‘We’ve got to move on’: CCU facing identity crisis after strong start at MB Invitational
Coastal Carolina will be left to lament what could have been this weekend in the Myrtle Beach Invitational at the HTC Center.
The Chanticleers trounced then unbeaten Pac-12 member Utah 79-57 Thursday, and had a six-point lead over Big 12 member Baylor, which is ranked 24th in the AP Top 25 poll, four minutes into the second half on Friday in the second round.
Then sophomore guard Ebrima Dibba was lost to an injury, and Baylor went on a 16-3 run shortly thereafter and pulled away for a 77-65 win over the stunned Chants.
Had CCU won, it would have faced three-time national champion and AP No. 17 Villanova in the championship game Sunday on ESPN.
Instead, following the loss to Baylor the Chants (3-4) fell to Mississippi State 81-56 in the third place game Thursday knowing that Dibba is lost for the season.
“I felt we were in shape to win the [Baylor] game,” CCU coach Cliff Ellis said. “I don’t know if we would have or not. I do know this as a fact: this team when we’ve been healthy has beaten West Virginia, has beaten Utah and had Baylor. But you know what, we don’t have that team anymore.”
Ellis was referring to CCU’s 109-91 win at West Virginia in late March in the Roman CBI Tournament prior to a five-point loss to DePaul in the third round.
“We really played well today,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “I was worried about this game watching how well Coastal Carolina has played. If the kid doesn’t get hurt, they beat Baylor.”
Dibba, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound point guard from Sweden, is out for the rest of the season with torn ligaments in his left knee as well as a partially detatched hamstring, according to Ellis. He left the Baylor game when his left leg gave out as he was rising at the basket after an open-court steal.
“He’s got a long, hard recovery in front of him,” said Ellis, who generally refers to Dibba as his nickname “Ebo.” “He is out for the year. He’s gone.”
Dibba is fourth on the team with 12.6 points per game this season and is averaging 4.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 94 percent from the free throw line.
He ran the offense for the Chants this season when redshirt sophomore Devante Jones missed the season opener, then played limited minutes after returning from a leg injury that kept him from preseason practices.
The two share point guard duties when both are healthy.
“I’ve got to get the identity of this team changed,” Ellis said. “We’ve got some freshmen that we can get to playing better and we’ve just got to do the best that we can do. That’s all we can do.”
Jones had 10 points, four assists and eight turnovers Sunday.
“They’re close, but [Jones] has got to get over it,” Ellis said. “The road to success is always under construction, and that’s what I told our team. So you’ve got to get over it. DJ has to get over it. He hasn’t been the same since [Ebo] left. We’ve got to get over it. It’s a defining moment and Ebo is counting on us.”
Ellis has had to adjust over the past two years to the loss of both Jones and Dibba at different points during both seasons.
“This team for two years has had the worst luck of any teams I’ve had back to back,” Ellis said. “It has been two seasons of hard luck. We lost D.J. last year and then right behind him we lost Dibba. We had D.J. out this year, now [Dibba] is out.
“You can’t control it. It is what it is. But I know this: when we’ve been healthy we’ve been pretty doggone good. I think the country saw that. But we’re not the same team right now.”
The Chants have four non-conference games remaining before beginning Sun Belt Conference play on Dec. 19 at Troy.
“Our identity has changed so we need to get on the practice floor,” Ellis said. “There are some things I think we need to adjust and do and we haven’t had time to do it with the loss of [Dibba]. . . . We have to get a new unit together and we’re basically starting over.”
The Chants defeated Middle Tennessee State on Monday before starting tournament play on Thursday. “We couldn’t have a physical practice [Saturday] so it was not fair to this team to walk in and put that team together and play a team like that, but it is what it is,” Ellis said. “We’ve got to get our heads up, we’ve got to move on.”
The tournament is owned and operated by ESPN, and all 12 games this week were televised on ESPN’s family of networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNews.
Though the Chanticleers can only participate once every four years and aren’t eligible to play again until 2023, Ellis believes the tournament will be good for the university and the basketball program’s recruiting efforts because of the annual national exposure of the CCU facilities and Myrtle Beach.
“They show that Chanticleer. It’s huge,” Ellis said. “It’s not the first time we’ve played power [conference] teams here, but it’s hard to do that. We got three of them here at one time on a national stage.
“. . . We think that we played three great basketball teams in a row and at some point down the line I think this will prove to be a benefit to us.”
He said he has already been contacted by multiple people saying they have high school players interested in the program.
“My phone went off the hook after [Friday],” Ellis said. “Everybody got to see how good our team really was becoming. Coastal can’t buy that. You can’t get this kind of publicity.”
Tournament schedule
Thursday
Villanova 98, Middle Tennessee State 69
Mississippi State 80, Tulane 60
Baylor 76, Ohio 53
Coastal Carolina 79, Utah 57
Friday
Tulane 86, Middle Tennessee 74
Villanova 83, Mississippi State 76
Baylor 77, Coastal Carolina 65
Utah 80, Ohio 66
Sunday
Fifth Place - Tulane 65, Utah 61
Third Place - Mississippi State 81, Coastal Carolina 56
Championship - Baylor 87, Villanova 78
Consolation - Middle Tennessee vs. Ohio, late
This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 6:47 PM.
