A look into Winthrop’s offseason of attrition and addition, plus a full roster analysis
There were times this spring when Mark Prosser wished he had a home in a remote part of Alaska.
It sounds magical, really. His assistant coaches would vacation with him there. It’d be a place with no cell service. “Hey coach, can we talk?” texts from players wouldn’t go through, putting out of sight and out of mind the threat of his guys transferring.
From the end of Winthrop basketball’s season to the closing of the transfer portal window in late April, Prosser would be free from the anxiety that comes with being a head basketball coach of a punch-above-your-weight mid-major basketball program in 2022 — an anxiety that wasn’t quite as potent 10 years ago, five years ago, or even a year ago, when Prosser first took the helm at Winthrop.
“This has literally been the craziest offseason I’ve ever been a part of,” Prosser told The Herald in late-May in a coffee shop in Rock Hill, a few weeks and several deep breaths removed from the closing of the 2022 transfer portal window. He was kidding about vacationing in Alaska, he insisted with a laugh. But there are troves of proverbs about good jokes and their connections to the truth.
“Not just in our program, with everyone — from the portal, the extra COVID year, image/likeness and everything else — it’s just been the most wild spring,” the four-year D1 head coach continued. “But it’s like what everybody says no matter what profession you’re in: You can either fight it, and sit around and stomp your feet. Or you can say, ‘Alright, this is the world,’ and try to do the best you can with it.”
Several months after the end of the 2022 season, and several months until Winthrop’s first game of the 2022-23 season, here’s a broad look at Winthrop’s offseason of attrition and addition, as well a full roster analysis.
Attrition: Winthrop basketball loses 6 guys from 2022 roster
It was most striking against North Carolina A&T.
In an early-February game in Rock Hill, you could look on the visiting side bleachers and see a completely filled bench of players and assistant coaches.
The home side bench, conversely, was sparse: You saw Pat Good sidelined with an injury. You saw Drew Buggs on the mobile bike, fighting through pain. You didn’t see one-time starter Josh Corbin, who was taking a hiatus from the team for “personal reasons,” and you didn’t see Cory Hightower, who was out officially for “medical reasons.”
In total, you saw Winthrop suiting up nine guys, eight of whom had to play big minutes. The Eagles — the same team that used a 12-player rotation the year before — looked fragile.
Winthrop continued to look like that through the rest of the season. The Eagles got Good and Hightower back, but Corbin never returned. And later in February, they saw Jamal King leave the team for good. They made a run to the Big South championship game in early March, but it was an arduous one — and the team’s exhaustion reared its head in a championship loss against a fated Longwood team.
After that loss, more players left: Good and Buggs graduated. Corbin and King officially moved on. Russell Jones Jr., who two years ago had declared that he’d work tirelessly to become one of the best point guards to ever come through Winthrop, entered the transfer portal. (He eventually landed at Western Carolina, with former Winthrop assistant and now-Catamount head coach Justin Gray.) Winthrop premier big man and Big South Player of the Year, DJ Burns, left too, and he found a home at N.C. State.
Winthrop’s lineup, by early April, was near-unrecognizable from the year before it.
Addition: Meet the new Winthrop Eagles
The clearinghouse made it mandatory for Winthrop to seek out reinforcements. And the Eagles did that.
Xavier McKelvy of United Faith Christian in Charlotte and 6-foot-11 big man Lawrence Bartee of Clover committed in the fall of 2021. Michael Moore of IMG Academy committed to Winthrop a bit later than that, and he now rounds out the first freshman class in the Prosser era. (The Eagles had no true freshmen last year, making them one of the oldest teams in the country.)
The rest of the additions fell into place this summer.
As a result, Winthrop will see the return and final run of COVID-year-beneficiary Micheal Anumba in 2022-23. It’ll also see the “debuts” of two players: Toneari Lane — who played a little bit in Pat Kelsey’s final season and then didn’t play a minute under Prosser to earn his redshirt — and redshirt junior Cameron Whiteside.
Other guys came in, too. Isaiah Wilson transferred in from Richmond. Kasen Harrison transferred in from Lamar University. And Howard Fleming Jr. transferred in from Illinois State. Yoro Diallo will join the team as a walk-on, Prosser said.
Full roster analysis, narrated by Prosser
So what to make of all these changes? Where does that leave Winthrop? Here’s a roster analysis, with help from Prosser.
Asterisks indicate returning contributors.
*Sin’Cere McMahon. McMahon started eight games in his first season at Winthrop, the underclassman somehow finding a way to separate himself in a crowded and old backcourt. He averaged 5.4 points and 1.1 assists per game and will be a key piece for the Eagles in 2022-23.
Toneari Lane. Lane dressed out for exactly one game last season, and he never played in it. That makes two seasons where the redshirt sophomore has missed a bulk of the season — his freshman season saw him sidelined in a boot. Prosser said the left-handed, 6-foot-5, 210-pound guard can be a “huge contributor” and that he’s “all in” on Winthrop.
“The thing about Toneari is that he’s gonna compete,” Prosser said, explaining the chip on Lane’s shoulder as he enters his third year in Rock Hill. “With his ability to shoot the basketball, with his ability to rebound and defend and things like that, plus he knows the system — it puts him ahead of where some other guys could be. ... We’re counting on him. He better be ready to go because we’re counting on him.”
Xavier McKelvy. The true freshman from the Charlotte area will be expected to contribute immediately, Prosser said.
“His athleticism is Division I, maybe better,” Prosser said. “To say he’s more athletic than Chase Claxton is hard to do, but he’s going to be one of our most athletic kids. Just explosive. Can really score the ball. Can really get to the rim. So again, he has the ability to carve out a role for himself, as a bunch of guys do. When you have 82.5 minutes per game in the backcourt you have to fill, that (makes sense). ... So Xavier can certainly put himself in that conversation.”
*Micheal Anumba. Anumba has had quite the career at Winthrop. Going into Year Five, benefiting from the COVID year, the Italy native will start for a fifth straight year for the Eagles. (He’s only not started three total games through four years of games played.) Prosser pointed out that Anumba probably wouldn’t return to Winthrop if he didn’t think this year’s team could be pretty good — and Prosser’s probably right. The team’s best defender averaged a career-high 7.7 points last season.
*Kelton Talford. The departure of DJ Burns isn’t ideal, but the Eagles have a back-to-the-basket big man with credentials to serve in his stead. Talford, a Chester County native, exploded for a career-high 22 points in early February and only ascended after that. He finished shooting 67.1% from the floor, averaging 8.5 points in 17 minutes a game, and that’s all coming off the bench. Heading into a year when two of the top-three finishers for conference player of the year left for greener pastures — Burns to N.C. State, Longwood’s Justin Hill Georgia — Talford could be a worthy POY sleeper pick.
Per Prosser: “After every game, you guys were like, ‘How are you going to get KT and DJ on the floor together?’ Because, you know, he had a great year. You have a sophomore player who has three years left still.... who’s just gotten better and better and better.”
Howard Fleming Jr. Fleming landed at Winthrop after being a contributor for Illinois State, where he averaged 5.9 points and 2.1 assists a game. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound guard drew comparisons to Anumba in strength and stature from Prosser — high praise from a coach that considers Anumba a cornerstone of the program.
Cameron Whiteside. Whiteside didn’t play a game in 2021-22 because of an injury he suffered before the season. The big guard originally made a name at Division II’s UVA Wise. He then committed to transfer to Western Carolina with Prosser in 2020 and followed Prosser to Winthrop in 2021. Prosser said Whiteside has a similar skillset and hunger to Lane, who also missed last year.
“He’s hungry,” Prosser said. “He’s had a body of work in college that’s very good, in a really good Division II league, so I think he was anxious to get out there last year and show that he belongs at this level, and I think that’s just magnified having to sit for those couple months since then.”
Kasen Harrison. Harrison averaged 32.2 minutes and 13.1 points a game at Lamar last season at Lamar. Prosser was drawn to him because of how he could play on the ball and off the ball, and because of his tenacity. In Prosser’s words: “He fits us really well.”
*Cory Hightower. Hightower is Winthrop’s leading returning scorer in 2021-22. The big man was one of the best 3-point shooters on one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the Big South.
Lawrence Bartee. The 6-foot-11 big man and Clover High School star stayed in York County to continue his basketball career. He finished his senior season as a first-team All-Area basketball selection by The Herald. Prosser said the freshman has “tools that are so intriguing” and that his upside is particularly exciting.
Isaiah Wilson. Wilson is transferring from Richmond, one of the oldest mid-major teams in college basketball last year (with six graduate students). Prosser was on Winthrop’s staff when the program offered Wilson initially — Winthrop was actually Wilson’s first offer — and Prosser called Wilson’s commitment to Rock Hill a “full-circle moment.”
Michael Moore. Moore, an IMG Academy star, is a 6-foot-10 freshman. Is he going to contribute right away? “I hope so,” Prosser said, adding: “He sort of fits what we talked about before, with KT. He has the ability to play a little faster, to be able to switch and things defensive, because he has a skillset that’s unique.”
Yoro Diallo. Diallo will walk-on to the team in 2022-23.
*Chase Claxton: Claxton, originally a Pat Kelsey recruit, wasn’t forgotten in the regime change that came in the 2021 offseason. And he earned that playing time by being tough and making clutch defensive plays that no one else did. He averaged a career-high 22.6 minutes a game a season ago, and he’ll loom large in the lineup again.
Mark Prosser’s final word
“The one thing I hope people understand: If people are panicking, we’re not,” Prosser said earlier this offseason. He added, “That roster can win the league. There’s no question.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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