Q&A: Why Winthrop basketball coach Pat Kelsey is not worried about 4-game losing streak
The Winthrop men’s basketball team has lost its last four games.
The first of the stretch came at Cameron Indoor Stadium against then-No. 1 Duke. In the game’s dwindling minutes, Winthrop starting point guard Russell Jones injured his ankle and hasn’t played since. (At a recent practice, Jones said this is the first time he’s ever missed a basketball game due to an injury. Head coach Pat Kelsey said Jones is “day-to-day.”)
Eight days later, the Eagles couldn’t turn a career night from Josh Ferguson into a win against Coastal Carolina, a team that benefited from DeVante’ Jones’ 32 points that included the penultimate and final go-ahead buckets.
Then, last week, the Eagles dropped two more: a 10-point loss at TCU, where Winthrop shot 8-of-31 from three; and a seven-point loss at Furman.
Last week, Herald sports writer Alex Zietlow sat down with Kelsey for a one-on-one interview to ask what needs to change for Winthrop to snap its losing streak.
Kelsey responded — like he often does — with words his mentor, Skip Prosser, would sometimes offer during a rough stretch of the season.
“He always used to say, ‘One thing you guys don’t have to worry about is being good — because we’re going to be good,’” Kelsey said.
“I think we are good.”
Here’s the interview, edited for brevity.
‘Teams have made heroic shots’
Zietlow: How are you doing?
Kelsey: Good. Good. I just — I know we’re good, you know?
We’ve had a gauntlet of a schedule, one of the most difficult schedules in the country. We’ve had some really tough travel. For TCU, we left that morning at 5 a.m. It hasn’t been an easy preseason, but the thing I know is, we have major fire power on this team.
We’re getting everybody healthy. You know, (Chandler Vaudrin) missed the majority of the preseason (with a sprained ankle). He didn’t start practicing until two days before we played Hartford. And then a couple weeks later, Russ goes out, so to be able to get our full team back here soon at some point will be nice as well.
But I just remain so positive, so confident, so bullish on this team… For so many of our games, players, teams have made heroic shots — have had heroic performances to beat us. And you’d like to think that Lady Luck is going to come around your way at some point. The basketball gods even things out, I believe, overall.
‘Bubble gum card’
Zietlow: This team isn’t shooting as well from three as maybe you’d expect (less than 32 percent). Did the NCAA’s decision to move the 3-point line back six inches have anything to do with that?
Kelsey: I personally don’t believe it does. I think if you look at all the data across all of college basketball, the difference is minimal.
We have a lot of really good shooters. We have a lot of guys back from last year’s team that led the country in 3-point makes per game. And the guys that we graduated, you know:
Nych Smith was a good 3-point shooter, not a great 3-point shooter.
Bjorn Broman was a good 3-point shooter, not a great 3-point shooter.
Adam Pickett was a good 3-point shooter, not a great 3-point shooter.
I don’t think it has anything to do with it.
I’m a big believer that you are what the back of your bubble gum card says you are. Joey Votto — I’m a big Reds fan — has an on-base percentage that is off the charts. And if he’s having a poor on-base percentage, or his batting average dips for the month of April or May, I sleep like a baby because I know the back of his bubble gum card says he’s a .300-plus hitter every single year.
And it’s all going to fix itself and come back to the mean later on.
That’s what I believe in terms of our shooting. We’re a very good shooting team that’s due to get on a roll.
Zietlow: Do you think the players have bought into that?
Kelsey: Well, I never tell them not to shoot. If you’re open, your feet are set, you have rhythm, let it go.
And they’re in the gym, shooting every single day, too. There’s no secret sauce, pixie dust to this game. It rewards toughness, and it rewards hard work. If you’re in the gym, getting reps and you’re shooting, you deserve to make shots.
Before SIU Edwardsville Cougars
Zietlow: On Tuesday, you play at 11 a.m. That’s the day when you bring all the elementary students out, right?
Kelsey: It’s awesome, man. There’s just such a buzz in the Coliseum. I mean, it’s on fire. I mean, those kids are loud and into the game and cheering like crazy. We started it four or five years ago.
We work with the Rock Hill School District. Mychal Frost helps coordinate it all, and we invite every (Rock Hill) elementary school… We’ll have three or four thousand students in there — and it’ll be buzzin’.
We always do it right before Christmas break, when the teachers can’t deal with the kids because they’re bouncing off the walls, so excited about the break, so they let them go work off a bunch of energy — and we can use all the energy we can get. It’s been a really good thing.
Want to go?
When: 11 a.m., Tuesday
Where: Winthrop Coliseum
Tickets: Prices vary. Visit the Winthrop Athletics website for more information.
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 1:22 PM.
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