Deacons Host Pirates On New Year's Day
12/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2006
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Wake Forest Hosts East Carolina In A New Year's Day Game At Joel Coliseum
Wake Forest hopes to begin 2007 on a positive note when the Demon Deacons play a rare New Year's Day afternoon home game Monday against East Carolina (2 p.m./no TV).
The Deacons, 7-5, have played well at home (6-1) while struggling on the road (1-4). Wake Forest is coming off a 75-67 loss to South Florida Friday at Tampa's St. Pete Times Forum, home of the 2007 ACC Tournament.
Wake Forest is one of college basketball's youngest teams (11 freshmen and sophomores), but the Deacons have been led on and off the court by their only fourth-year senior, 6-11 center Kyle Visser. Visser (19.4 ppg) leads the ACC in scoring, ranks second in rebounding (8.2 rpg) and second in field goal percentage (.652).
East Carolina, 4-7, has lost six straight games after beginning the season 4-1. The Pirates are coming off a 64-57 loss at NC State last Thursday.
The Pirates are balanced offensively, paced by junior guard Darrell Jenkins (12.9 ppg), senior guard Courtney Captain (10.9 ppg) and freshman forward John Fields (10.4 ppg).
Junior Jeremy Ingram, who began his career at Wake Forest before transferring to ECU, is averaging 8.9 points per game.
The in-state rivals have met just four previous times on the hardwood. Wake Forest leads the all-time series, 4-0, including a 58-54 win last season in Winston-Salem.
ECU's Ingram Began Career At Wake; Stokes Is A Former Deacon Assistant
East Carolina junior Jeremy Ingram began his career at Wake Forest and was in the same recruiting class with current Deacon senior Kyle Visser. Ingram saw action in eight Wake games during the 2003-04 season.
Ingram was part of a recruiting class that included Visser, Chris Paul and Todd Hendley, who transferred from WFU to UNC-Wilmington.
Ingram is also the cousin of former Wake Forest standout Craig Dawson, one of the top three-point shooters in Deacon history. Dawson now works in Winston-Salem as a high school basketball coach.
Ricky Stokes, East Carolina's second-year head coach, was part of one of Wake Forest's most successful runs as a Deacon assistant coach in the 1990s. Stokes served under then head coach Dave Odom, from the 1990-91 season through the 1996-97 season. During those seven seasons, Stokes was on the sidelines for seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances including three Sweet 16 berths.
Wake Forest-East Carolina Series History
- Wake Forest leads the all-time series, 4-0.
- The Demon Deacons and Bulls will meet for the first time since the 1985 postseason NIT. South Florida won that game, 77-66. Michael Drum was the only Deacon player who had been born the last time the two teams met on the hardwood.
- Wake Forest won the first and only other meeting. The Deacons beat the Bulls 95-68 on Jan. 22, 1972 in the old Winston-Salem Coliseum.
- Wake Forest is 27-39 all-time against teams from the Big East Conference, including a 78-63 loss at DePaul on Dec. 13.
- Deacon coach Skip Prosser has never coached against South Florida.
- USF coach Robert McCullum has never coached against Wake Forest.
Deacon-Pirate Connections
- Both Wake Forest and East Carolina recruit heavily within the state border. The Deacons have nine North Carolinians on the roster (including two walk-ons) and the Pirates have eight players from North Carolina.
- Wake Forest and East Carolina both rely heavily on rookies. Both the Deacons and Pirates have seven freshmen on their respective roster.
- East Carolina junior Darrell Jenkins is the cousin of former Wake Forest All-American Randolph Childress.
- Pirate freshman Greyson Sargent is from Wake Forest, N.C., site of the old Wake Forest University campus.
- East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland coached many years against Wake Forest while the head coach at Virginia. It was at Virginia that Holland hired Dave Odom as an assistant coach. Odom, of course, went on to become one of the most successful head coaches in Wake Forest history.
- ECU men's tennis coach Shawn Heinchon previously served as an assistant at Wake Forest.
- Wake Forest assistant head football coach Billy Mitchell played football and ran track at East Carolina.