Aug 6, 2007, 20:00 GMT
Greenville, NC - East Carolina men's basketball coach Ricky Stokes has decided to take a new position as associate athletic director for basketball.
Stokes spent the past two seasons guiding the Pirate program, which will now be headed by Mack McCarthy. McCarthy, who had been the associate coach, was named the acting head coach for the 2007-08 season by ECU athletic director Terry Holland.
'Coach Stokes' career change will allow him to continue building a first class basketball program here at ECU by helping us plan and finance a practice facility for our basketball and volleyball programs,' said Holland in a release Monday. 'The important building blocks for future success are in place at ECU because of Coach Stokes' hard work and leadership over the last two seasons.'
Stokes, who played under Holland at Virginia in the early 1980s, led East Carolina to a record of 14-44 in his two seasons. The Pirates were just 8-20 in his first year and 6-24 last season.
'Coach Stokes' move to athletics administration relieves some of the pressure on the team to win a specific number of games this season and gives the remaining staff members and the team an opportunity to develop chemistry at a level that would have been difficult with the distraction created by continual speculation regarding Coach Stokes' position as the head coach,' Holland added.
Stokes was also the head coach at Virginia Tech from 1999 through 2003, guiding the Hokies to a mark of 45-70.
McCarthy, meanwhile, has compiled a record of 309-177 during his head coaching tenure at Virginia Commonwealth and Chattanooga. At Chattanooga, he was a three-time Southern Conference Coach of the Year and led the Mocs to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 1997.
Assistant coach Chris Ferguson will take over McCarthy's role of associate head coach.
© 2007 The Sports Network
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