THE GOOD NEWS
The Pirates return their leading scorer, junior G Sam Hinnant, and their two best inside players, sophomore Fs Gabe Blair and John Fields. They also return junior G James Legan, a JUCO transfer who helped improve their perimeter scoring, and two freshmen -- PG Brock Young and F Jamar Abrams -- who showed some promise off the bench.

THE BAD NEWS
The Pirates will still be thin on talent and numbers, and if ECU doesn't retain interim coach Mack McCarthy, they will be working with their third coach in three seasons.

KEY RETURNEES
G Sam Hinnant, G James Legan, F Gabe Blair, F John Fields, F Jamar Abrams, G Brock Young.

ROSTER REPORT

--The Pirates must replace the defense G Cory Farmer and F Taylor Gagnon provided, but the toughest loss will be PG Darrell Jenkins, a capable scorer who led C-USA in assists in his two seasons at ECU.

--While Hinnant returns after scoring 11.4 points per game, the Pirates will need him to be a more consistent go-to scorer. Hinnant scored 30 points in two games but also scored six points or less in 12 games.

--There have been times over the past two seasons when Blair and Fields have controlled the paint, especially in terms of rebounding and scoring, and times when they have disappeared. Blair went from 5.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game as a freshman to 7.6 points and 6.8 rebounds as a sophomore while Fields went from 9.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game as a freshman to 9.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game as a sophomore.

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