Winthrop’s basketball teams counting on more experience, new faces in 2023-24

Michael Burgess
·7 min read

The men’s basketball team at Winthrop is the most experienced in the Mark Prosser era.

Of the 16 players on the roster, eight are seniors, one is a junior, four are sophomores and three are freshmen.

That level of experience is invaluable, especially in a sport where having veteran players makes such a difference.

“We have a pretty good balance of new guys and returners,” Prosser said. “We have a decent balance of guys who are in their last year of eligibility and guys with at least multiple years of eligibility left, so we do have the experience. I think within our team we have about 500 college starts, so hopefully we can draw on that experience a little bit.”

The Eagles finished last season 15-17 overall and 10-8 in the Big South Conference. The team lost 78-69 to No. 3 Radford in the first round of the Big South tournament in March.

Winthrop returns several key players from last year’s team, including Big South Conference preseason first-team selection Kelton Talford (16.2 points, 8.2 rebounds per game) and second-team selections Kasen Harrison (11.5 points, 3.8 assists per game) and Sin’Cere McMahon (13.2 points, 2.2 rebounds per game).

The Eagles also welcome a lot of new talent.

There are three incoming freshmen:

  • Cam Christy, a 6-foot-4 guard from Walton, Kentucky.

  • Henry Harrison, a 5-foot-11 guard from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

  • Noah Van Bibber, a 6-foot-5 guard from Debary, Florida.

There are also three transfers entering the program as well

  • Senior Nick Johnson, a 6-foot-4 guard out of New Hampshire (12.4 points, 5.0 rebounds per game)

  • Junior K.J. Doucet, a 6-foot-7 forward out of Fort Valley State (16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds per game)

  • Graduate transfer Alex Timmerman, a 6-foot-10 center out of Bucknell (11.4 points, 7.2 rebounds per game)

Prosser hopes that the mix of new talent plus the returning core from last year’s team is a recipe of success.

“There’s still that ...frustration of the way that our season ended last year,” Prosser said. “It’s a little more of an early exit in March than we’re used to at Winthrop. We can pull from that if need be for motivation, but I don’t think there’s any added motivation that we need. We certainly walk into that arena every day and see all those banners, and we know, on a day-to-day, what the expectation level is. We’re there to compete for championships.”

Talford, a Great Falls native, spent most of last year playing a traditional center role for Winthrop.

However, this year, with the addition of Timmerman, Talford is looking to playing a bit further away from the basketball, allowing him to be more versatile.

“(Timmerman) is a big, traditional five that can shoot the ball, coming from Bucknell,” Talford said. “Great player, great leader, he’s a captain as well. We have talked about us two being on the floor, and (me) running some four with me and him out there.”

“(Something I’ve been working on this offseason) was passing out of the post and shooting the ball. Everyone knows I had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio, so that was a big thing for me going into the offseason was a positive assist-to-turnover ratio and that I was more comfortable with passing it out the post.”

The regular season for Winthroptips off at 7 p.m. on Nov. 6 at Clemson University.

Winthrop’s women loaded with transfers

Winthrop’s womens basketball team had to deal with a lot of roster turnover last season.

The team’s first two conference games were postponed because the team didn’t have enough healthy players to compete.

Four of the eight players who played for the team last season were new to the program.

Now, almost eight months after the team’s heartbreaking 59-58 loss to No. 8 UNC Asheville in the Big South Conference tournament, the women’s team has been retooled.

The Eagles return only four players from last year’s team and only three of them played. Junior guard Jada Ryce (10.7 points, 5.1 rebounds per game) was named to the Big South Conference preseason second team. Junior guard Leonor Paisana (5.9 points, 2.7 assists per game) and senior forward Frances Brown are the two other returning players with experience.

Freshman forward Tiana Spann, who was redshirted last season and didn’t see any action, also returns.

“This is the first summer that (Leonor Paisana) didn’t compete back home in (Portugal), and she actually came over here for the summer,” head coach Semeka Randall Lay said. “Just to watch her growth and what she’s doing on the basketball court for us right now, she’s been pretty steady. And I hope that continues.”

“Jada Ryce, it’s incredible that she got picked preseason second team. She earned it. What I’ve tried to explain to her is ‘you’ve never arrived.’ The moment you think you’ve arrived, things start to go left or right, so I’m watching her understand the importance of being vocal out there because she is that combo guard. With her and Leo at point guard, our team needs their voices. So I’ve been challenging her in that area.”

Along with the four returners, the Eagles have eleven newcomers into the program this season.

The team is bringing in four freshman:

  • Claudia Clement, a 6-foot-3 forward from Barcelona, Spain

  • Adelaide McLeod, a 5-foot-9 guard from Savoy, Ill.

  • Katie Reed, a 5-foot-9 guard from Rock Hill

  • Ar’Mani Reid, a 5-foot-9 guard from Jacksonville, N.C.

Seven transfers are entering the program as well:

  • Angel Burgos, a 5-foot-8 graduate transfer guard out of Richmond

  • Elli Garnett, a 5-foot-11 redshirt junior forward out of Eastern Florida State College (8.3 points, 5.5 rebounds per game)

  • Marissa Gasaway, a 5-foot-11 junior forward out of Northwest Florida State College

  • Ronaltha Marc, a 5-foot-10 junior guard/forward out of Northwestern Florida State College (3.3 points, 3.6 rebounds per game)

  • Prunelle Mungo, a 6-foot-1 junior forward out of Oakland University

  • Blessing Okoh, a 6-foot senior forward out of North Carolina Central (4.9 points, 4.7 rebounds per game)

  • Nyah Stallings, a 5-foot-9 graduate guard out of Liberty

With so many new faces, it poses a unique challenge for Randall Lay in her fourth year leading the program. However, she’s just glad that she won’t have to worry about a situation similar to last season.

“Knocking on wood, we got bodies,” Randall Lay said. “Last year, coming into (the start of the regular season), we were pretty banged up. It’s pretty good to know that we’ve been able to go up and down the court (during practice) to see more stuff to be able to help them unravel and not have it be during the games. They’ll learn a lot about themselves now, so hopefully, this gets them ready for when the ball actually tips off on Nov. 6.”

Ryce, who is entering her second year at Winthrop after transferring from East Tennessee State, knows how it feels to be a new player at a new school in a new system.

While having 11 new teammates may be a bit of an undertaking for the junior guard stepping into a larger leadership role, Ryce said the most important thing is finding ways to gel.

“There’s definitely a lot of new faces,” she said. “We’re building that team chemistry, on and off the court. I think we’re still buying into the process, and it looks different for everybody. But just letting everybody know that we got your backs, and it’s going to be hard, but we’re going to do this as a team.”

The regular season tips off at 11 a.m. on Nov. 6 at Clemson University.