GREENVILLE č The Pirates will play their final home game of the season tonight against perennial Conference USA powerhouse Memphis, a team they have never beaten. If they can find a way to way to top the Tigers, it will not only allow the four seniors on the team to leave on a high note, but it will also lock up the program’s first winning season since 1997.

It has been an up and down four years for ECU seniors Brock Young, Jamar Abrams, Jontae Sherrod and Chad Wynn. When that group arrived in Greenville they had to endure the firing of Ricky Stokes and the hiring of his assistant Mack McCarthy. Three years later they witnessed the dismissal of McCarthy and the hiring of current coach Jeff Lebo.

While that group was learning new systems, it also earned a few big wins. Their most memorable victory came when they beat N.C. State 75-69 to earn ECU’s first-ever win over an ACC opponent. That victory came during the 2007-08 season when the Pirates were coached by McCarthy.

However, those big wins were few and far between. There have been a lot of bumps and bruises along the way for the quartet, but if the Pirates (15-13, 7-7) can get a victory tonight over Memphis (21-8, 9-5) than those four seniors can leave East Carolina as winners in more ways than one.

“It would be big to win my last home game at Minges,” Young said. “It would mean that we beat Memphis for the first time ever.”

Young is the most prolific of the four seniors as he has become not only the team’s most popular player, but the school’s all-time assist leader with 595 helpers.

The 5-11 Raleigh native is best known for his eye-opening, no-look passes, but he should also be recognized for his heart. The Broughton graduate came to Greenville with both of his front teeth and two healthy knees. He is not leaving that way.

Last season Young got his two front teeth knocked out during a loss to N.C. State, but finished playing the game and didn’t miss a beat. This season, Young had to have surgery to repair his meniscus in his right knee right before the season started. The injury cut down Young’s minutes, but not his impact on the team. In the Pirates last win, a 71-68 thriller over Rice, he dished out a game-high nine assists. Young has battled the knee injury all season, but despite that he has managed to be the team’s fourth-leading scorer with 10.3 points a night, while averaging a team-high 4.5 assists per game.

Young, who has played most of the season with a brace on his knee, admitted to wondering just how good a season the Pirates could have had if he was 100 percent.

“It’s in the back of my head sometimes, but I don’t like to dwell on what I think things would be,” Young said. “I have to make the best of what I got and play my hardest.”

Another player known for giving 100 percent is 6-7 forward Jamar Abrams, who was named the Conference USA Player of the Week on Monday as he averaged 21.5 points in two games to lead ECU to back-to-back wins over UTEP and Rice.

One of the best athletes on the team, Abrams has supplied Pirates’ fans with numerous highlight reel dunks and plenty of deep threes over the past four seasons.

“It’s gone by so fast; working hard to make ECU better and myself better, it has just gone by so fast,” Abrams said.

The Richmond, Va. native is posting 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds a game this season and said that he feels he is leaving the program better off than when he got here.

“When I came in ECU was kind of struggling,” Abrams said. “The first couple of years we did struggle some more but I think this year we finally have gotten everything together. We are playing as a team and doing what it takes to win.”

Of all the seniors, the one who stepped up his play the most this season is Sherrod. The 6-3 Tarboro native entered this season as a career 5.8 points per game scorer, but heading into tonight’s game the shooting guard is posting a C-USA ninth-best 15.3 points per contest.

Sherrod said a win against Memphis would be extremely special.

“It’s important, it would mean a lot to me and everybody else on the team, especially the seniors,” Sherrod said.

Like Abrams, Sherrod said he feels like the ECU basketball team is better now than it was when he signed on.

“Most definitely, I feel like we are leaving on a good note,” Sherrod said. “If we can leave with a winning season, especially because we haven’t had one in so long, I would feel like we are leaving on a good note.”

Sherrod felt so positive about the program’s future that he wished he had one more year of eligibility.

“I wish I had a little genie or whatever that could grant me another year,” Sherrod said. “This is a great coaching staff right now. Coach Lebo and his staff know basketball and the team is in a great situation right now and next year it will be the same.”

Wynn, the only fifth-year senior in the group, said he and his teammates will be pumped for tonight’s game.

“We are all ready to play, especially the seniors. We will be playing with a lot of emotion,” Wynn said. “It’s the last home game for us and we are going to go out there and play tough.”