Eagles must forget three tough losses

By Gary McCann - Gary McCann

On Saturday night, Winthrop coach Randy Peele went to bed replaying the last 59 seconds of regulation in that afternoon's 67-62 overtime loss at Marshall.

He woke up to the same 59 seconds on Sunday morning.

Probably went to bed Sunday night with it stomping into his dreams (or nightmares) and likely replayed it a thousand times on Monday.

The Eagles, after a horrendous start (down 17-0), scratched back and led by five with a minute to play, still led by three with the aforementioned 59 seconds showing. They managed to give up a drive for two points and a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to tie and then failed to score on the last possession in regulation to win.

Marshall then scored 16 points in the extra period. And a road game that was very winnable went into the "L" column.

Peele doesn't let things go too easily, which is what happens to some coaches when they see games that should have been won that weren't.

Peele's problem is he's seen three of those this season -- Missouri State (blown 20-point lead), Mount St. Mary's (unexplainable) and Marshall (up five with a minute to play).

When asked how many games better the record should be instead of 8-6, Peele said "at least three."

Peele keeps replaying those games in his head, or at least parts of them, because he keeps searching for that magic that's going make this team win every game.

On Sunday, he and the team spent more than two hours going over tape from the Marshall game. They watched practically every play from the first half, looking at everything that went wrong and what went right.

He might find the magic. He might not. That depends on how the players respond and how the season breaks down from here until whenever it's over. This team isn't as talented as the one Winthrop put on the floor the past three seasons, and nothing Peele does will change that, so the magic Peele's looking for might be hard to come by.

But that does not mean they can't pull enough rabbits out of the hat to win the Big South.

Yeah, the Eagles have three tough losses, three situations in which they beat themselves by not being ready to play (Mount St. Mary's) or by letting up on defense (Missouri State) or by not handling the end of the game (Marshall).

But they've also gone on the road and kicked Miami. They came from 10 down with five minutes to play to beat Akron. They pounded East Carolina on the road. They throttled Georgia Tech and Illinois-Chicago.

The Eagles didn't play over their heads to win any of those. They played at the level of which they are capable. The real magic left in this season will be finding a way to do that consistently.

They'll do it when the bench offers a little more help, the starters don't have to play 36 minutes a game, the team understands it wins with defense and when a couple of key players provide the kind of production required.

Said it before, and we'll say it again.

The Eagles are a work in progress.

They're 8-6 against a schedule ranked among the 10 toughest in the nation. How many teams would be 8-6? It's a pretty good bet no other team in the Big South playing the same schedule would be.

But here's a memo to the coach.

Let the Marshall game go. Forget Mount St. Mary's. Take the Missouri State tape and toss if off the Catawba River bridge. They're done. Gone. Can't get 'em back.

You're 8-6 -- for now.

You've got one non-conference game left -- Presbyterian at home on Wednesday -- before Big South play starts on Saturday at High Point, a game you've already said "will be a war."

You're one game away from the start of the season that always matters most when you play in a league like the Big South. Come late February and early March, the replay button on that Marshall game won't matter one bit.

At his weekly press conference on Monday, Peele brought up a point he and the Eagles need to be going to sleep and waking up on right now.

"One of my old bosses told me," Peele said, "teams are judged by how they play in February. January and February says a lot about who you are.

"It's time to get it on."