Learning on the fly, Winthrop basketball remains unbeaten after 2 wins over Gardner-Webb
A subtle pass fake into the post is all it took for Chandler Vaudrin to find the space he needed to ultimately sway the outcome of Sunday afternoon’s contest.
With just over 10 minutes left, the senior ball-faked, found himself alone on the 3-point line and then nailed the type of shot that would’ve drawn an eruption from a full crowd. His shot extended his team’s run to eight unanswered points — and it gave the Eagles, who were clinging to a tenuous one-possession lead for most of the game before that shot, a momentum it wouldn’t squander.
“So when we ran (a set play), they both went with DJ (Burns), I think, and I was all by myself,” Vaudrin told reporters postgame via Zoom video call after pouring in 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists in 37 minutes. “And so obviously, I’ve been working on my shot. People play off me and stuff. So I took it in rhythm, with confidence, and knocked it down.”
The shot effectively changed the game’s tides. In the end, Winthrop (11-0, 8-0 Big South) defeated Big South Conference foe Gardner-Webb, 91-83, in Rock Hill — completing its two-game sweep of the Bulldogs and keeping alive an unbeaten streak that has made the Eagles one of the most compelling stories in college basketball: Winthrop, after all, is building on the best start any Winthrop team or Big South team has ever had, and the team hasn’t lost in 16 games, a figure that dates back to February 2020.
The team is still getting better, too, Vaudrin said. Winthrop can win by the 3-point shot, at the free throw line, or by wreaking havoc via a fastbreak offense powered by its 11-man rotation. It can adjust in between games. It can adjust mid-game. And it’s proven good enough — and fortunate enough — to win games despite having to simultaneously learn valuable lessons.
“We never talk about not being undefeated,” Kelsey told reporters postgame. “We never talk about our record. If we’re having a bad shootaround, we’ll stop it and address it and fix it. And then we challenge our guys to respond the right way. It’s a constant focus on responses — responses to every event, every piece of adversity we’re going to face. And that’s what sports is all about.”
As is custom in this rivalry — one that saw a triple-overtime matchup in Rock Hill last year — Winthrop and Gardner-Webb traded blows in the first half. The Eagles, in fact, entered the halftime break behind on the scoreboard for the first time this season on Sunday.
“It didn’t really bother us at all,” said DJ Burns, who finished Sunday with 14 points in 17 minutes, when asked about the halftime deficit. “We know that we just have to play harder. When we come out down, we can’t sit down and pout about it.”
The first half might’ve felt closer than its six-point margin. But the second half, plainly, didn’t.
The Bulldogs saw the shooting woes that plagued them Saturday — which ended in a 75-65 Winthrop win — bite them again in the second half of Sunday’s contest: Gardner-Webb was 39% from the field and 1-of-11 on 3-point shots after the break.
Meanwhile, Winthrop shot 58.8% for the game — enough to overcome its 18 turnovers.
Notable: What does it take to ‘earn the right’ to shoot threes?
Like in most press conferences, Kelsey’s praise of his players didn’t stick to one guy: He talked up Russell Jones Jr., who hit six important free throws down the stretch which helped stave off a Bulldog comeback. He acknowledged the efforts Burns made on defense, saying that his “commitment” on that end of the floor is part of the reason for his increase in minutes this series.
And when asked about if a 3-point shot is in the potential repertoire of Chase Claxton — a forward who’s known more for the impact he makes off the box score than on it (but who took a 3-point attempt in Sunday’s contest) — Kelsey laughed and told a story.
“We have a standard,” Kelsey said. “I got this from Jim Larrañaga... and I think he got it from John Beilein.”
He went on: “We do a drill called five-minute threes. And in the preseason we do it every single day and we chart it, right? And we challenge guys to do it when they go home, too.”
The drill is simple: A shooter stands on one spot on the floor with one ball and one rebounder and shoots continuously for five minutes. And if you can “average 50 makes in five minutes, you can shoot threes in our program,” Kelsey said.
Charles Falden, who finished Sunday with 15 points on 3-of-5 shooting from three, can average 60 in five minutes, Kelsey said. Josh Corbin leads the team in the drill, averaging 63 threes in the allotted time.
Claxton, on the other hand, is right on the cusp of that 50 average, Kelsey said.
“And what Coach Larrañaga used to say is, if you average between 45 and 49, you get one three in the first half,” Kelsey said. “And if you miss it, you’re done for the day.”
And what about Kelton Talford, Claxton’s dutiful rebounding buddy in the pregame shootaround?
Said Kelsey with a chuckle: “Well, Kelton isn’t quite there yet. If he starts shooting threes, we’re going to have some aggressive counseling.”
Quotable: ‘One of the best playmakers in the whole country’
Burns opened up about a minor hand injury he’d been dealing with since the first game against Campbell earlier this month: “It’s not anything serious to where it’s broken or anything like that, but just I’ve felt for the past couple of games really uncomfortable. And not really so much as the other team making me uncomfortable, but just not being able to find my rhythm.” He added that Sunday was a “great step in the right direction for getting it back consistently.”
Vaudrin — Winthrop’s trusted 6-7 point guard and the nation’s leader in triple-doubles this season — on his team’s fast pace: “If you’re having trouble scoring, then dang, you better get back on defense because we’re bringing it right back at you. It’s definitely a tough team. I wouldn’t want to play us. That’s why practices are so hard.”
Kelsey on Vaudrin playing so many minutes Sunday: “Chan’s one of the best playmakers in the whole country. He’s one of the nation’s leaders in assists, he’s a senior, he’s earned the role that he has here.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2021 at 5:38 PM.
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