A handful of things to know about Winthrop men’s basketball’s 2018-19 schedule
Winthrop released its 2018-19 men’s basketball schedule with an innocuous mid-afternoon tweet. Here is a handful of things that jump out at first glance:
My favorite game on the non-conference schedule is the trip to Davidson, N.C. to face the Wildcats. This would be an awesome annual or semi-annual series if it could be arranged. Winthrop is 4-5 all-time versus Davidson, but the two schools haven’t played since 2008. A Steph Curry-led and nationally-ranked Wildcats team handled Winthrop 97-70 in Davidson that year.
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Davidson and Winthrop are two of the better international-recruiting schools in the country, which should make interesting viewing for basketball fans, regardless of their loyalties. There should be at least 10 foreign players combined on the two rosters when they meet in early December.
There is very little on the home non-conference schedule to get excited about. East Tennessee State is a quality home game on Nov. 17, but the Eagles otherwise host three non-Division I teams (Pfeiffer, Central Penn and Hiwasee) and Maryland-Eastern Shore and Prairie View A&M. Winthrop does have a cool road game at Kentucky on Wednesday, Nov. 21. The Eagles will face the Wildcats for the third time in program history (Winthrop is 0-2 against Big Blue Nation). No. 13 Kentucky beat Winthrop 89-52 in the two teams’ last meeting in 2010. Whether Winthrop can get a result or not, playing at Rupp Arena will be an experience to savor.
Chris Clemons has made his last trip to Rock Hill, unless Winthrop wins the regular season title and hosts the Big South Conference tournament. The Big South -- with 11 teams -- has an unbalanced schedule this season and Winthrop only faces Campbell once, at Buies Creek.
Four different times Winthrop will play two Big South games in three days, and in one stretch, from Jan. 19 to Jan. 26, the Eagles play four games in seven days. Pat Kelsey’s team returns 10 players from last season and should have decent depth. That will be tested in these mini-spurts of games.
Winthrop closes the regular season with a tough stretch of Big South games against Gardner-Webb, Radford, Charleston Southern and Hampton. Radford won the league’s NCAA Tournament berth last season, while the other three teams all return four starters. Hampton, which joined the Big South this year from the MEAC, should contend for the league title. Of Winthrop’s final four contests, only the Charleston Southern game is at Winthrop Coliseum.
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Winthrop’s 2018-19 men’s basketball schedule
November: 6 at Vanderbilt; 10 at SIU-Edwardsville; 13 Pfeiffer; 17 East Tennessee State; 21 at Kentucky; 24 Central Penn; 28 at Tennessee Tech
December: 4 at Davidson; 16 Hiwasee; 20 Maryland-Eastern Shore; 22 at Southern Illinois; 29 Prairie View A&M
January: 1 at Florida State; (Beginning of Big South Conference) 5 at UNC Asheville; 10 at Campbell; 12 High Point; 16 Longwood; 19 at USC Upstate; 21 UNC Asheville; 24 Gardner-Webb; 26 at Presbyterian
February: 2 Radford; 7 at Charleston Southern; 9 Hampton; 13 Presbyterian; 16 at Gardner-Webb; 21 at Radford; 23 Charleston Southern; 28 at Hampton.
This story was originally published September 18, 2018 at 4:02 PM.