After the disappointments of last season, the Eagles are ready to right the ship this year in the Big South

By Gary McCann - gmccann@heraldonline.com

With his team almost 20 practices into the season, Winthrop basketball coach Randy Peele was asked where the Eagles were with their first game less than two weeks away.

“Good question,” Peele said.

After a brief pause he added, “further along than we were last year at this time” and an emphatic “I feel good about it.”

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But it's evident, as the Eagles get ready to play their opener Saturday against Limestone, there is much work to be done to rebound from last year's 9-9 finish in the Big South Conference and that brutal 11-19 overall record that was the program's first losing record in 10 years.

A season-ending knee injury to 6-foot-9 center Andy Buechert got last season off on the wrong foot; a difficult road schedule that led to a 1-10 start and a late-season injury to freshman point guard Reggie Middleton, just as the team was starting to play well, derailed the Winthrop victory train.

The thoughts of last season still sting Peele and his players. Having won eight of the previous 10 Big South titles, including four in a row, and having the expectations of making an NCAA tournament trip every year, losing didn't go down well with coaches, players and especially fans.

The good news is Peele returns every starter and eight of the top 10 players from last season. That's the bulk of the players who stumbled through last year, which some might say is the bad news.

“We are still very young,” Peele said. “We have seven scholarship players who are freshmen or sophomores, nine if you count two walk-ons. This team can be good. There's a lot of upside to this team.”

It also might be a year away from true Big South contention, but given the fact the league probably isn't going to be very good once you get past the top four teams, the Eagles should be in the mix.

“We're more experienced, bigger and stronger,” Buechert said, when asked why this year should be different. “I think we're doing good. Right now, it might be hard to answer that question, but I think we're going to be good.”

Senior Mantoris Robinson, the league's defensive player of the year last season, thinks likewise.

“Last year was disappointing,” he said, having spent his first three seasons, counting a redshirt year, going to the NCAA tournament. “It was also eye-opening. It was our motivation.”

Robinson said the team started working toward this season right after last year's season-ending loss to UNC Asheville in the first round of the conference tournament.

“Everyone stayed around in the summer,” he said, “working toward getting better. I feel like everybody's improved.”

Peele returns starting guards Middleton and Andre Jones, frontcourt veterans Charles Corbin, George Valentine and Chris Malcolm, and reserves Justin Burton, who played well down the stretch in Middleton's absence, and Ray Davis, who is also trying to come back from foot problems.

Peele adds redshirts Matt Morgan, 6-9, and Gideon Gamble, 6-7, plus heralded 6-4 freshman Robbie Dreher.

Looking at the roster, the Eagles look to be 11 deep, if Peele elects to play that many guys.

“When you don't know who to play, that's a problem,” Peele said, “but it's either, one, because you're not good enough or, two, there's not enough separation among the players. No. 2 is where we are.

“When you got to your bench, are you going there out of strength? My answer to that is ‘yes.'”

The Eagles, as usual, will be built around defense. At the end of last year, no team in the Big South was better. Peele hopes to push the ball more, get more baskets off turnovers and in transition, to create more pressure on every possession. This isn't going to be a run-and-gun team, but there will be more up-tempo play than a year ago, because most of Peele's players play better in that system.

The Eagles will be somewhere between Presbyterian and VMI.

“We averaged 61 points a game last year,” Peele said. “We don't want to be that again. That gives you zero margin for error.”