Winthrop offense is flowing but defense needs to get better, starting Thursday

Winthrop men’s basketball is off to its best start in nine years.

The Eagles have won three straight games and nine of the first 12 this season, their best start since 2006-07. Gregg Marshall’s team started that year 10-3, a mark the current crop can match Thursday against Campbell at 1 p.m. at Winthrop Coliseum.

Offensive fluidity has been the chief catalyst for Winthrop’s strong start. The Eagles’ 85 points per game is tops in the Big South, as is its 76 percent shooting from the free throw line. That stat has proved crucial since Pat Kelsey’s team is 17th in the country with 243 free throws made; junior guard Keon Johnson is 19th among NCAA players in free throws made (71). Winthrop is also shooting a decent clip from 3-point range, and only turns the ball over just north of 11 times per game.

Combine all of that with one of the fastest tempos in the country, and the points have come in avalanches. Winthrop has been able to out-score inferior opponents so far, but that won’t be enough in the close games that will pop up in the coming months.

Against Campbell Thursday, the Eagles will need to defend. The Camels parted ways with talented sophomore Curtis Phillips several weeks ago - a definite surprise from the outside looking in - but Kevin McGeehan’s team has a talented backcourt trio in Kyre Hamer, Troy Harper and standout freshman Chris Clemons. They run a modified Princeton offense characterized by incessant movement, and Winthrop spent significant chunks of Wednesday’s practice working on a particular few actions the Camels leans on offensively.

Defense hasn’t been a strong suit of this Winthrop team so far, with the 15-16 Eagles languishing in the KenPom.com defensive rankings at 286th out of 351. KenPom.com, the advanced college basketball statistics web site, gives teams with positive rankings in any of its stats a shade of green, the darker the better. Bad rankings are given shades of red and Winthrop’s defensive rating is firmly pink.

“We’re a work in progress,” said Kelsey. “It’s not from a lack of emphasis. Our guys know that this program for a long time has always had the reputation to be a very good defensive team.”

Winthrop had leaned on shot-blocker Duby Okeke to erase some of its mistakes, but it’s questionable how much he’ll be able to play Thursday as he continues his return from wrist surgery. The 6-foot-8 redshirt sophomore - eighth in the country in blocks per game (3.11) - only played four minutes Monday against Rio Grande, and practiced for the first time in three weeks on Wednesday.

Even with Okeke nearly fully mended, Winthrop needs to get better defensively.

“We’ve got to be good in all the other parts so when you add an elite shot-blocker in the back that should raise you to another level,” Kelsey said. “We’re glad to have him back.”

Kelsey pointed out that his team recorded 43 deflections during Monday’s win over University of Rio Grande, a four-year high during the coach’s tenure in Rock Hill. Kelsey borrowed Louisville coaching legend Rick Pitino’s emphasis on deflections a few years ago, and Winthrop players view deflections as part of a wider solution to the defensive laxity.

”I think on defense we could be more aggressive, bring more energy,” said junior Josh Davenport. “When I come into the game I try to bring more energy on defense. That’s pretty much my role.”

Davenport will be important Thursday against a Campbell team adept at driving the basketball. But Winthrop’s defensive improvement has to come from more than Okeke or Davenport, the guys that are clearly cool with guarding. More than a few Winthrop players could be categorized as offense-centric, but Davenport said every one of the Eagles understands the need to get better defensively.

“We always talk about it, we harp on how we can do things better,” he said. “Everybody on our roster can score; what can we do to clamp down and get stops every game?”

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Winthrop offense is flowing but defense needs to get better, starting Thursday."