Eddie Payne belongs to a club that has only two members.
Payne, a veteran college basketball coach who will lead South Carolina Upstate into Minges Coliseum tonight against East Carolina, is one of two former ECU bosses who has taken the Pirates to the NCAA tournament. Tom Quinn was the first to accomplish the feat when he guided East Carolina to a Southern Conference championship and an automatic NCAA berth in the 1971-72 season.
The Pirates did not return to the Big Dance again until Payne led the ’92-93 team to a surprising Colonial Athletic Association tourney title and an NCAA matchup against North Carolina in Payne’s hometown of Winston-Salem.