ECU Women's Basketball holds first preseason practice

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The ECU women’s basketball team held its first team practice of the 2017-18 season Monday afternoon inside the Smith-Williams Center. The Pirates begin competition Nov. 10 at home when they host USC Upstate at 8 p.m. inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

“One of the messages I’ve given the team is everybody gets the first practice day,” eighth-year head coach Heather Macy said. “That’s a predetermined date every single year. The way that we approach our practice environment will determine when that end date is going to be whether that’s gonna be super early in March or we are going to play until it’s warm outside. The goal for our women’s basketball team is to be playing when the warm weather starts.”

It was a full-length practice for the team of five returners and nine newcomers. From the start, Coach Macy had the team running high-energy offensive and defensive drills that put the team’s offseason conditioning to the test.

“They don’t feel new to us because we have been recruiting them for so long we are so thankful they are finally here in a Pirate jersey,” Macy said of the nine newcomers. “The blend of returners and experience is really, really positive. I think right now we are getting to get some players coaching other players.”

With 40 days until the season-opener, ECU will practice 30 times during that time frame. ECU has 16 home games scheduled including eight of its 13 non-conference contests taking place inside Minges Coliseum.

“It’s always great to be in Minges,” Macy said. “We were part of a 26-game home winning streak that was the largest in the country, I think behind UConn, at one point so it’s always great to be home. We’ve gotten more students involved and it’s really helping to create a home-court advantage. “