Sunday was not fun. Winthrop did not win.
The Eagles fought, but were no match for the Longwood Lancers, suffering a devastating, beatdown defeat in the conference championship game and missing out on what would have been a third-straight NCAA Tournament bid.
Along with many other Winthrop fans and alumni, I am disappointed. Perhaps deflated is a better word. Deflated, like a New England Patriots football. (My apologies to Pats fans for the unprovoked insult).
In all honesty, it felt like the air had been let out off the ball on Sunday as Winthrop missed shot after shot in the first half. It just wasn’t Winthrop’s day, and Longwood took advantage of that in every way possible. It was Longwood’s day.
The Lancers are a great story, and they earned their right to dance this March. But while it may not have had the perfect ending we’d all hoped for (and in a way, become conditioned to expect), Winthrop was a great story this year, too.
It’d be a shame not to take a step back and appreciate all the pieces of Winthrop’s story this year. 23-9 is not too shabby, and neither is a 14-2 record in conference play. In most years, that’s a regular season title and a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
This of course comes in Mark Prosser’s first season as head coach, with a good amount of change in personnel. One change — the addition of graduate transfer Patrick Good.
What a pleasure it was to watch Pat do his thing this year. How many times did he bail Winthrop out and hit a big three-pointer (or multiple) in the waning seconds of a game to earn a win or send it to overtime?
I was present for both the madness against Mercer on Homecoming (when Winthrop erased a 9-point deficit in the final 51 seconds of regulation) and for the insanity at USC Upstate (where Good hit a deep three to force overtime).
How thankful I am for those memories. How thankful I am for the last four years of Winthrop basketball.
Along with comeback wins and overtime victories, Winthrop earned a West Coast win over the University of Washington this season. Any win over a power conference team should be celebrated, and this one is no exception. Add that victory to the one over a ranked St. Mary’s team in 2019, and Winthrop is starting to put together a nice resume of wins out west.
But speaking of resumes, a loss in the conference title game is not the blemish that it feels like in this moment of defeat. The fact that Winthrop has made it to the championship round three seasons in a row is amazing. The fact that championships are the standard in Rock Hill is even more incredible.
No matter the makeup of Winthrop’s roster next year, I expect the Eagles to be right back in that title game come March of 2023. It’s the Winthrop way. The fans know that, the players know that, and Mark Prosser and his staff know that.
I’m grateful that I’ve attached myself to such a tradition-rich basketball program. You can’t win ‘em all, but Winthrop wins most of ‘em. It’s been fun, and I know there’s a lot more fun to be had.
