Rock Hill Herald Logo

Won’t be any home cooking for Winthrop women at Duke | Rock Hill Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
  • Customer Service
  • Mobile & Apps
  • Newsletters
  • Archives

    • All News
    • Local News
    • Local Traffic Cam
    • North Carolina
    • South Carolina
    • Business
    • Education
    • NIE
    • Crime
    • More News
    • Andrew Dys
    • Nation/World
    • Politics/Government
    • Weird News
    • Databases
    • Down Home Magazine
    • Physicians Directory
    • Fort Mill Times
    • Fort Mill Times Sports
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Submit a Letter to the Editor
    • All Sports
    • Panthers
    • College
    • Winthrop
    • High School
    • High School Football
    • Auto Racing
    • Politics
    • Elections
  • Obituaries
    • All Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Submit a Letter
    • To the Contrary
    • James Werrell
    • Palmetto Opinion
    • All Living
    • Community
    • Weddings
    • Engagements
    • Anniversaries
    • Births
    • Religion
    • Family
    • Home & Garden
    • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Books
    • Calendar
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Rewards
    • Horoscopes

  • Legals
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Virtual Career Fair
  • Homes
  • Classifieds

Winthrop University

Won’t be any home cooking for Winthrop women at Duke

By Bret McCormick - bmccormick@heraldonline.com

    ORDER REPRINT →

March 21, 2014 01:19 PM

The only home cooking the Winthrop women’s basketball team will get this weekend came Thursday night at the Vernon household.

Corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, chicken, barbecue, biscuits and dessert were served to the team at the home of Eagles redshirt freshman Zoe Vernon, who grew up about 15 minutes from the campus of Duke University. Winthrop plays the Blue Devils on Saturday in the first round of the NCAA women’s tournament at the impregnable Cameron Indoor Stadium, a building where visiting teams are known to not get many favors from referees.

Duke has made Cameron a dark blue hole for visitors playing men’s and women’s basketball. When Joanne P. McCallie’s Blue Devils host Winthrop at 11 a.m. on ESPN2, they’ll be hunting their 19th straight win at home in the NCAA women’s tournament, and their 132nd straight home win against an unranked opponent. It’s a daunting but mouth-watering task for this Winthrop group, especially Vernon who grew up equal parts an ardent lover of the North Carolina Tar Heels, and hater of the Duke Blue Devils.

“I’m excited for (Vernon), I’m excited for all our players to experience this,” Winthrop coach Kevin Cook said Wednesday. Referring to Vernon particularly, he said “I’m happy this dream’s come true for her.”

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Vernon, a redshirt freshman who missed almost all of last season after tearing her right ACL for the second time, grew up smack dab in the middle of Tobacco Road around Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina. She is well acquainted with the rivalry between those two schools and her allegiance has never faltered, even while wearing Winthrop’s colors.

“My dad went to UNC, so we just were raised UNC fans,” said Vernon. “We don’t like Duke at all.”

Vernon quickly used up her four-ticket allotment that each player receives, borrowed a few from a couple of teammates and will have friends and family still buying more for Saturday’s contest. That’s good for the Eagles, who will need all the help they can get on the Blue Devils’ raucous home floor, especially with the Cameron Crazies fresh off a spring break that ended last Sunday.

“I think it will be, at first, a little overwhelming,” said Vernon, who attended Carolina Friends High School in Durham. “But once we just start playing, I think it will be like any other game. There will be more fans than we’re used to, but I think that will fire us up and make us play harder.”

Cook has coached in big environments before, including Cameron, where he brought a WNBA travel team on several occasions. He’s also been to the NCAA tournament three times as an assistant coach at Kansas and was an assistant during the Houston Comets’ four WNBA title-run in the 1990s. Ever-relaxed, Cook hopes his team feeds off of that calm.

“We’re gonna play with a sense of urgency,” he said. “But there is a fine line between being over-amped and playing your game.”

Duke’s turnover troubles this season have been pointed out. Winthrop will need to take advantage of some of those opportunities to quiet the Cameron crowd, which averaged over 5,000 per game this year, and get easy buckets. The Eagles will just as carefully have to mind their own ball-handling to prevent the Blue Devils from getting blue-hot and running up a big lead, especially through senior Tricia Liston, the NCAA’s second best 3-point shooter.

“We can’t allow them to go off and hit 10 triples,” said Cook. “If they do hit a couple of triples, we can’t hang our heads. We know they’re gonna make a few shots, but we just cannot have extended runs from them.”

There is the fine line between urgency and panic, and there’s also the delicate balance between reacting to Duke’s game plan too much, or not enough. Cook is known to avoid calling timeouts when his team’s opponent is on an offensive run; it’s just his style, to let his team play it’s way out of trouble, something he did successfully in the Big South Conference championship win over High Point.

He admits he can’t afford to do that Saturday.

“I can’t go with my stubborn ways and refuse to call a timeout,” Cook said. “I’m gonna manage this game.”

Vernon, who plays just over six minutes a game for Winthrop, knocked down a first half jumper in the win over High Point. She already had an inkling that Winthrop would play Duke this past Monday and was glowing when the matchup was confirmed by ESPN’s selection show. Vernon has been to men’s and women’s games at Cameron and even went to basketball camp there. Now, she’ll add an even cooler experience to that list.

“I’m excited to play at Cameron,” she said. “It’s a really cool thing. It’s gonna mean a lot to actually get a chance to play a real game there.”

  Comments  

Videos

Winthrop students think Pat Kelsey is crazy. That’s okay as long as they attend games

Could Winthrop basketball beat Gardner-Webb for a 10th straight time?

View More Video

Trending Stories

Police say he choked a cop at Rock Hill park. Here’s how long he’ll be in prison.

February 14, 2019 05:11 PM

A long-time Fort Mill restaurant is closing this month. Here’s where.

February 14, 2019 03:00 PM

1 shot, seriously hurt after someone fired at car on I-77 near Carowinds theme park

February 14, 2019 09:22 PM

911 call reports bear hanging from trash truck driving on NC highway. It was no joke

February 14, 2019 07:12 AM

Fort Mill greenway visitors left with almost $10,000 in credit card charges, police say

February 14, 2019 12:41 PM

Read Next

College baseball starts this weekend at Winthrop Ballpark. And so do beer, wine sales

Winthrop University

College baseball starts this weekend at Winthrop Ballpark. And so do beer, wine sales

By Bret McCormick

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 14, 2019 05:17 PM

Winthrop’s baseball season opens this weekend at Winthrop Ballpark and for the first time ever, fans will be able to purchase wine and beer at concession stands.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE WINTHROP UNIVERSITY

Winthrop and PC met for the second time. And for the second time one team surged late

Winthrop University

Winthrop and PC met for the second time. And for the second time one team surged late

February 13, 2019 09:00 PM
Winthrop roundup: Eagles launching cutting edge program in fall of 2019

Winthrop University

Winthrop roundup: Eagles launching cutting edge program in fall of 2019

February 11, 2019 05:23 PM
In trying to catch Radford atop Big South standings, Winthrop completes first step

Winthrop University

In trying to catch Radford atop Big South standings, Winthrop completes first step

February 09, 2019 03:58 PM
Pat Kelsey doesn’t care if students think he’s crazy, as long as they come to games

Winthrop University

Pat Kelsey doesn’t care if students think he’s crazy, as long as they come to games

February 07, 2019 04:22 PM
Winthrop roundup: who were the school’s top athletes for the month of January?

Winthrop University

Winthrop roundup: who were the school’s top athletes for the month of January?

February 04, 2019 04:27 PM
Here’s how Radford beat Winthrop, reclaimed control of Big South hoops title race

Winthrop University

Here’s how Radford beat Winthrop, reclaimed control of Big South hoops title race

February 02, 2019 04:10 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Rock Hill Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Advertising Information
  • Place Obituary, Celebration
  • Place Classified, Legal
  • Local Deals
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story