Preview: Men's Basketball vs. ECU

Tulane (13-6, 3-2 Conference USA) vs. ECU Pirates (7-10, 1-3 C-USA)

Saturday, January 26th, 2008 6 pm
Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum


Overview: Tulane is coming off a three game winning streak in C-USA after victories against Tulsa, Rice and most recently SMU at Fogelman. Now the Wave begins a three game road stretch on Saturday against ECU. The Pirates have only won one C-USA game this year, a home victory against Marshall. ECU is 6-7 at home this season while Tulane has a 4-2 record against schools while playing in the Eastern Time zone.

Last Meeting: Tulane has a five game winning streak against ECU, which is the longest against a C-USA member. Last year Tulane won both its games against ECU, 65-56 in North Carolina and 88-72 in Fogelman. In that senior night game, then junior David Gomez and senior Chris Moore combined for 42 points.

Scouting ECU: The Pirates are coached by Mack McCarthy a former ECU associate head coach who got the full head coaching position when Ricky Stokes’ resigned in 2007. McCarthy has a 309-177 record at head coach of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth. Senior guard Darrell Jenkins set the ECU single season record for assists with 166 in the 2006-7 season. He was ECU’s leading scorer in their recent lost to UAB. Off the bench sophomore John Fields, became the first freshman to lead C-USA in field goal percentage, shooting 62.4 percent from the field in the 2006-7 season. ECU is averaging 69.8 points and 34.4 rebounds per game this season.

Player to Watch: Look for sophomore point guard Kevin Sims to be running the floor. In Tulane’s game against SMU he controlled the pace in the second half, speeding up play thus givingTulane the chance to stretch its narrow point lead and hold off SMU for scoring for seven straight minutes.

Prediction: History will be proved correct again in the game against ECU. Tulane will continue their winning streak against the Pirates and their winning streak in C-USA. This will be a good start to Tulane’s three game stretch away from Fogelman. Tulane wins 76-52.