Winthrop men’s basketball coping with Okeke loss

As Winthrop men’s basketball players warmed up for Friday’s practice at the West Center, redshirt sophomore Duby Okeke shot free throws by himself.

That’s all he can do at the moment. The 6-foot-8 shot-blocking extraordinaire broke a bone in his wrist during the Eagles’ loss to Georgia on Dec. 8. Okeke has a soft cast on his left hand that will keep him sidelined for around a month.

“That’s the silver lining that it happened early enough where he had the pin put in and they’re hoping it’s a three or four-week process. But we don’t know,” said coach Pat Kelsey. “The advantage of no choice is other guys have to come along. Whoever that is, I don’t know.”

Junior Jarad Scott and 6-foot-10 fifth-year senior Zach Price are the obvious contributors that will have to fill the vacuum left by Okeke, who was playing the best ball of his brief Winthrop career. But it’s not all on them; one solution is playing a smaller lineup with 6-foot-8 sophomore Xavier Cooks and Josh Davenport playing one position bigger than normal.

Okeke blocked at least two shots in every game he’s played this season and prior to his injury was on pace for 73.5 – let’s call it 74 – blocked shots in the regular season.

That would have easily broken the single season school record of 66 set by Josh Grant in 2002-03. Okeke’s 28 blocks in eight games equals 3.5 per contest, which also would set a new school record, besting Grant’s mark of 2.28 in that same 2002-03 campaign. Kelsey is justified in calling him “an elite rim protector,” as he did after Friday’s practice.

“His future is blindingly bright,” Kelsey said. “But we get him back when we get him back, and other guys are gonna have to step up.”

Scott had played 32 total minutes before the Alabama game; without Okeke, Scott played 15, scoring five points and grabbing seven boards. While Scott offers nowhere near the defensive wall that Okeke does, he brings different abilities, notably 3-point shooting that can stretch opposing defenses. Scott hit 45 percent of his 38 attempts last year.

Walk-on Freddy Poole is another one that will likely see the floor more than before. But fortunately for Winthrop, there aren’t any more ACC or SEC clubs on the schedule, because the Eagles don’t have a lot of size at the moment.

“That’s one area where we don’t have a lot of depth,” said Kelsey. “We knew coming into the year that two injuries to that position would be debilitating to our team.”

That was one risk of redshirting senior Tevin Prescott. Still, when Okeke isn’t just shooting free throws by himself during practice, when he’s back on the court, the Eagles should be a better team for the experience. Winthrop men’s basketball has been forced to do something it needed to do all along.

“Hopefully when he comes back those extra minutes, that extra game experience, that extra amount of emphasis on those players to be productive is going to make us better, deeper in the long run,” said Kelsey.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Winthrop men’s basketball coping with Okeke loss."