Under the Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, February 11

Winthrop at Radford, 6:00 PM Eastern, espn+

In a normal year, first place Winthrop (13-1 Big South, 16-1 overall) travelling to second place Radford (12-2 Big South, 13-7 overall) would clearly be the game of the season in the Big South conference.  This year, with team’s playing modified schedules due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is actually just part 1 of the games of the year, as the first place Eagles will be in Radford both tonight and tomorrow night.

The Winthrop Eagles have only lost once all season, a somewhat shocking 2 point home loss of UNC-Asheville a couple weeks ago (which was also the last time the Eagles played a game).  Despite an impressive 16-1 record, their wins have come for the most part against teams rated in the bottom quadrant of the NET.  They did pick up a pair of early season notable wins, however, over a pair of teams that have featured in our Under the Radar Game of the Day twice this week alone — Furman and UNC-Greensboro.  Winthrop is led by do-everything Chandler Vaudrin’s 12.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game.  Vaudrin has already notched two triple-doubles this season.   Adonis Arms and Charles Falden should also be watched as they are both also averaging double-digits in scoring.

Radford struggled this season in their 6 non-conference games, only winning against non-D1 Mars Hill, though they were competitive in pretty much every other game, losing to Virginia Tech, James Madison, Vanderbilt, East Carolina and Norfolk State.  However, the Highlanders have won 12 of 14 league games so far, including a thrilling two point home win over South Carolina-Upstate a week ago when the Spartans’ Tommy Bruner appeared to steal a win with a half-court buzzer beater, only to have the basket waived off as having come after the clock expired.  Chyree Walker is the key to Radford’s attack, as he has notched four double-double’s on the season already including a 12 point, 13 rebound effort last time out.