The top teams in the Big South face off this week in Radford and Winthrop. Who will win the two-game series?
TV schedule: Thursday and Friday, February 11th and 12th, 6:00 pm ET. ESPN+
Arena: Donald N. Dedmon Center in Radford, Virginia
Currently, we’re down to just the Gonzaga Bulldogs and Baylor Bears in terms of teams unbeaten on the season, the number was actually five just a couple of weeks ago. One of them was the Winthrop Eagles, who started out the 2020-21 campaign 16-0, with 13 of them coming in Big South play.
But in the last game, Winthrop fell to UNC-Asheville, the third-place team in the league. It was just by a couple of points in the margin, despite the Eagles shooting just 32% from the field and 3/20 from three-point range. They haven’t played since then, making it a two-week layoff before facing the No. 2 team in the Big South.
After losing Conference Player of the Year Carlik Jones to the transfer portal and the next five leading scorers all graduated, Radford was supposed to fall down the league ladder. Instead, the Highlanders have been one of the more pleasant surprises in college basketball this season, 13-7 overall and 12-2 in conference play.
They’re coming off a two-game sweep over South Carolina Upstate, including a 105-66 thumping last week. That game, like all others for Radford to this point has been a collective effort. There isn’t a single player on the roster averaging in double figures, with freshman Fah’Mir Ali leading the way with 9.7 ppg and 3.7 apg. Eight players in total average between 6.1-9.7 apg.
Winthrop does have three players in double figures for one of the top-scoring offenses in the country. Senior forward Chandler Vaudrin, the current heavy favorite to win Conference Player of the Year, leads the team with 12.6 ppg, 6.6 rpg, and 7.1 apg. Senior guards Adonis Arms and Charles Falden are also double-digit contributors, with seven other rotation players having an impact as well.
This game doesn’t have 20 ppg elite scorers but instead, two teams that use superior depth and multiple contributors to overcome the rest of the Big South. But neither will have that advantage over each other this week. And with the games being at the underdog Highlanders location, that should make it for a pair of evenly matched games. That’s why I’ll predict a split between the two.