East Carolina Hosts USC Upstate On Monday Night To Open 2026-27 Season

Monday, November 2

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 P.M.

East Carolina University

USC Upstate

November 01, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Game 1: USC Upstate at East Carolina
Date \| Time	November 2, 2026 \| 7 p.m. ET
Location	Greenville, N.C. \| Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum
Game Program	Digital Game Program #1
Coverage	Stream: ESPN+ Radio: 107.9WNCT Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game Notes	East Carolina \| USC Upstate
Social Media	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram \| YouTube

GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina is set to begin its fifth season under head coach Michael Schwartz on Monday night when the Pirates host USC Upstate to tipoff the 2026-27 season inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET and the game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Patrick Johnson (play-by-play) and Jay Sonnhalter (analyst) on the call. Fans can also tune in to 107.9 WNCT FM, 94.3 The Game or download the IBX Media App to hear Dylan Johnson call the action.

The Pirates have been successful in season openers, having won 26 in a row entering Monday night. ECU fields almost a completely new roster with only three players returning from last season's team in Jayshayne Woodard, Eli DeLaurier and Daithi Quinn.

Seven of the Pirates' 11 newcomers arrived via the transfer portal in Cian Medley, Brycen Blaine, Kaden Cooper, Kaseem Watson, Jordyn Buchanan, Trevor Best and Matthew Hinton while Maxim Klitschko, Dreylan Creasy-Quirindoongo, Ashton McCullough and Mason Pandov are set to begin their first season of collegiate basketball.

Scouting the Spartans
USC Upstate returns just two players from last season's 13-19 team, highlighted by big man Coen Collier and guard CJ Rich. Transfer Jalyn Patterson leads an incoming group of transfers as the sophomore averaged 14 points per game and 3.6 assists per game last season at Navarro College while David Tubek (UTEP) and Zach Johnson (UCF) bring reinforcements in the paint and at the guard spot respectively.

Series History
ECU leads the all-time series with USC Upstate 3-1 but the last meeting between the two ball clubs back on Nov. 15, 2023 resulted in an 83-81 Spartans' win in Greenville. The Pirates are 2-1 against USC Upstate in Greenville.

On This Date
Monday will mark the first time that the Pirates have played on November 2 since game dates started being recorded at the beginning of the 1960-61 season. It is also the earliest that the Pirates have started their season in the month of November.

Up Next
East Carolina continues its homestand on Saturday when it hosts UNCW at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.