Defensive details critical as Winthrop seeks Big South tourney breakthrough
Winthrop men’s basketball coach Pat Kelsey began Tuesday’s practice at Northwestern High School by reciting a series of what he called tipping points, random statistics indicative of a game tilted in the Eagles’ favor.
A few that The Herald dug up:
▪ Winthrop is 15-2 this season when it fouls fewer times than its opponent.
▪ The Eagles are 18-1 when graduate student and standout guard Jimmy Gavin grabs three or more rebounds.
▪ They’re 10-1 when Gavin’s backcourt partner, junior Keon Johnson, dishes out three or more assists, and they’re 13-0 when the team finishes a game with 12 or more assists.
▪ And Winthrop is 14-4 this season when it turns the ball over fewer times than its opponent.
It’s no leap to say that Winthrop has been the best team in the Big South at disparate stretches of the season.
Visiting coaches have said as much in postgame press conferences multiple times and various bracketology experts have noticed too in recent weeks when including the Eagles in hypothetical NCAA tournament brackets.
Winthrop has an almost effortless offense led by a sharp-tipped trident of Gavin, Johnson and Xavier Cooks, versatile all-conference players that rank in the top-eight in the Big South in scoring. And the Eagles are the only team in the conference that beat each of the other 10 teams at least once.
We put ourselves in position to be 40 minutes away from the NCAA tournament. I feel confident that we’re gonna have that same shot Sunday. Hopefully we can get over the hump.
Winthrop’s Pat Kelsey
talking about losses in 2013 and 2014 in the conference championshipBut it’s the little details like those listed above that the Eagles have to hone their focus upon this weekend in the Big South Conference tournament at Campbell. Achieving those stat thresholds isn’t the goal; they’re the byproduct of hustle and playing unselfishly and intelligently.
“When we defend at a high level, we’re really, really, really good,” said Kelsey after Wednesday’s practice. “A month and a half or so, when this team made a commitment to being good on the defensive end we became a really, really good team. It comes down to this all-important weekend where we’ve got to make sure we’re defending at a really high level for three days.
“We’ve got to rebound. We’ve got to take care of the ball. When we’re pursuing the ball at its apex, going and getting the ball above the trees, two-hand rebounds, is when I feel really good.”
Winthrop has fallen flat in the conference finals each of the last two seasons to Coastal Carolina. Though that’s in the past, the important stuff remains the same for any of Kelsey’s teams, the reason he was shouting Tuesday like the chorus of a rap song:
“We’ve got to block out, we’ve got to get back!”
“We’ve got to block out, we’ve got to get back!”
And once more for emphasis.
The Eagles are 23-40 under Kelsey when losing the rebounding margin, including both championship losses to Coastal.
“If we eliminate that kind of stuff, we’ll be fine I’m pretty sure,” said Cooks as he got his ankle wrapped before Tuesday’s practice.
For the third year in a row we’re playing our best basketball at the right time of year. Everybody on the same page, everybody to have a firm understanding of your system, have confidence in what we do, and we’ve been very successful over the last month, two months.
Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey
The Eagles are 17th in the country in field goal percentage this season, and should have the kind of offensive variety that can see them traverse the scoring droughts that were so costly the last two championship Sundays.
It really does start with defense for Winthrop. The Eagles need to defend in transition to prevent easy scores; when allowed to set up, the Eagles’ swampy pack-line makes halfcourt offense tough on opponents. Clear, urgent communication while running backwards is vital, as is avoiding turnovers that create hectic defensive situations and have cost Winthrop in losses to Asheville and High Point this season.
Kelsey’s bunch had a successful test run last Saturday at Campbell in an 87-71 win over the Camels. Winthrop held the tournament hosts to just 39 percent shooting on 2-point attempts, while averaging a searing 1.24 points per offensive possession.
“Shooting the ball at Campbell last game really gave us a lot of confidence going into the tournament,” said Cooks. “I still feel confident we have the best team in the league. I really don’t have any doubt about that.”
That may be true, but one only has to glance at results from the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament Tuesday night to see that the regular season means zilch once the calendar page swings over to March, especially in the low-major ranks. A-Sun top seed North Florida advanced, but the second and third seeds both crashed out in first round exits.
We can’t do anything about Sunday on Friday.
Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey is lazer-focused on one round of the Big South tournament at a time
Adding to the trickiness of limited preparation, Winthrop - facing the winner of Radford-Presbyterian in the second round - had to prepare for two possible opponents this week.
Presbyterian and Radford play Thursday at 4:30 p.m., and Winthrop’s assistant coaching staff will be at Gore Arena watching. Kelsey plans to hang back with the team at the hotel in Raleigh, watching the game, then meeting with the assistants for a late night planning session ahead of Friday’s 6 p.m. contest.
Kelsey again feels like his team is peaking at the right time. One of the last sentences out of his mouth before a recorder was turned off: “We’re going in in a really good state. We’re healthy. So I feel really, really good about it.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Defensive details critical as Winthrop seeks Big South tourney breakthrough."