Hampton coach wrote his script

Say this for Hampton men's basketball coach Ed Joyner Jr., he has a sense for the moment.

"What better script can you write?" Joyner asked Thursday, the day before his 16th-seed Pirates were to face top-seed Duke in a second-round NCAA tournament game at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Joyner, 38, a Winston-Salem native who attended Charlotte's Harding High before playing and coaching at Johnson C. Smith, had this script already etched in his mind two weeks ago, as Hampton prepared for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Association tournament in Winston-Salem.

Hampton U. coach looking for any advantage before playing Duke

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —— Ed Joyner Jr. was taking suggestions Thursday for tools he might use to demonstrate that the task at hand is difficult, but not impossible.

In advance of Friday's David vs. Goliath matchup against No. 1 seed Duke in the NCAA tournament, Hampton University's head coach planned to show his players video of the Pirates' upset of second-seeded Iowa State in the 2001 NCAA tournament.

Joyner said, only partly in jest, that he would show them the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's Miracle On Ice upset of the Soviets, the movie "Rudy" and anything else he could think of.

"I think they're already pumped up," he said. "Anything to show them it has and should be done."

Hampton's chore, 10 years later

From the NCAA tournament in Charlotte:

Meant to say earlier, I thought Hampton coach Ed Joyner was amusing Thursday during his media session, especially when a natural question was raised about a former Hampton U. tournament upset – 10 years ago in Boise, Idaho.

The 15th-seeded Pirates beat No. 2 Iowa State 58-57 that day – how about that; Iowa State (3-13 in the Big 12 this year) was a No. 2! And Joyner was asked why, as a Hampton player noted earlier, he’d not used that video as motivation for his team, seeded 16th, against No. 1 Duke on Friday.

“Everything, I believe, is timing,” he said. “It ain’t the right time yet. Trust me, they’re going to see it tonight along with “Miracle,” “Rudy”, anything else you can find.”

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