Winthrop vs East Carolina

[thelaxman]

I believe Winthrop plays East Carolina today at 3PM at the Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill, SC. My Sons and I are going to try and go today. IT will be our last Winthrop Basketball game we attend. I will update everyone on what I see in the Winthrop Team and how they may match up with Liberty in my opinion for what it is worth as a fan.

I have been taking my Sons to Winthrop Basketball games since they were 2 and they now are almost 9 so the Winthrop Eagles are a big deal in our household. But when Liberty plays my Sons know who I'm cheering for. Winthrop Basketball is a big deal in a small South Carolina Town like Rock Hill.

While I'm on the subject I will say this. If Winthrop put up the money and fielded a Football Team it would also gain a lot of local support only because Football in this part of South Carolina is a almost as big as God. Rock Hill has a large City Stadium right next to the University that Northwestern and Rock Hill High Schools use and it is close to the size of Williams Stadium so it would be perfect for Big South Football.

Anyway I will update everyone on the Winthrop Basketball Team.

Thelaxman

[SCAR]

Coach, looking forward to your thoughts on the game today. I hope you and your boys havea good time in the Coliseum.

[thesportscritic]

Winthrop 70 East Carolina 48.

[thelaxman]

Yes, Thesportscritic Winthrop 70 ECU 48. Winthrop ran them in the ground like they were Chuck South or VMI or somebody really bad. Because of my health I have not been following the Eagles but Number 5 and number 30 for Winthrop really dominated the Boards. Number 0 for Winthrop is a really good shooter .

The truth is a Big South Team ran a Conference USA Team into the ground. It was a bit embarrassing to the ECU crowd that was there and to their program. But Winthrop is for real! My Sons and I almost started to fall asleep because it was such a one sided game.

I'm not a Gambling Man. But if I were I would go to Las Vegas and beat the Farm that Winthrop would win the Big South again. This had to be the best Winthrop Team I have ever seen. Also I do believe that Greg Marshall is a heartbeat now from getting that dream job at an ACC or SEC School.

Now with that being said. Anything can happen on any given night. Players can have the Flu or be sick and they don't play their best or a Team sufferers from injuries. But I hate to tell you Guys that my feeling is Liberty will have a hard time getting within 10 points of a very very tough 2005-2006 Winthrop squad this year. Winthrop also showed a lot of run and gun and Full court press on ECU. But once they had a 20 point lead late in the first half Greg eased up on them a bit. ECU did make some good plays in the second half but they were way behind to make a difference.

Winthrop will win the Big South hands down no questions asked. But to do that they have to stay healthy and that could be the opening that Liberty needs. That is just my prospective as a Fan, a former Coach and a LU Alumni.

All the best,

Thelaxman

[thesportscritic]

I agree with you thelaxman. LU can't rebound the basketball and that will be their own undoing against WU when they play them if they don't clean that up. Gotta to have more than one scorer too.

[realist]

ECU actually outrebounded WU by a good margin. They have one great player in the post who cleans up the boards, but the story was turnovers, I think ECU had something like close to 30. WU's back-up pg played a great game with Gaynor in foul trouble, forcing at least 7-8 turnovers, and making some great passes. Tons of WU dunks tonight. Winthrop still has to find some better flow on offense if they want to beat teams like USC and Auburn coming up next week. Defense is playing incredible.

[thelaxman]

Thanks Scar. It was a great time with my Sons and the last time we will be going to the Winthrop Coliseum for some time. But we have plans to visit The Pit at the University of New Mexico some time in January and February. It would be nice to catch BYU, Utah or UNLV or any of the action in the Mountain West Conference.

I may get back to Liberty in February and catch a Lacrosse game and a Basketball game at The Vines Center but I just have to see how my schedule goes.

There is nothing like having free flying for Life with my early retirement from US Airways.

Thelaxman

[thelaxman]

A lot of the turnovers in the first half were from the Full court press. I did not keep track of the rebounds but it sure seemed like Winthrop was coming up with the ball a lot on the boards.

Thelaxman

[thelaxman]

Number 5 gets the job done on the Boards for Winthrop but he did not play the whole game. Number 0 has a great outside shoot.

Also you have to explain this Comporium long distance 3 point deal.

Thelaxman

[LUconn]

thelaxman said:

A lot of the turnovers in the first half were from the Full court press.

Ouch, out of all the things I fear for our team, none scares me like this does. I think a team could literally hold us to 20 points or so if they did this the entire game forcing aproximately 45 turnovers.

[realist]

Laxman, #5 is Bradshaw, the New Zealand guy. He's been playing extremely well, easily our best player to date. He's finally acclimated to USA basketball and becoming a force down low as well as outside (great shooter from 3, but didn't take any tonight). I think they still got outrebounded by 10 or so, but some of that was in garbage time. ECU is pretty bad, I thought they played well but Phillip Williams has got to get his head back in the game, he was huge for us last year and Torrell hasn't really hit his stride yet. The Auburn game will be interesting, Auburn has been playing really well of late.

[thelaxman]

Realist:

I saw Phil Johnson and some of the kappa Sig and Old Winthrop Lacrosse Guys and I said Goodbye to them today at the game. I wish Winthrop well this year in Basketball. Winthrop has a great Basketball Team this year. It has been a lot of fun living in Rock Hill SC and cheering for the Eagles along with starting a Lacrosse team at Winthrop.

All the best,

Thelaxman