LuDawg's ECU vs Tulane Wednesday Night

GREENVILLE — East Carolina’s locker room was deathly quiet Saturday night.

The plane ride home, save for the din of the engine, was utterly devoid of sound.

As the highest peaks of the Appalachians stretched in the darkness below, point guard Brock Young believes, the Pirates had reached a new low.

“We hit rock bottom after that game,” Young said, referring to an embarrassing 100-49 Conference USA loss at Marshall in which ECU sank just 12-of-48 shots.

“It was quiet. Nobody said anything.”

Young and the last-place Pirates (7-16, 1-8 C-USA) get a chance to alter their direction today when they play host to Tulane, the only league team they’ve beaten this season.

Despite Saturday’s lopsided loss, ECU coach Mack McCarthy said his team made progress toward implementing an overhauled offense designed to create better shots and distribute scoring.

The scoreboard, he pointed out, told a different story.

“It was kind of a perfect storm: us playing less than good and them playing very well, and it snowballed,” McCarthy said, adding that his staff watched film from the Marshall game but the players did not. “Amazingly, there were some very good things that we did, and we weren’t able to finish them.”

It’s become a theme; lately, the Pirates have been like a football team with a poor red zone offense. Since a 76-68 loss at UAB on Jan. 6 that began a current tumble of nine games with one win, ECU has made just 38.2 percent of its shots.

Even with open looks, which the redesigned offense produced Saturday, shooting remains an issue.

And then, Young said, it’s a matter of confidence, focus and desire.

“I think for the most part, we did what we were supposed to do (Saturday). We ran the offense,” Young said. “I thought we ran that pretty well. The shots really weren’t falling, and then once the game got out of hand, you’ve lost everything just to keep playing. You don’t even want to play no more.”

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Like I said, this team has quit on the season and Tulane has all the motivation to return the favor in Greenville.