due to the monies they make and the crowds they draw to home contests. Ironically, when you beat one of them, it makes it that much tougher to get them to play you on an equitable basis. We will continue to try and get as an attractive home schedule as possible for our fans and players.
Bryan,
I do go to all of the women's games when I am in town. They are a great group of coaches to work with on a daily basis and a really good group of young ladies who play hard. I really enjoy watching them play. Our team is usually represented at their games, and vice versa.
August 6, 2008
Week 12
Pirate Fans,
Summer school is over and our kids had a great summer in the classroom and the weight room. Coaches Mike Golden and Danny Wheel did an outstanding job with our kids all summer and I know that the things that they accomplished in the weight room will pay dividends on the court during the season. Only 12 days until our guys report back to school for the fall semester and only two more editions of the "Letters of Marque" for the summer. We would like your input as to whether we need to continue this feature after school starts. The early sentiment seems to be that there is enough information coming through traditional media sources that we don't need to continue the blog once the fall term begins.
Once again, I've been asked to include the questions some of which include opinions that I'm not sure the writer would want shared reference specific recruiting information which we are not allowed to post. I will try to keep this from sounding like and use as much of the questions in the answers as I can.
Jules,
You make good points about us relying far too much on our perimeter players last season. Your comments about how much heart our guys played with is very much appreciated. While we are thin in the post in terms of numbers, we are more skilled. Chad Wynn has improved and playing with more confidence and Daquan Joyner had made huge strides to the point where we are counting on him to produce a lot. Jamar Abrams is a skilled and an outstanding athlete, while Darrius Morrow is a mature freshman that we feel can step in right away and make a difference. We need to become a balanced basketball team. We have to perform better with our interior defense, rebounding, and being an offensive threat. That's really the biggest challenge for this team.
Coach Mack,
I just wanted to let you know that my family and I are supporting you all the way. We trust that you will lead us in the right direction. Thanks for what your doing and what you are going to do to make the best better at East Carolina. God Bless, Christopher Sawyer
Dave,
Thanks for your question and support. I know you all will be at every possible game, and that is very much appreciated. The latest on the practice facility probably hasn't changed. It will be a huge boon to the program when it is built. Having unlimited access to the building is a big selling point. We get the time we need in Williams Arena, but it's a tight squeeze. What the guys don't have right now is a place or time to consistently get up additional shots or work on their skills. We overcome this by being flexible and utilizing the Student Rec Center which is a beautiful facility. I know the administration understands the importance of having this addition to the program and I look forward to having that resource come online.
Den,
We have a nice locker room area. For those who haven't seen it, it is basically sectioned off into a locker room proper, a team meeting room, a lounge, a storage area, and a training room. The locker room has custom wooden lockers and a pool table as a result of some generous Pirate supporters. The meeting area has desks and comfortable leather chairs where we view video and discuss strategy for practice and games. We are also wireless so that we can even utilize this space for study hall should we need to do so. The lounge has two big screen televisions, including one plasma and another to allow the kids to play video games surrounded by overstuffed leather furniture. This has been gradually improved over my time here and is something we will continue to work on for the future. We are planning to include a more detailed locker room facilities section in our media guide this season.
Brian,
We should release the schedule soon. We are waiting on the C-USA portion of the schedule. Our non-conference schedule in finished, but we usually announce the schedule in its entirety when possible. The league schedule is a complicated process, since television plays a big part and Memphis has issues since they play in an NBA arena. We will play 16 home games this year, after playing a record 19 home games last season. I think you will find some very attractive games in Williams Arena and all five of our non-conference road games are drivable -- Coastal Carolina, UNC Wilmington, Winthrop, Clemson and NC State.
Thanks again for making this feature something I look forward to doing every week. Talk to you next week!
Mack
