Eight opponents have been identified for the Winthrop men’s basketball team so far this off-season as schools have begun releasing their non-conference schedules.
While Winthrop has not confirmed any non-conference games, many of its opponents have already announced that they will face the Eagles this upcoming season.
On Nov. 9, the official start to the 2021 college basketball season, Winthrop will host Mary Baldwin University, a Division III program. Last season served as the team’s inaugural season, but the few games the school participated in were all considered exhibitions as the team was still competing as a club team.
Exactly one week later, Winthrop is set to travel to Middle Tennessee State University. The Blue Raiders notoriously upset the Michigan State Spartans as a 15-seed in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament but are coming off a not-so-outstanding season in which they went 5-18 overall.
The Eagles will take on another team in Tennessee just four days later on Nov. 20, facing Vanderbilt University. The Commodores earned an abysmal 9-16 record last season but return one of the South Eastern Conference’s best players in Scotty Pippen Jr.
Following their match in Nashville, the Eagles will catch a quick flight to the west coast, where they will face Washington State University on Nov. 22. The Cougars are currently the first team Winthrop will face that had a winning record last season (14-13).
Winthrop will not travel far for its next match when the Eagles take on a second member of the Pac-12 Conference, Washington University, on Nov. 27, which falls on Thanksgiving weekend. The Huskies finished 5-21 overall last season, winning just one of their six non-conference games.
The Eagles will be back in Rock Hill on Dec. 7 to host Furman University for a second season in a row. Winthrop handled the Paladins with ease in 2020, winning 87-71 behind an 18-point performance from Charles Falden, who has since transferred and is exhausting a “covid eligibility year” this season at James Madison University in his home state of Virginia.
Winthrop has faced Furman four times in the last five seasons, winning three of the four contests.
One team that Winthrop has not faced in the last five seasons but will meet in 2021 is Mississippi State University. The Eagles will hit the road for this game, but rather than playing on the Bulldogs’ home court in Starkville, the match-up will take place on Dec. 21 in the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.
Winthrop has a 1-0 record against Mississippi State all-time, with the lone match-up between the teams coming during Winthrop’s historic ‘06-’07 season. The Eagles earned a 74-63 victory in Starkville that season.
The final non-conference game currently on Winthrop’s slate is a game against Converse University. Known as Converse College up until just last year, the once all-female school became co-educational in 2020 and will go head-to-head with Winthrop in its inaugural men’s basketball season.
The Eagles will host Converse, a Division-II program, on New Year’s Eve.
Other opponents there is great potential for the Eagles to face include Coastal Carolina University (whom Winthrop agreed to a four-game contract with in 2019), the University of Hartford (whom the Eagles faced in Connecticut in 2019), and Elon University (whom Winthrop hosted in 2019).
It is also likely that Winthrop will play a game in the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center’s “No Room for Racism College Basketball Event,” which will take place Dec. 10-12. The tournament is set to feature the University of South Carolina versus Florida State University on Dec. 12, as well as High Point University versus South Carolina State University on Dec. 10.
In 2020, Winthrop Athletics announced that it would “host an exhibition men’s basketball game for the purpose of raising money and awareness for an organization determined annually by [the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee] to fight racism and promote justice” every season moving forward.
That game was scheduled against Liberty University last season but was canceled due to schedule limitations caused by COVID-19.
The Big South Conference is expected to release the full slate of conference games sometime this week which will likely coincide with Winthrop’s full non-conference schedule release.
Please email me schedule as soon as you can. The founders of Winthrop University John and Son Gren want to come to Rock Hill to see game in person.