Pirates land shooting guard Chris Turner

GREENVILLE, N.C. - One more day in the books and one more piece of the puzzle solved as East Carolina came out the big winner in the recruiting battle for Rivals.com three-star ranked shooting guard Chris Turner.

For newly signed Pirate head coach Mack McCarthy and his staff, it might mean a little more sleep tonight before the focus turns to the next piece of the puzzle.

Turner cancelled an upcoming official visit to Florida State. Seton Hall and Wake Forest were heavily involved as well. Turner had originally verbally committed to Oregon State in the spring, but decommitted after head coach Jay John was released.

At 6-5, Turner, who averaged 24 points per game last season, will help further expand the East Carolina defense while providing them with additional scoring punch both behind the arc and in the paint.

"I took a visit two or three months ago and actually when I was in 9th grade East Carolina was the first school to offer out of everybody, but that was under a different coaching staff."

In signing with the Pirates, Turner turns down a number of tradition rich basketball schools in favor of an up and coming ECU program.

"So over the years, I grew as a player so I was hearing from big time schools and big time offers", Turner said, "A lot of people wanted me to go to a big time school in a bigtime conference but it really doesn't mean that much to me to go to a big time school, I just want to go to a school where I can play right away and contribute to my team.

"When I visited down there I knew a couple of people on the team", Turner said, "The coaching staff was just great and they're good people and it felt like the best situation for me."

Turner talked more about his current Pirate connections.

"Daquan Joyner, I've known for years was on my AAU team all my life really, five or six years and I know Brock Young from Raleigh."

The Durham, North Carolina product will arrive on the Greenville campus for second session of summer school in June. He is still awaiting a test score on his recent SAT.

"I wanted to commit earlier, but I waited til today to make it official, I took my SAT yesterday so more than likely I'm going to be be qualified."

The Humble (TX) Christian Life Center guard talked about his relationship with the ECU

coaching staff.

"I feel like I've known Coach (Darryl) LaBarrie for years and feel like we see eye to eye, according to Turner, "He's like a big brother to me and I just feel like it's a good situation"

Turner's signing brings the number to three

new signees in the ECU basketball program. Atlanta power forward Darius Morrow signed last weekend and point guard and Greenville (NC) Rose product Raheem Smith is also onboard.

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