Morales enjoying big adventure (Rivals.com)

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:56:00 PDT

GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina University basketball signee Darius Morales is competing against some of the...

East Carolina Team Report (Yahoo! Sports)

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:00:41 PDT

East Carolina coach Mack McCarthy was hopeful his team would come together and move up from its 10th-place finish in Conference USA from last season, when the Pirates finished 11-19 overall.

With only one starter returning, McCarthy knew it likely was going to be a learning process for the team, which returned only two seniors, Sam Hinnant and James Legan.

The team's early-season success—an 8-1 start to the campaign—raised expectations, though, and in that view, the Pirates were underachievers in 2008-09.

But looking at the season as a whole, through the expectations the team had going in, the 13-17 campaign wasn't too bad, considering the loss of so much experience from the previous team.

Hinnant and Legan were both senior standouts,...