After the dust has settled with the transfer portal, I think things are stable enough to take a look at the Winthrop MBB team that will take the court this fall, along with what we know about the schedule and the rest of the Big South.
ROSTER
Things could still change, but a 2024-25 roster is posted on the Winthrop website, so this appears to be the team that we’ll see in November when the Eagles take the court.
Here’s a run-down of the roster by class:
Seniors: Kelton Talford, Kasen Harrison, Nick Johnson, KJ Doucet, Tommy Kamarad, Ryan Jolly, Isaiah Wilson* (assuming he gets medical hardship waiver for last season, he still has two years of eligibility left)
Juniors: Bryce Baker, Logan Duncomb, Clay Howard (walk-on)
Sophomores: Yoro Diallo, Noah Van Bibber, Tai Hamilton, Henry Harrison (walk-on), Cam Christy (walk-on)
Freshmen: Paul Jones
*The players denoted with an asterisk are eligible for an additional season due to the NCAA allowing players an extra season of eligibility if they played during the 2020-21 season.
The Eagles had three scholarship senior last season that had no remaining eligibility (Mike Anumba, Chase Claxton, and Alex Timmerman). WU also had four players enter the transfer portal. Sin’Cere McMahon appears to have landed at Norfolk State (according to his Instagram page, though there hasn’t been much else to acknowledge that commitment aside from that that I’ve seen). Xavier McKelvy and Michael Moore have also entered the portal and are no longer on the Winthrop roster, but I have not seen that either of them has found a new location yet. Kelton Talford entered the portal soon after the season, ended, but he announced his return to the Eagles back in April, and will play his final season for Winthrop.
The three departing seniors and three players that have transferred out left six open scholarships for the Eagles to fill. Winthrop grabbed five guys from the transfer portal:
–Logan Duncomb is a 6’9″ post player who was the 73rd ranked recruit in the nation in the class of 2021 out of Moeller HS in Cincinnati. He then spent two seasons at Indiana, before transferring to Xavier. However, Duncomb decided to step away from the game of basketball before ever playing for the Musketeers. But he will be returning to play this upcoming season.
–Tai Hamilton is a 6’10” post player, originally from Charlotte, NC, but is transferring in from William & Mary. He spent one season with W&M.
–Bryce Baker is a 6’5″ guard who has spent the last two seasons at Old Dominion. He’s another Charlotte area native.
–Tommy Kamarad is a 6’8″ forward, originally from Buford, GA. Kamarad started his collegiate career with two seasons at Otero College (JUCO), before playing two seasons at Arkansas Tech (D2).
–Ryan Jolly is a 6’3″ guard who has a had a long winding road to get to Rock Hill. He was a 2018 graduate from Augusta Prep in GA and committed to play for Navy. But a torn Achilles during his senior season led him to attend Navy Prep Academy, and during that time, he decided not to attend Navy, and instead played a season at Lander (D2). After that season, he transferred to Piedmont (D3), where he played four seasons, but his 2021-22 season was cut short due to him tearing his other Achilles. Because that injury happened so early in the season, he got a medical hardship waiver and has one season of eligibility remaining.
Along with those transfers, Winthrop also has one freshman coming in:
–Paul Jones is a 6’4″ guard from Suffolk, VA and played for Combine Academy in NC.
The newcomers will be joining seven returning scholarship players, including the top four scorers from last season. Talford’s return is huge for the program, and he’ll be joined by fellow seniors Kasen Harrison, Nick Johnson, and KJ Doucet. Those four will definitely be looked upon as the leaders of the team, but will also be joined by Isaiah Wilson (hopefully healthy after battling injuries the last two seasons), Noah Van Bibber, and Yoro Diallo.
SCHEDULE
As is often the case in June, there are still a lot of unknowns with the Winthrop schedule, though some news has leaked out in recent weeks. The biggest news so far is that the Eagles will head to Louisville to face Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals on Nov. 22. Some other known games are Homecoming against Little Rock on Nov. 9, a game at Queens on Dec. 3, and a game at Coastal Carolina on Dec. 7. The only other known games are part of an MTE that Winthrop will be hosting at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center from Nov. 15-17. The Eagles will play Georgia Southern, William & Mary, and NC Central in that event. With the Big South Conference schedule likely being 16 games, that means that there are still up to 8 more non-conference opponents that are still unknown at this point. I’d expect a game at Drexel to be revealed at some point, as a likely return game from last season’s matchup.
Also unknown at this point is the location of the 2025 Big South Tournament.
THE BIG SOUTH
It’s still way too early to make predictions, as rosters around the Big South are still being finalized. There are three new head coaches in the league. Saah Nimley got the Charleston Southern job after filling the role of interim coach after Barclay Radebaugh was let go mid-season. Marty Richter (former Drake assistant) is now in charge at USC Upstate, as Dave Dickerson left to take an assistant coaching position at Ohio State. And Gardner-Webb promoted assistant Jeremy Luther after Tim Craft left to become the head coach at Western Carolina. Some of the bigger names that have transferred out of the league include Duke Miles (Oklahoma) from HPU, Kenyon Giles (UNCG) from Radford, Marquis Barnett from PC (Kent State), Justin Bailey (Wofford) and Trae Broadnax (Rice) from Upstate, Julien Soumaoro from GWU (ECU), and Johnathan Massie (North Texas) and Szymon Zapala (Michigan State) from Longwood.
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