Choose Charleston

Today I will take a moment to highlight one of the local teams that will join the Charleston Classic 2010 field. The East Carolina Men’s Basketball program is the polar opposite of George Mason, who we covered yesterday. To put it in perspective, East Carolina has not had a winning season since 1996-1997.  The Pirates last NCAA tournament appearance was in 1992-1993 and the last NCAA tournament win? Well keep googling that along with how many titles East Carolina’s basketball program has ever won.  I will give you a hint, it rhymes with hero.

Speaking of hero, East Carolina is hoping that newly hired Head Coach Jeff Lebo can change history and do it in a hurry.  For any of you Southern Conference diehards reading this, you are probably familiar with Lebo.  Lebo coached Chattanooga to two winning seasons before heading off to bigger but maybe not better things at Auburn.  Auburn is a tough sell for any basketball coach.  Lebo was not immune to this problem but did find some success by posting a 24-12 record in the 2003-2004 season.  Auburn was looking for someone to take them to next level and Lebo came up short. His next season was another losing season but quickly found another job at ECU.  This year will probably be a struggle for the Pirates and Lebo.  Coaching changes are never easy but East Carolina seems to have made a solid decision to hire Lebo as he has proven he can win and is familiar with recruiting the southern region.

In Summary: I have no clue what to expect out of ECU.  Lebo says his club will play hard and fight.  He may be a bit low on talent this season and will probably still be trying to find out what guys work best together by the time he takes his Pirates to the Charleston Classic 2010 tournament.

Interesting Fact: East Carolina upset N.C. State in Sidney Lowe’s first trip to Greenville as Head Coach of the Wolfpack.  Lebo has brought in the son of former ACC great Ralph Sampson (Who played against Sidney Lowe) Robert Sampson this year.  The Pirates lost to 2010 Charleston Classic participant UNCC 80-68.