We asked Big South coaches to describe Winthrop in 5 words or less. Most needed more
On Wednesday, I bounced around from coach to coach, table to table, in the BOplex ballroom in Charlotte during the Big South Conference’s media day to ask about what people thought of the Winthrop basketball team.
And it was surprisingly fruitful.
Two big themes emerged:
One, the coaches were overwhelmingly and exclusively positive. “Coach-speak” bends upbeat, yes. But there isn’t much negative to hark on with Winthrop hoops right now, either: The Eagles, after all, went 23-2 last year. They’re returning last season’s core — including 2021 Preseason Big South Player of the Year DJ Burns — and are one of only a handful of teams in the country with no true freshmen. They earned an NCAA automatic bid last year, and they were announced Wednesday as preseason favorites to do so again in the 2021-22 season.
The other (and more surprising) theme? Almost all of the Big South coaches I interviewed have a meaningful connection to the Rock Hill university’s basketball program — teams and players, past and present.
Here’s what Big South coaches said about Winthrop.
(Note: Almost all of the coaches were asked to explain what they thought of Winthrop in five words or less. Most needed more. More on that later.)
Barclay Radebaugh, Charleston Southern
Barclay Radebaugh has seen a lot.
He was an assistant under Gregg Marshall while Marshall was at Winthrop. Radebaugh then became the second-winningest head coach in Big South basketball history at Charleston Southern, where he has been for 16 seasons.
His piece: “First of all, Pat Kelsey is a great friend. And we’re really excited that he’s in Charleston. We’ve enjoyed having him down there. College of Charleston made a great choice. Mark Prosser is also a great friend. I’ve known Mark a long time; I’ve known him more as an assistant coach than I have as a head coach because when he was the head coach at Western Carolina, he was in a different league. So I know him as a tremendous coach. And when he was an assistant, I knew he was a head coach-in-waiting; I could just tell. So the coaching is going to be equal — they’re just two really good coaches, let’s just be honest.
“I think top-to-bottom, (Winthrop) is the most talented team in our league. I think they’re big, strong, athletic. They expect to win. .. They’ll be picked at the very top of the league. And deservedly so.”
Ed Joyner, Hampton
Ed Joyner, head coach at Hampton for 13 years and alum of Charlotte’s Johnson C. Smith, didn’t have an ostensible line of connection to Winthrop outside of regularly seeing the Eagles in the Big South tournament. But he had plenty of praise to offer.
“To me, they’re the model of consistency,” Joyner said of Winthrop. “And I don’t know coach Mark Prosser, never coached against him. But he’s from that Winthrop tree. So I don’t know if they’ll play the same way, but I think with the success the university and program has had, I’m expecting it not to change.”
Quinten Ferrel, Presbyterian College
Entering his third year at PC, Ferrell might not have a meaningful connection to Winthrop as a place or program, but he is well-acquainted with someone who might lead the Eagles in scoring in 2021: Cory Hightower, one of five Winthrop transfers this season, started his college basketball career at Presbyterian in Ferrel’s first year. He then transferred to Western Carolina before returning to the Big South this season at Winthrop.
Another connection: Ferrell, a North Augusta High School graduate, grew up playing high school ball against or with guys who’d go on to become Winthrop basketball greats. The main two he mentioned? Torrell Martin and Tyrone Walker.
His take on Winthrop: “Ever since Gregg Marshall left, every coach has pretty much gotten the program to an NCAA tournament. So just ‘tradition’ is what I think of with Winthrop.”
Tim Craft, Gardner-Webb
Tim Craft of Gardner-Webb may only know Winthrop University as a competitor, but the universe has comically connected him and Winthrop’s former coach. In 2019, Kelsey joked that he and Craft were living “ridiculously” similar lives. And it’s hard not to see the similarities: Kelsey was in his eighth season at Winthrop at the time he said that; Craft was in his seventh at GWU. Kelsey has two daughters and one son; Craft does, too, and they are each the same age as Kelsey’s kids.
“Our sons got to meet each other and got to hang out with each other some before the games,” Craft told The Herald on Wednesday. He then laughed, as if remembering how many times he and Kelsey acknowledged their similarities: “We had always talked about sending each other’s kids to each other’s camps.”
Here’s what came to Craft’s mind when he thought about Winthrop basketball: “I think definitely things will be different and that Mark will be his own person. We played Western Carolina when (Prosser) was there, maybe his second year, and they were really good. And he beat us at their place. And his teams are really well-coached and all those things. So yeah, he’ll put his own stamp on the program, but he was certainly a big part of Kelsey’s success for however many years Mark was (an assistant) there. He was a big part of what they built at Winthrop.”
Tubby Smith, High Point University
Tubby Smith, the first Black coach at Kentucky and national champion and coach who returned to his High Point alma mater in 2018, spewed plenty of wisdom he’s collected during his legendary career when talking about Winthrop basketball.
“Some programs, the coach makes the program. And then there are programs that make the coach,” Smith said. He continued: “At Kentucky? It’s Kentucky with or without Adolph Rupp, Tubby Smith, John Calipari, see what I mean? It’s going to be great no matter who coaches them. And I think Winthrop is at that level at the (mid-major) level.”
Other coaches give thoughts on Winthrop, including Mark Prosser
I asked this question — What comes to mind when you think of Winthrop? — to other coaches, too. They all remarked on Winthrop’s “tradition” and “sustained success.” I learned about more unexpected connections along the way, too. (Radford first-year head coach Darris Nichols, for instance, coached Winthrop assistant Tony Rack when Rack was in high school. Who knew?)
At the end of the day, just before he left, I posed the question to Prosser.
Prosser, of course, is the son of the late, legendary coach Skip Prosser, who in various ways has deeply impacted the Winthrop athletic department. Mark Prosser is the successor of Pat Kelsey. He was an assistant coach at Winthrop for six years before going away to Western Carolina. He’s a York County resident who got emotional in his introductory press conference when talking about how special it was to be back in Rock Hill, a place his family fell in love with when they were here in the 2010s.
Prosser is all this. So when I asked the question, I thought he’d be the last person to follow my arbitrary five-word prompt.
But he did.
And he said this about what comes to mind about Winthrop: “A chance to come home.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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