Conventional sports wisdom will tell you that racking up as many non-conference wins as possible is the best way to prepare for any potential losses when league play begins. Winthrop men’s basketball however, is not conventional.
“Our goal going through the non-conference schedule is to sharpen our saw and play against really good opponents,” head men’s basketball coach Mark Prosser said after Friday’s practice. “We want to be playing our best basketball going into January, February, and early March.”
Another tool the Eagles use to sharpen their saw is their intense practices. “Our kids understand how our systems work both offensively and defensively (so) we have a very bought-in group. It’s a new level of buy-in when you’ve seen it work,” coach said of his group. “There’s a trust level that comes with that and when you have that with upperclassmen, you can have a player-led team in a lot of ways and I think we do.”
Winthrop finished 9-7 in non-conference play in their first year under coach Prosser, but then stormed to win 14 of their 16 games in the Big South, finishing 23-9. Junior guard Sin’Cere McMahon believes this year’s team can compete on that same level.
“I feel like we’re one of the best shooting teams. We can throw it inside to KT (junior forward Kelton Talford), he’s top ten in the country in field goal percentage, it’s a lot of strengths we have.” McMahon said. “We move the ball well, we shoot it well, we pass it, we share it, if we just clean up turnovers and stuff like that, we’ll be fine.”
This season on the road to conference play Winthrop has faced the Auburn Tigers who currently remain undefeated at 8-0 and are ranked 11th nationally, and the Eastern Michigan Eagles who had the 2020 high school player of the year on their squad, Emoni Bates.
They have three games left before they begin Big South play at USC Upstate on December 29th.
