Coming off a spectacular season in 2019-2020, the Winthrop University men’s basketball team has strengthened its championship-caliber roster. Toneari Lane and Kelton Talford enter as true freshmen, while Nate Buss joins the team as a walk-on transfer from DII Flagler College.
Head Coach Pat Kelsey described Lane, a talent out of Atlanta, as “a big, strong, physical, athletic, scoring wing.”
“At 6-foot-5 he comes in with a college-ready body,” Kelsey said. “His calling card is his ability to put the ball in the basket. He can really score – terrific shooter, very dangerous 3-point shooter – [and] he’s a mismatch problem that can post smaller players and obviously stretch the floor against bigger players.”
Kelsey said that Talford, an in-state talent from Great Falls, has “a natural knack and nose for the ball” that will help him rebound and defend shots similarly to 2020 graduate Josh Ferguson, while being a factor on offense as well.
“Kelton is a very talented kid – extremely athletic, great length, and great basketball instincts,” Kelsey said. “[He] just has a natural feel for scoring the basketball and [is] one of those guys that just looks so comfortable on a basketball court.”
Kelsey called Buss “a very hard worker” and said he has coaching aspirations once his playing days are over.
“I think players that want to become coaches are students of the game, and he just adds so much to our program with his effort and his mentality that he brings every day, and it rubs off on the rest of our guys,” he said. “That’s phenomenal for our chemistry as well.”
The Eagles also add Adonis Arms to the lineup after a year on the bench due to NCAA transfer rules. According to Kelsey, Arms has put on over 20 lbs. of muscle since arriving at Winthrop.
“I think he’s as talented of a scorer as we’ll have in our league,” Kelsey said. “I think he’s an all-conference candidate and he’s going to be a guy that’s going to electrify the coliseum at times.
“He can play multiple positions – the one, the two, the three – [and] can really generate free throws [with] his ability to attack the basket and put foul pressure on people.”
One more shot in the arm for the team this season will be Josh Corbin. Though Corbin saw his first playing time for Winthrop last season, entering ten games and scoring a season high of 18 points against Mid-Atlantic Christian University, he sustained an ankle injury before conference play began and ultimately used a medical redshirt.
Kelsey said Corbin had just recovered from a shoulder injury that held him out of his senior season of high school ball when he got to Winthrop, and seeing him suffer another injury made it feel “like he had a rain cloud over his head.”
“It’s just great to see Josh healthy,” Kelsey said. “We’re really starting to see who he is as a player. I mean, I knew who he was as a player because that’s the one I recruited – he was one of the best shooters in the country. He seems to be really, really healthy and you can see the confidence oozing out of him, so we’re expecting a big year out of him.”
The NCAA announced on Sept. 17 that the official start date for Division I college basketball will be Nov. 25. Kelsey said that while teams are still trying to formulate non-conference schedules, it’s nice to have that little sense of direction.
There have also been reports that Winthrop is a strong candidate to host a non-conference bubble event this season. John Fanta, a college basketball play-by-play broadcaster for FOX Sports, tweeted on Sept. 16, “G3 Marketing is close to finalizing a partnership with Winthrop University to take over their campus from November 30 – December 22 for a non-conference bubble that would include 20 programs ideally. Each program would play 8 games.”
Kelsey declined to comment on Winthrop’s chances of hosting such a tournament, but did note that a bubble format had worked well for the NBA and could possibly be seen on a smaller scale across the college basketball landscape.
“That concept is a proven way to play games and to play them safely, so I think every school in the country is exploring options at this time,” he said.
As for who will see the floor a lot this season, Kelsey said everyone has the opportunity to earn their minutes.
“When we start practice and that ball goes up, when I look out on that floor, I don’t see ‘freshman’ on the back of the jersey,” he said. “I see ‘Talford’ and I see ‘Lane,’ and I see ‘Winthrop’ on the front of the jersey.
“I’m going to play the guys that give us the best chance of winning. Playing time is earned and I think that’s a hallmark of our program and it’s the way with which we compete.”
Photo courtesy of Bret Anthis
