Winthrop’s basketball season is here. This year, there’s really no excuse to miss it

Former Winthrop athletic director Ken Halpin heard it. So did Winthrop coaches. Everyone interested in the Winthrop men’s basketball team last season — a season that featured a 23-2 team from Rock Hill with a winning streak that, at its peak, rivaled national phenomenon Gonzaga — heard it, too.

“If only we could watch them play!”

Concerns surrounding COVID-19 prevented local fans from cheering on Winthrop in person for most of last year’s season. Limited attendance was allowed starting with last year’s March 1 game against Longwood in Winthrop’s quarterfinal win in the Big South tournament, but the reported attendance never exceeded 915.

It was a strange thing to watch and document: As Winthrop’s presence in the college basketball conversation blossomed, receiving social media buzz and getting some Associated Press Top 25 love as the Eagles dismantled opponent after opponent, players and coaches and anyone else in the Winthrop Coliseum couldn’t see if people were really paying attention. They couldn’t actually see if more eyes were on them in their own building.

Typically when teams win, and word gets out that watching them is money well spent, hype turns into butts in seats. Social media buzz turns into stadium noise. Into ticket sales. That didn’t have a chance to happen last year.

Last year, in other words, it was clear people nationally were aware of Winthrop’s rise. But the answer to this question was less clear: Did Winthrop’s own community care?

For those who wished they could watch Winthrop play but couldn’t last year, or for anyone else this year who is a fan of college basketball with $12 in their pocket and who is interested in seeing a team with a real shot at an NCAA tournament bid grow from ground zero, hear this:

COVID isn’t limiting attendance in 2021-22. There’s really no excuse to miss the Eagles this year.

Winthrop begins its men’s basketball season at home on Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Mary Baldwin University. The Fighting Squirrels are a Division III team from Staunton, Virginia, a place known best for being the birthplace of the 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

I admit, yes, a sell-out for Winthrop’s season opener this year won’t happen. In fact, a sell-out at all is a stretch historically for any Winthrop home game: In 2019-20, the most recent one with fans allowed in the 6,100-capacity Winthrop Coliseum, an average of 2,663 fans attended Eagles home games. (For what it’s worth, that average was the best for at least 10 years. Attendance records on the Winthrop website begin in the 2009-10 season. At one point last decade, in 2014-15, the average attendance was 1,239 a game.)

But even if packing the stands is unobtainable, Winthrop still should expect a decent fan turnout this year. And the school will see it if the same fans who wanted to come to the Coliseum but couldn’t last season — “If only we could watch them play!” — put their money and time and garnet-and-gold scarves where their mouths are this year.

Plenty is compelling them there: The era of new head coach Mark Prosser is beginning. The team, after Mary Baldwin, is playing in a slew of intriguing non-conference games — one game of which is homecoming Saturday against Mercer, the same program that beat Duke in the 2014 NCAA tournament.

The Eagles have a lot of characters with South Carolina roots to cheer for, too — think Rock Hill’s DJ Burns, think Great Falls’ Kelton Talford, think Greenville’s Chase Claxton, think Blythewood’s Russell Jones Jr.

Winthrop is a school that has to fight for national college basketball relevance before March. It’ll always have to fight that battle. But for those who are in Winthrop’s backyard and who had the slightest desire to see last year’s team play but couldn’t, Winthrop is expecting you to give this team a chance beginning on Tuesday.

And there’s really no excuse for you not to.

Winthrop basketball schedule: Eagles vs Mary Baldwin

• Where: Winthrop Coliseum
• When: Tuesday, 6 p.m.
• Tickets: You can purchase tickets at the door with a credit card (no cash) or ahead of time on the Winthrop athletics website. Tickets are $12.
• Note: Face coverings must be worn inside the Coliseum, per university policy.
• Watch: Stream via ESPN+ (subscription required)
• Listen: Local radio braodcast via 94.3 FM; Dave Friedman and Michael Pacheco on the call

This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 6:00 AM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.