Winthrop’s men, women basketball teams will have lots of new faces this season

Big South basketball media days are exactly what you would expect.

The preseason poll and preseason All-Conference teams are announced. Basketball coaches bring their staff and a top player to a five-hour gauntlet of interviews, split in half by an hour-long lunch. Journalists ask about the upcoming season, about the departure of Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander, and whatever else helps tie their preseason outlook stories together.

If you’re lucky, a young journalist by way of Howard and Arizona State universities will ask what your favorite Halloween candy is. (Mark Prosser and Leonor Paisana like Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, Semeka Randall Lay likes only the yellow part of candy corn, and Chase Claxton hates chocolate.)

There is little to break the flow of interviews aside from time spent quietly chatting with other people or passing jokes to friends or people nearby.

However, that doesn’t make the event any less important, and Winthrop takes this opportunity to set the record straight about this upcoming season plenty serious.

Starting with Winthrop men’s basketball team, the Eagles are coming into the season with high expectations.

After finishing last season 23-9 (14-2), the 2022 Big South Championship runners-up are top-three in the Big South preseason poll for the eighth-consecutive year, and Mark Prosser’s guys are right on schedule.

“We look probably like a lot of other teams are looking right now,” Prosser said. “Some good and some bad. There’s times where it’s a little hard to evaluate, right? Because when your offense is doing well, you’re worried about your defense; and if the defense is doing well, you’re worried about the offense.

“I think we’ll have a better understanding of where we are as we get into some of our non-league games, and we have a couple scrimmages to sort of gauge ourselves as well. But there’s a lot to be excited about. There’s some things that we obviously have to get better at. We’re far from a finished product. But that’s where we’re supposed to be.”

In Prosser’s second year, the men’s team will look a lot different.

Winthrop lost 2021-22 Big South Preseason Player of the Year D.J. Burns to the transfer portal, and the Eagles lost six other lettermen from last year’s team. Prosser’s team also lost graduate senior Micheal Anumba, who was having a fantastic offseason, to a torn Achilles.

However, the team did bring some new players.

Three Division I-transfers (Howard Fleming Jr., Illinois State; Kasen Harrison, Lamar; Isaiah Wilson, Richmond) bring in a combined 148 games of experience, while five freshmen (Lawrence Bartee, Yoro Diallo, Clay Howard, Xavier McKelvy, Michael Moore) bring youth that grow and develop.

With such huge turnover and so many new faces, they’ve already produced some encouraging results.

“Last year, our team was elite, for sure,” senior forward Chase Claxton said. “And we lost a lot of players, but now we’ve got transfers coming in, and everyone whose stayed has grown into a better player, better version of themselves. So this year, I feel like we’re still elite, just in a different way. Last year, our offense low-key carried, but now our defense is really up to par.”

Winthrop women

Looking at the women’s team, the similarities to the men’s team are stark.

The women’s team also lost seven lettermen, including four starters, from last year’s team. The women’s team also has a head coach entering her second season. The women’s team also has a host of newcomers on the squad. That includes five transfers (Frances Brown, Nassau CC; Addaya Moore, Western Illinois; Paige Powell, UNC-Wilmington; Shamyjha Price, UMass Lowell; Jada Ryce, East Tennessee State) and two freshmen (Aaishah Barry, Tiana Spann).

However, while the men’s team has notched 18 wins in each of the past seven seasons, the women’s team hasn’t posted a winning record in any of those seasons.

Head coach Semeka Randall Lay says the program is trending in the right direction.

“When you’re building, it just takes time,” Lay said. “In terms of getting the right pieces, not trying to skip the process but absorb it and try to do your best and just know that you’re going to continue to just keep adding more and more pieces to the process.

“Leading them into this year, it’s the same thing, but you can start to see the things that you envisioned and you hoped for this program.”

The women’s team also has focused on establishing team chemistry. Lay wants her team to have clear expectations.

“We’re going to try to maximize as much as we can in this process,” Lay said. “Though there may come some bumps and bruises with it, I want to see how resilient they can be.

“That’s a small goal for me. Are we going to feel sorry for ourselves or are we going to take the film, learn from it, grow and go out and do better next time. That’s my goal for this team.”

One of the top returners is sophomore guard Leonor Paisana. Hailing from Portugal, last season was the 5-foot-7 guard’s first experience playing the more-physically intense, detail-oriented American-style of basketball.

“My first year was really bad,” Paisana said. “I’m an international. I come from a different country, so it was kind of hard with the impact that different cultures have. Basketball-wise, I had to learn how to play the American game, which is different from the European game.

“Even the expressions, like the talking, was really hard. In my freshman year, I also learned a lot about the team, like the experiences we had and to fight everything.”

Focus is the name of the game for Lay’s team.

“This year, we’re more focused on being aggressive and competitive,” Paisana said. “And I believe that we will be able to win a lot more games than last year. I just have this good feeling that it’s happening because everyone is on the same page.”

What’s next?

Winthrop’s men’s basketball team opens the season on the road at Penn State on Nov. 7, while their first home game will be Nov. 9 against Piedmont.

The women’s team also will open the season on the road on Nov. 7 as they face Central Florida n Orlando. The women’s first home game will not come until Nov. 13 against Coppin State.