‘Too naive to know any different’: A Q&A with Winthrop’s Pat Kelsey before ETSU game
Ahead of the Winthrop men’s basketball team’s road contest against East Tennessee State on Thursday night, The Herald sat down with head coach Pat Kelsey.
In the interview, Kelsey recapped his team’s eventful road trip — and offered a theory for how his team, one riddled with inexperience and youth, has been able to make history so early.
The short answer to the latter topic, in Kelsey’s words?
“I think they’re just too naive to know any different.”
‘Turn the page’
Zietlow: After the Fresno State loss, you had to figure out a way to prepare for the biggest game of your inter-conference season, Saint Mary’s. How did you do it?
Kelsey: Well, the biggest part of our (inter-conference) season is the next game. That sounds cliché, but I’m telling you, that’s how we are. Right now, the biggest part of our season is ETSU. Going into Hartford, it was Hartford. Going into Fresno, it was Fresno. Then it was Saint Mary’s. Now it is ETSU. And then it’ll be Mid-Atlantic.
You need to compartmentalize each of these games, and you can’t think about how the last one affects the next one or the next one will affect the one after that. The page gets turned immediately after the last game...
Fresno State was a gut-wrenching low. And it’s OK to feel that way. That’s part of learning life lessons through basketball. But then, it’s your response: How are you going to respond to it? Are you going to wallow in self-pity? And let everybody tell you how it’s a hard road trip, and how you’re supposed to be tired? Or are you going to turn the page, and figure out what you got to do to beat Saint Mary’s? And that’s what those guys did.
Saint Mary’s was over, we walked out of locker room — and we were finished celebrating. You know? And then all of our attention was back to getting our bodies right, getting our minds right, getting our preparation in line to go play, I think, one of the most talented teams we’ve played thus far this year. And that says a lot, but that says how highly I think of ETSU. I think ETSU is a top-25 caliber team. This is a big-time mid-major matchup on Thursday.
Matchup with East Tennessee State
Zietlow: Can you tell me about this ETSU team? What about the team is formidable?
Kelsey: I mean, they have terrific players. The talent level. Steve Forbes is known as one of the best recruiters in the whole country... But he’s also a phenomenal coach. I have a ton of respect for him. We have some mutual friends. He and I don’t know each other all that well, but a good friend of mine is a good friend of his.
They were very talented last year, but a lot of those guys were in their first year in the program. Quite a few junior college kids...
He brought in an unbelievable recruiting class last year. We played him game one on homecoming here. That was an epic game that went down to the wire, and now all those kids are a year older, a year wiser. I mean, they’re really good.
As I told you at media day, I think our non-conference preseason schedule is as tough as anybody in the country. And this is a huge game.
The season-opening road trip
Kelsey: Yesterday was a good day just to rest.
I mean we took the red-eye home immediately after the game, whenever that game got over, at 8:10 p.m., which was 11:10 p.m. EST. We had to break the land speed record getting to the airport. We got to the airport 50 minutes before our flight. You could imagine the tons of bags that we had, praying that they all got through.
We all got through security; we got through the gate just as the plane was boarding...
(They all made it to their 8 a.m. class.)
There’s no question it’s been a heck of a gauntlet. But, you know, we always say, ‘Half the world could care less about your problems. The other half are glad you have them.’ We’ll have an unbelievable day of preparation today (on Wednesday), and hopefully we’ll have a great college game tomorrow.
Zietlow: I’ve noticed that you have a lot of sayings.
Kelsey: Yeah. Those are mostly from Coach (Skip) Prosser. I say it five times a day: ‘Coach Prosser would say this. Coach Prosser would say that. Coach Prosser used to say this.’ He was like a walking Seinfield episode because he was just so funny. The show about nothing — he could make anything funny.
He had a reference or quote or story or quip about almost anything, so that’s where I get most of them. I told somebody the other day, when we were rushing to the airport — our academic advisor, Claire Mooney-Melvin, went with us, who is phenomenal — and she was a nervous wreck that we weren’t going to make it.
And I said, ‘Claire, Coach Prosser used to say that if you don’t miss a flight every once in a while, you’re spending way too much time in airports.’
‘They’re so hungry, man’
Zietlow: You say that ETSU has its core group from last year, and that its players have just gotten a year older, which is kind of the normal trajectory of teams. But for y’all — and correct me if this is an unfair assessment — teams that saw you last year don’t know the Winthrop team this year.
Kelsey: Oh, we’re totally different. We have seven new players, and an eighth guy (Adonis Arms) sitting out, redshirting — who first of all, is a phenomenal player. I mean, Player of the Year candidate; he’s that talented.
So, we’re totally new. I’ve never had anything like this before with so many new guys. They’re so hungry, man. They’re so hungry. I mean, we’re starting two freshmen and the third freshman is the first man off the bench.
So it is. It’s weird. It’s a brand new group with a lot of inexperience, but the only way to get experience is to get experience, you know? Sometimes, when you’re young and naive and dumb in a good way — like you don’t know any better — well, you don’t know that you’re not supposed to win that game on the road. You don’t know how difficult it is to win on the road against a ranked opponent, how rarely it happens. They’re just naive. They just go in and (say), ‘Hey, let’s play.’
Heck, like you said, other people don’t know us yet — I don’t know us yet. Same thing I said at media day: I don’t know who’s going to play yet. You know what I mean? I think this is, with freshmen, you’re going to have ups and downs; you’re going to have peaks and valleys. But I’ll know more about our team in the next month before conference play comes in terms of rotations and our strengths and our weaknesses. We’re just a big melting pot that we’re trying to figure out.
I do know one thing: We got a hungry group that’s driven, determined and wants to be really, really good.
Zietlow: Did any player stick out to you in particular from your first road trip?
In the Hartford game, Kyle made two huge threes at the end of that game. Russell Jones played in his first college game, and he had six assists, one turnover. He’s played in three college games and his assist to turnover ratio is off-the-charts, you know. It’s hard to do as a freshman: to go into that venue, you know? He didn’t make two free throws down the stretch, but guess whose hands we wanted the ball in?
Zietlow: His?
Kelsey: His. That isn’t easy for a freshman. End of the game, got to get (the ball in-bounded). Who do we want it into? A freshman. I think that tells you how I feel about him, the trust I have in him. And I’d do the same thing again. I’d give it right back to him...
Everybody throughout the course of the road trip did different things in different areas. D.J. Burns was unstoppable inside against Saint Mary’s, didn’t play well against Hartford because he was in foul trouble. Jamal King didn’t play well in the first two games, but then gave us great minutes off the bench. It might not pop out on the stats, but he got a couple big offensive rebounds, hit a huge three, guarded the kid, (Jordan) Ford, for two or three minutes as a freshman. Russell Jones guarded the kid, Ford, who’s an All-American candidate for a big portion of the game...
Chan was unbelievable. He’s a matchup problem. They had a hard time handling him.
I know you wanted one name, but I go back and I’m like, ‘Man, that’s what’s great about our team.’ I sit there on any given night, and I sit there and I go, ‘Who are we going to play?’ I mean, you know who you’re going to play, but the hard thing is, ‘Who aren’t you going to play?’ You can’t play everybody.
So I think that’s the strength of our team, which is our depth...
The thing I do feel good about, which I think Stevie Wonder could see, is we got a chance to be pretty good. When the rest of the world would usually tell you — with seven new guys, playing three freshmen starter minutes — you’re probably not supposed to be very good? Our guys... like I said: I think they’re just too naive to know any different.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 6:12 AM.
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