Winthrop vets are comfortable playing from behind, on the road, in a defensive stance

The experience littered all over Winthrop’s men’s basketball roster is starting to clearly manifest.

Winthrop entered the season as Big South Conference favorites for several reasons, one of which was 13 returning players. Many of those have played in at least two conference tournament championships, and the way coach Pat Kelsey wants them to do certain things - practice, travel, accept coaching - is computer-programmed into their heads. In a low-major conference bereft of NBA-quality, instant-impact 18-year olds, experience is the second-most precious roster commodity, behind talent. Winthrop (15-4, 7-1 Big South) is fortunate to have both.

“There are so many benefits and positives and advantages to having experienced guys,” Kelsey said Wednesday. “You’d like to think when you’re in Year 4, Year 5, when you just preach “the process,” and I know that’s overused and people down here don’t want to hear about Nick Saban. But there is just a consistency, you don’t change from year to year. That familiarity helps guys as they get later in their career to be comfortable in their surroundings.”

The widespread visceral understanding is showing up in several ways, all of which bode very well for the Eagles’ NCAA tournament hopes.

Defensive commitment

Nowhere is Winthrop’s experience showing up more than on the defensive end of the court. Kelsey has long touted his love of basketball’s defensive grit, the part of the game that was less about skill and more about the ticker in a player’s chest and their willingness to do exactly what was rammed into them in previous practices. But his teams haven’t always had either the ability or desire to be defensively elite.

Winthrop, with wins in 11 of its last 12 games, is 92nd in the KenPom.com national defensive ratings. That’s clear and away better than any other Kelsey team; the previous ones were 228th, 194th, 241st and 246th (out of 351 teams).

These Eagles have held five straight opponents below 0.96 points per possession (NCAA average is 1.045 points per possession). The last time Winthrop pulled off a defensive stretch like that was the 2009-10 season, also the last Eagles team to dance in the NCAA tournament.

Kelsey’s current group is also in the top-50 nationally in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 40.5 percent shooting from the floor.

Not quitting in the face of substantial deficits

Here’s another sign of a veteran team that’s experienced the gamut of different game scenarios: it doesn’t get fazed. Winthrop has overcome five double-digit deficits in wins this season, a comforting fact as March looms.

▪ Trailed Illinois by 10 with a few minutes left in regulation, before racing back to force overtime and eventually win.

▪ Trailed Hampton by 10 in the first half, came back and won.

▪ Trailed Georgia Southern by 12 in the first half and by 13 with 10 minutes left, before winning in regulation with a defensive stop.

▪ Trailed Charleston Southern by 10 in the first half before heating up and blowing the doors off the Bucs in the second half.

▪ Trailed Asheville by 10 in the second half, before winning in regulation on national TV.

Gardner-Webb jumped on Presbyterian last Saturday, leading by as many as 19 points in the first half on the way to a 78-61 win. If the Runnin’ Bulldogs get off to another tire-squealing start Thursday night, don’t expect Winthrop’s players to fold.

“Things don’t surprise them or catch them off guard. They’re not rattled,” Kelsey said after Wednesday’s practice. “I think that goes into it, just having an experienced group.”

Winning away from home

Winning on the road is a third way the Eagles’ veteran toughness is showing through.

Winthrop is 8-2 in true road games, winning at Illinois, Manhattan, Saint Louis and Hampton. Kelsey’s team is tied with Jacksonville State, UNC Wilmington and Texas Southern for the most away wins in NCAA Division I, a positive fact when coupled with the Eagles’ success at Winthrop Coliseum the last three years.

It’s no surprise that good teams steal wins away from home. Winthrop’s Hall of Fame 2006-07 team was third in the country that magical year with 12 true road wins.

Kelsey was adamant he didn’t have the answer to winning on the road, something his team has done six times in a row. But his general formula for the program’s success is consistency, consistency, consistency. It’s a gumbo of teachings from his mentor Skip Prosser, his high school coach and Xavier coach Chris Mack, and is hyper-intensified for away games.

“We talk all the time about road excellence,” said Kelsey. “That starts from the moment you pack your bags, how you prepare, how you travel, your seriousness and purpose in the hotel, in the walk-throughs, in the shoot-around. Even though the environment is different, you’re not in your own bed, we just try to be as detail-oriented as possible in everything we do.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2017 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Winthrop vets are comfortable playing from behind, on the road, in a defensive stance."