Joe Dooley is a Pirate once again.

Joe Dooley is coming back to East Carolina.

For the second time in his career, Dooley is set to become the head men’s basketball coach at ECU after verbally agreeing to terms on a contract with the Pirates, first reported by 94.3 The Game. The ECU Board of Trustees is expected to approve Dooley's contact on Wednesday at 5 p.m. A press conference will likely follow Thursday.

As expected with it currently just being a verbal, non-binding agreement, university officials couldn’t confirm a hire on Tuesday morning.

Dooley’s second appointment will come 19 years after he was let-go in 1999. Now nearly two decades older, and with 10 years of top-tier assistant coaching experience and two NCAA berths as a head coach at Florida Gulf Coast under his belt, Dooley’s apparently back.

The 52-year-old was arguably the first name to emerge as the man to take the job shortly after former head coach Jeff Lebo resigned last November, six games into the season. Dooley previously had a verbal agreement to become the Pirates’ head coach in 2010, but things fell through at the last minute and the job instead went to Lebo.

Now, it appears he's back for sure, barring a last-minute snag.

Dooley, Bill Self’s top assistant at Kansas from 2003-13, took the Florida Gulf Coast head coaching job in 2013. Dooley has led the Eagles to 21 or more wins and the postseason all five years in Fort Myers, including two NCAA appearances (2016, 2017) and a pair of NIT berths (2014, 2018).

A native of West Orange, N.J., Dooley’s first stint at ECU lasted from 1991-99. Dooley was an assistant coach under Eddie Payne from 1991-95 before being promoted to head coach at age 29 in 1995. Dooley posted consecutive 17-win seasons his first two years and finished his four-year tenure 57-52 overall, posting a winning percentage of .523, the highest in ECU’s Division I history.

Dooley, who was also reportedly in the running for the Rhode Island opening, was one of a few candidates for ECU’s job that at one time included North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton and ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg. But Dooley always seemed like the favorite to get the job from the jump, as word of his interest in the position spread shortly after Lebo resigned.

The veteran coach will get the chance to right what many considered a wrong when Dooley was fired by then-AD Mike Hamrick following a 13-14 season in 1999. A young coach in his lower 30s at the time, Dooley went on to spend three years as an assistant at New Mexico and one with Wyoming before joining Kansas in 2003.

Dooley became one of the country’s most widely-respected and sought-after assistants during his time with Kansas, helping to land a number of top-tier recruits. Dooley won a national championship with Kansas in 2008 and made the Elite Eight four times. After being linked to several jobs during his latter years at Kansas, Dooley finally took his second head coaching gig at Florida Gulf Coast in 2013.

During his time with Florida Gulf Coast, Dooley compiled an overall record of 114-58.