Winthrop no fluke

Everybody loves to root for the underdog – especially come NCAA tournament time.

This year, Winthrop was handed the title of Cinderella even before the 11th-seeded Eagles beat their first-round opponent, sixth-seeded Notre Dame.

Major upset potential, everyone said. Which proved to be correct.

But perhaps it was Oregon coach Ernie Kent that said it best.

“They are not a Cinderella team,” said Kent, whose Ducks (27-7) will meet Winthrop in today’s second round at the Arena. “That is a very, very good basketball team.”

The Winthrop players and coaches aren’t buying the media frenzy that has hailed the Eagles as the rag-to-riches story of the tournament.

“Everybody’s been comparing us to George Mason (last year),” Winthrop junior guard Chris Gaynor said after a press conference Saturday afternoon. “We really haven’t done everything George Mason did – they made it to the Final Four, we won one game in the NCAA tournament. We can’t come here and be satisfied just from one win.”

It might be a little satisfying, seeing as how Winthrop was 0-6 in previous tournament appearances, but there is still a lot of work to be done, like Gaynor said, before Winthrop proves its ultimate worth.

But Cinderella? It still seems like a stretch.

The Eagles are 29-4 overall, and went 14-0 in the Big South Conference, earning the NCAA automatic bid by winning their conference tournament. Their four losses came at the hands of North Carolina (a No. 1 seed), Wisconsin (a No. 2 seed), Texas A&M (a No. 3 seed) and Maryland (a No. 4 seed).

“They’re here where we are,” Oregon forward Malik Hairston said. “We don’t necessarily buy that little-ol’ Winthrop; they have had a lot of success and they play well together.”

Ducks’ forward Bryce Taylor also declined to give Winthrop the glass slipper.

“They’re 29-4 and they went 14-0 in their conference, there’s not a lot of teams that can say they have done that,” Taylor pointed out. “So they don’t come from a big conference, they don’t have that name, but just the fact that their an 11th-seed is probably something that surprises me just because 29 wins is a big deal.”

The third-seeded Ducks are not taking this game lightly. And to prepare, the Pacific-10 Conference tournament champions must address the issue of Craig Bradshaw.

“They have the big guy inside,” Kent said. “They are loaded with shooters, loaded with athletes, have a deep bench, a great coach, and they played a tough schedule … we’re really going to have to be on our toes defensively to neutralize some of those players on that team so no one goes off and has a monster game.”

Winthrop’s “big guy inside”, the 6-foot-10 senior center from New Zealand, was clutch against Notre Dame, finishing with a season-high 24 points.

Oregon center Maarty Leunen will have to be the answer.

Listed at 6-foot-9, the Ducks will look to Leunen for a counter to Bradshaw’s forceful inside game.

“I think we play better when (Craig) is aggressive,” Gaynor said. “And the outcome is always great when he is aggressive. These last couple game he’s really been playing aggressive and he’s unstoppable really, in my eyes, when he comes ready to play. I think he takes our team to a whole new level.”

And though the coaches and players involved in this second-round matchup don’t want to declare Winthrop this year’s Cinderella team, being the lowest-seeded squad remaining in this year’s tournament has almost certainly secured the Eagles that title until they lose.

If they do.