Jeff Lebo promised that success really could happen for long-struggling East Carolina. The coach is giving fans hope in his first season.
The Pirates are flirting with their first winning season in 14 years, as well as their winningest record in Conference USA. Attendance is up, too, creating glimpses of the rowdy atmosphere that follows football but has never consistently taken hold in basketball.
''We're in an area with the kids where we're playing meaningful basketball in the month of February,'' Lebo said. ''That's kind of a new position for them to be in.''
East Carolina has had 27 losing seasons in the past 35 years, hasn't finished higher than ninth in the league and has just two NCAA tournament appearances - the last in 1993. But the Pirates (13-11, 5-5) have already matched their best win total of the past nine seasons and need one more win for a school record for C-USA victories heading into Wednesday's trip to Tulsa.
And with the Pirates nearing their first winning season since 1997, the program also has its best attendance figures for league home games in eight years.
The 44-year-old Lebo spent the past six seasons at Auburn before he was fired after going 96-93. He was hampered by an outdated coliseum then was let go with the Tigers preparing to open a $90 million arena. He then returned to the state where he is best known for playing for Dean Smith in the 1980s at North Carolina, one of the storied Atlantic Coast Conference programs that have long dominated the spotlight and overshadowed the Pirates.
''I've always believed that while there's not a lot of tradition here at East Carolina with basketball, this is a basketball state,'' Lebo said. ''These are educated basketball fans. And they appreciate and will attend basketball (games) if you can put a product out there consistently that will play hard and hopefully learn to play what I always say is the right way.
''We're not going to win every game, but it's sharing the basketball, trying to play smart, playing with effort.,'' he said. ''(Do) all those things, they'll come out. And that's what's happened here - at least to this point.''
It hasn't all been easy. Lebo demanded more effort and intensity from his team during preseason, then tossed several players from practices to make his point.
''It sends the message that he's not playing, that we need to listen to what he's saying because it'll help us in the long run,'' senior guard Brock Young said. ''You look at all these other programs like Duke and these other top schools, they do what it takes to win. They put in the time and effort, and that's what he's trying to instill in us.''
The Pirates also fought through a stretch that included consecutive losses on last-second shots at Coastal Carolina and George Washington, followed by a three-point loss at Memphis a few weeks later.
On Saturday, the Pirates got off to a miserable start and fell behind by 27 points midway through the second half against Marshall. But they nearly pulled off an amazing comeback, getting within five points with 5 minutes left to send the home crowd into an ear-ringing roar before fading late in a 78-65 loss.
Still, the energy in Minges Coliseum was reminiscent of when rowdy crowds greeted big names like Rick Pitino and Louisville - or when ECU upset Dwyane Wade and Final Four-bound Marquette - before those schools left Conference USA for the Big East after the 2004-05 season. And with 6,741 fans, the program set a season-high for home attendance for the third straight game.
Lebo ''has done a tremendous job of pumping new life (into the program),'' said Marshall coach Tom Herrion, whose brother Bill was head coach here from 1999-2005. ''There hasn't been that atmosphere in this building since my brother was here and some of those other bigger schools were coming in here to play. That says a lot about where the program is headed.''
The players have noticed, too.
Lebo recently started pumping in crowd noise for practices before East Carolina's home games because his players didn't communicate well enough, and said his players have even looked tight at home because they want to keep the fans coming back.
Junior Darrius Morrow said some professors even confided that it's the first time they've been excited to come to a basketball game.
''The past two years I've been here, February was just another month away from the season being over,'' Morrow said. ''Now February is very meaningful. ... We're right in the midst of things.''
