Winthrop proves its elite status in back-to-back championship appearances

 

Winthrop center Logan Duncomb earned Player of the Year honors as the Eagles won 23 games for the second year in a row. (Photo:  Big South Conference)

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Winthrop coach Mark Prosser spent Sunday in two places that have become familiar. One is a place he expects to be. The other is one he would rather never visit again.

Prosser’s Eagles entered the season as a largely unknown quantity, having lost a significant portion of their production from the year prior. This lack of knowledge about a lot of the new faces in the Eagle lineup led to a predicted fifth-place finish in the league. Prosser split Coach of the Year plaudits with High Point coach Flynn Clayman and his Eagles won 23 games while reaching the Big South championship game for a rematch with High Point.

Prosser sarcastically commented on the perceived preseason slight – “To finish 13-3 in a league where we were picked fifth – don’t think we forgot that or didn’t know that,” he said Sunday – then opined further on his team and their achievements.

Prosser did so from another familiar – and less desirable – place:  behind the microphone in a press conference while the league champion High Point cut down the nets and got showered with confetti.

“Just knowing what is in the heart of our kids,” Prosser said when explaining the thing that excites him the most about the program’s future. “They’re winners. They were winners before they got here. I think we have a brand of basketball that’s attractive to play in. I think we have a lot to sell in recruiting.”

“We’ve been fortunate to find success. That’s a weird thing to say (while) sitting in this press conference two years in a row and three of the past five, but we know there’s special in this program. There’s special out there for us. Every time you lose one, it just makes you more and more hungry for the next opportunity, and I think that message was passed on to the student-athletes we brought in this year. It will certainly be passed on to the next group of student-athletes we have right now.”

The sadness of the result was obvious – Prosser fought back tears and became audibly choked up at times when answering questions – but the head Eagle shares a distinction with his friend and former boss, Pat Kelsey. Kelsey’s Eagles lost three in a row between 2014-16 before finally breaking through in an epic 2017 tournament victory that spawned a run of three crowns in five seasons.

Prosser has carried Kelsey’s torch after leaving Western Carolina to replace him. His 101 wins in his first five seasons in Rock Hill represent a higher total than Big South legends and league champions Nick McDevitt (Asheville), Cliff Ellis (Coastal Carolina), and – interestingly – Gregg Marshall of his own school. Only Kelsey’s 102 wins eclipse Prosser’s total.

To know the impact Prosser and his staff have had on the program, one simply need ask his stars.

“I love this school so much,” Big South Player of the Year Logan Duncomb said after Sunday’s game. Duncomb had given up on the game before arriving in Rock Hill, and the trip netted him a slew of honors. His coach called his shot before the season, too, saying that Duncomb could be a Player of the Year candidate.

“They’re the school that gave me a chance,” Duncomb continued. “These coaches – they stuck with me and helped me grow a lot as a person and as a player. They filled the team with good players and good guys. It’s just one of the coolest teams I’ve ever been around. Everyone likes each other. Everyone hangs out with each other. Being here at Winthrop has been really special. It’s a different type of basketball that you can’t get anywhere else.”

Guard Kareem Rozier, who transferred from Duquesne before the season, was also vocal about his choice to wear the garnet and gold.

“The first call (when I went in the portal) was here, and I knew right and then that this would be the place I would call home to finish my career in college,” Rozier said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Rozier then turned his words toward Prosser.

“You mean the world to me,” Rozier said. “You gave me an opportunity. You believed in me throughout this whole season, even when I was down. This is a family. I don’t want to ever take off this jersey. That’s how much it means to me to be a Winthrop Eagle.”

Though Prosser understands that there is an expectation to hang banners in the Winthrop Coliseum, he also has a clear grasp on the type of players that should be part of the program. Whether it’s legendary point guard Keon Johnson – who probably left a dent or two in the maple from crashing to the floor while driving to the basket – Duncomb or Rozier, or any of the other stars to help define the Winthrop way, Prosser is not shy about what composes that standard.

“We have a very unique group of kids that are about what it’s supposed to be about,” Prosser said. “They don’t worry about stuff on the outside that doesn’t matter. They sacrifice a lot for each other. They had opportunities throughout the season to second-guess or not buy in, and they never did that. What they did was unique and special, because a lot of times, that’s not what teams and student-athletes do these days. They just kept fighting and being together.”

“It’s hard to (reflect on the group’s legacy) at the moment. We’ve had a lot of really special kids. We have a staff that’s been together for a really long time. We have similar morals and things that we feel are important. We spend a lot of time in the identification process being meticulous and intentional about who we bring into our program. As people, we hit it out of the park this year. It’s hard with the transfer portal, where (the recruiting process) is like speed dating. You get to know somebody really quickly and see where it can go. They’re special kids, and that says much more about them than it does about us.”

The Eagles now turn their sights toward replacing ten seniors from this roster. We don’t yet know the names that will appear on the back of the jerseys, but we know the standard they will be expected to uphold. That standard is obvious in the words Prosser uses to describe Duncomb, who played in all three games of the conference tournament after a foot injury that required constant icing and a scooter.

“He’s a warrior, and we have a locker room full of them,” Prosser said. “Doing unique things takes special people. His story is an unbelievable one that should be celebrated for many more reasons than that alone. He’s a special human being, and so is (Rozier). So are the other 13 that are in the locker room right now.”