Under the Radar Game of the Day: Hampton at Winthrop, 4:00 PM Eastern, bigsouthsports.com
Today’s UTR Game of the Day comes to us from Rock Hill, South Carolina as the Big South’s Winthrop Eagles host the MEAC’s Hampton Pirates in the season debut for both teams. Winthrop is coming off of a 19-13 season that saw them tie for third place in the Big South conference and advance to the conference tournament championship game, falling there to Coastal Carolina. The Eagles should be led this season by guard Keon Johnson who averaged 11.5 points per game last year. Unfortunately for the team, last year’s top scorer Keon Moore is gone, meaning that Johnson will need to get scoring help from his remaining teammates if the Eagles want to contend for the league crown again.
Hampton enters today’s game as our preseason pick to win the MEAC title. The Pirates were 12-17 last year heading into the MEAC tournament, but proceeded to pull out four straight wins as the 6 seed and advance to the NCAA tournament. They then knocked off Manhattan in the First Four before falling by 23 points to top seed Kentucky in the Round of 64, ending the year at 17-18. This season, the Pirates welcome back their almost every key player, and with the experience they gained in their great run at the end of last season, have a chance to be even more successful this time around. With some of the other key players in the MEAC having suffered offseason losses, the Pirates should have all of the pieces to contend for a return trip to the Big Dance this year.