Don’t accuse East Carolina men’s basketball coach Jeff Lebo and his players of not paying attention to preseason predictions.

While it’s become common for coaches to say they don’t put much stock in ranking teams before they’ve even had an official practice, it was clear during ECU media day on Wednesday that Lebo’s club being picked to finish at or near the bottom of Conference USA might’ve struck a nerve for the Pirates.

“I just got back from Dallas for Conference USA media day,” Lebo said at the Murphy Center. “I didn’t see officially where we were picked (but) I saw a whole lot of magazines where we were picked preseason anywhere from 10 in the league to last. Our kids have read that, and we obviously feel that we are better than that.”

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