The words championship and East Carolina basketball don’t appear in the same sentence often.

In fact, since the men’s team began its first season in 1931, the Pirates have won just two conference titles and the first ECU club to accomplish the feat — the 1971-72 Southern Conference tournament champions — were honored at halftime of Saturday’s East Carolina-Rice game.

“The talent was there. The coaching was there. It was just a matter of us putting it all together,” said Dave McNeil, a junior guard on the title team, during a dinner Friday at CPW’s celebrating the 40th anniversary of the ’72 championship. “It was one of those situations where everything came together at one time. ... It was our time and we deserved it because we were a good team.”

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