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Fayetteville, AR — What began as an ordinary night for Winthrop turned into a battle that almost saw the Eagles edge the No. 21 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks, only losing 84-83.
In this article, we will be reviewing multiple positives as well as the negative that seemingly overshadowed an incredible performance by the Eagles.
Kareem Rozier’s Generational Road Performance
Rozier seemed to channel his inner Steph Curry as the 5’9″ guard made 7 three-pointers against the Hogs.
Overall, he was 8-of-11 on his shots, only scoring a two-point field goal on a layup. The Duquesne transfer added 5 assists and led the Eagles in points for the second straight game, after scoring 20 points and 4 dishes from downtown.
Safe to say that the bank has been wide open for Rozier as he is shooting 43.6% from beyond the arc so far this season.
Three Point Barrage Leads Winthrop
The Eagles made 15 triples against the Razorbacks, marking one of the highest amount of threes made in a game against a Division I opponent. The last time the Eagles matched this mark was in 2017 against Colorado State.
The aforementioned Kareem Rozier had nearly half of the three-pointers with Daylen Berry making two and Kody Clouet making four. Winthrop attempted 31 shots from beyond the arc and still outscored Arkansas in that category.
Eagles’ Defense Stifles Hogs’ Starting Five
Winthrop’s extended 3-2 zone, courtesy of Coach Tony Rack, crushed the starting five of Arkansas, only allowing 12 makes on 30 attempts.
Malik Ewin, one of the top transfers in ESPN’s Top 100, could not get anything done offensively, struggling to only get two attempts and make one.
Freshman Darius Acuff Jr., a top NBA prospect touted for his explosive playmaking ability, was 3-of-10 with 12 points. Acuff Jr. was absolutely shut down by Winthrop, forcing him to play inside the post where he isn’t as comfortable.
The Eagles caused 9 turnovers, seven of which came from the starting five.
Coach John Calipari was not pleased with how his offense played following the game saying:
“How about we go back to how you guys grew up, where you had to pass it five times before you shoot it? I think we’re going to do that eighth grade s–t.”
Coach Prosser Out-Duels Coach Cal
The legendary Coach Cal was clearly frustrated after his team’s performance against a Winthrop team that was picked 5th in the Big South.
He was not able to get calls to go his way and his defensive game-plan was absolutely shut down by Winthrop’s explosive offense.
Not only did Winthrop out-play Arkansas, they out-coached them.
Mark Prosser’s plan was simple: create open looks on cuts to the basket and limit shots on the perimeter. Some may claim it was luck. But luck doesn’t allow 15 three-pointers to be made.
No matter how the Eagles switched up their rotation, Calipari couldn’t figure out his opponent’s game plan, solely surviving on the extraordinary play of Meleek Thomas.
While Winthrop might have lost to the Razorbacks, their confusing playbook stunned Coach Calipari and proved that college basketball is anyone’s game.
The Duncomb-Pringle Conundrum
The last minute of the game was ugly, point blank.
Neither team could pull away from the other until Arkansas forward Nick Pringle cut to the basket with 11 seconds left in the game to give Arkansas the 84-83 edge over the Eagles.
While grabbing the deadball to get a quick inbound, Winthrop center Logan Duncomb appeared to get tangled up with Pringle with both falling to the ground after tripping over Saif Hendawy. Pringle retaliated by picking Duncomb up by the jersey and slamming him on the ground.
Several people, mainly Arkansas faithful, claimed that Duncomb was intentionally throwing Pringle in a headlock but many other people, like myself, offer a different perspective.
Throughout the game, Duncomb was taking elbow after elbow to the face from Pringle and Trevon Brazile, all of which were not called by the referees.
Tempers might have been high from Logan but knowing him personally, he is not the type of person to take his anger out on someone and put them in a headlock.
It was very obvious that his actions were incidental, even with how misconstrued the video evidence from the SEC Network looked. This was done by basically cutting Hendawy out of the frame to sway the viewer to believe Duncomb acted maliciously (see video below).
Looking from a rational standpoint, Pringle should have been assessed a Flagrant 2 foul, which is “unnecessary and excessive contact that is also dangerous and results in an immediate ejection of the offending player.” His actions reflected this by dangerously slamming Duncomb to the ground, which could have caused injury to both the head and back areas.
Duncomb’s actions were not out of retaliation or anger but Pringle’s were, clearly showing malicious intent in excessive contact that could have resulted in injury. This foul is in place to protect players from getting injured and the SEC officials clearly failed to show protection for Duncomb.
The damage has been done though. Thousands of threatening messages directed towards Duncomb on X/Twitter and Instagram; a win for Arkansas that deserves an asterisk; a stolen win from a mid-major team that deserved the win more than their opponent.
While there is nothing that can be done about the result of this, I would expect Coach Prosser to appeal to the SEC about the call.
Up Next
Winthrop heads to Jackson, Mississippi to take on the Jackson State Tigers.
The Tigers are 0-4 with a trip to Fayetteville to take on Arkansas tomorrow night.
The game will be played Sunday at 8:00 PM and will be on live on ESPN+ and WRHI 100.1 FM.
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