GREENVILLE č The Pirates found out there would be icing on their cake Sunday when the team accepted an invitation to play in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT), which starts tonight when East Carolina hosts Jacksonville University at 8 p.m.

It has been a season of first for ECU as first-year head coach Jeff Lebo has led the team to its first winning season in 14 years, its first-ever Conference USA tournament victory, and has now guided the Pirates to their first postseason tournament since the 1992-93 season.

East Carolina (18-15) locked up its appearance in the CIT thanks in large part to an extraordinary past month of basketball in which the team topped UTEP and Memphis before winning its first Conference USA tournament game over Central Florida and moving on to stun Conference USA regular season champions UAB in the second round of the tourney.

The Pirates run at a C-USA tournament title came to an end in the next round when they fell to eventual champions Memphis, but the point was already made: ECU deserved the right to continue playing basketball somewhere.

Lebo said that he hopes to make playing in March a tradition in Greenville.

“It was exciting (to get the invitation),” Lebo said. “In this league you walk into a place like UAB and you look at the rafters and you see that like 25 of the past 30 years they have been in the postseason. You go into UTEP and you look at the (banners that represent its) history, then you come in here (Minges Coliseum) and you see one.

“I know it’s not the NCAA, I know it’s not the NIT, but to have the chance to play in the postseason … In basketball it’s a lot harder then it is in football to have a chance to play postseason. So to get a chance to play another day and to get some extra practices for your younger players and to give the team a taste of what it’s like is very valuable. We get a chance to say we played in the postseason; over half the teams right now are home.”

The CIT, which was founded in 2009, is comprised of 24 teams and includes other notables such as Marshall and SMU.

The Pirates will look to capture their 19th victory of the season, which would tie for the most ever in the program’s history, tonight when they host Jacksonville University, which hails from the Atlantic Sun Conference and heads into tonight’s matchup with a 19-11 record.

The Dolphins have made three straight postseason appearances. Last year they were invited to the NIT and knocked off No. 1 Arizona State in the first round.

Leading the Dolphins is Atlantic Sun Defensive Player of the Year and first-team all-conference selection Ayron Hardy. Hardy is a 6-5 senior who is posting a team-high 12.5 points a game, while pulling down 6.1 boards a night.

This season, Jacksonville upset then-ranked No. 20 Florida in overtime and will certainly be a tough out for the Pirates.

“They are very quick and very athletic,” Lebo said. “They can score in transition and can really defend. For as small as they are, they are a very good offensive rebounding team. We have a size advantage on them, but they have speed and quickness at a lot of spots.”

East Carolina will be lacking a lot of its speed and quickness as it will be without its senior point guard, and all-time assist leader, Brock Young who tore his ACL playing against UAB in the second round of the C-USA tourney.

Young had been struggling all season with his right knee, which had to have surgery to repair a torn meniscus during the preseason, and now will have to surgery to his left knee.

Lebo said it will take a team effort to pick up the slack in Young’s absence.

“We are going to have to play (Peter) Torlak, and Jontae (Sherrod) at backup point guard … It’s a big factor,” Lebo said.

Another big factor has been the play of ECU center Darrius Morrow who averaged 21.7 points and 13.3 rebounds per game during the Pirates’ three C-USA tourney games.

“(Winning) in the conference tournament helped us a lot, it showed that it can be done,” Morrow said. “We just need to keep playing hard. It’s March, anything can happen in college basketball.”

Earlier in the season the 6-8 Morrow came under fire for his lack of conditioning, but on Monday he said his newly found dedication to fitness has fueled his impressive play.

“My conditioning has put me in place to play at a higher level like I am right now,” Morrow said. “I step on the scale and I way 240, which means I lost near 30 pounds during the season. I’m getting my timing back like I used to have when I was a freshman. … It’s the best physical condition I have been in since my 10th grade year in high school. I can run, jump, rebound, my timing is there and I’m blocking shots … I feel very confident. I can use my offensive skills to take advantage of defensive mismatches all over the floor.”