10 Big South Championships
9 NCAA Tournament Appearances
2013-14 Yearbook
the arc in 2012-13, has the ability to play both
guard positions and with the absence of Henry
and Moore, could see a log a lot of minutes. His
58 triples led the team and were a career-high.
Smith showed signs of being an offensive threat
as he recorded a career-high 26 points at James
Madison as well as managing 20 points in a win
over Charleston Southern in the regular season.
He finished in double-figures 12 times.
Senior Christian Farmer came off the bench
in all 26 games he played last season and is one
of the top outside scoring threats in the league.
Perhaps his best performance came on Dec.
22 at Auburn in which he scored 13 second half
points including four threes to help Winthrop
to a 74-67 victory. He finished that game with
a season-high 15 points and scored in double-
figures six times.
The point guard position is likely to be oc-
cupied by junior Brandon Vega, who missed all
of last season after knee surgery. Vega is over
a year in recovery and Kelsey noted he looked
good physically in preseason. Vega transferred
to Winthrop from Snow Community College in
which he was an all-conference performer known
as a skilled passer with the ability to score. Vega
has the speed and quickness to allow the team to
push the ball up and down the court more often
this season.
The newest faces to guard position will be
sophomore Carlin Bremner and freshmen Keon
Johnson and Hunter Sadlon. Bremner is a walk-
on transfer from Central Arkansas where he saw
action in 23 games and averaged 2.7 points in
2011-12. He proved he has the ability to score
when he posted a career-high 17 points against
Northwestern State on Jan. 14, 2012. Sadlon is
also a walk-on that played his high school ball at
Season Preview
Season Preview
Turpin in Cincinnati, OH.
Johnson fits the mold of a quick, athletic
guard that should gel nicely with Kelsey’s “down-
hill” philosophy. Johnson attended Mansfield High
School where he was named the All-Ohio Player
of the Year three times. Kelsey says Johnson is
tough and “has a knack for scoring the basket-
ball.”
FRONT COURT
Senior Joab Jerome returns as the most sea-
soned player on the team in a position that has
a little more depth this season than last. Jerome
emerged as the go-to-player down the stretch in
2012-13 after the injuries to the starting line-up.
In the opening round of the Big South Conference
Championship, the Eagles needed basket in the
final seconds of the overtime game against Rad-
ford and Jerome delivered to help the Eagles ad-
vance on his lay-up with 1.5 to play in the game.
Kelsey describes him as a “jack of all trades type
of player that does whatever is necessary for our
team.”
Jerome finished 2012-13 averaging 10.7
points and 4.9 rebounds, but over the final 11
games he averaged 14.8 that included two
20-point games as he scored in double-figures in
the final nine games.
One of the key injuries the team suffered last
season was to junior Larry Brown, who missed
the final seven regular season games before re-
turning from some brief action during the confer-
ence championship. Brown is a very active player
on the court and provides the team with a defen-
sive presence rebounding the ball and blocking
or altering shots. He averaged 5.7 points, 5.7
rebounds and 1.1 steals per game last season,
his first as a starter. He is one of the few players
on the team with experience playing in the post.
The other experienced post player for the Ea-
gles is junior James Bourne, who suffered a knee
injury in the opening minutes against Radford on
Mar. 5 that kept him out the remainder of the con-
ference tournament. Bourne put in solid minutes
for the team last season at 25.1 per game with 28
starts in 30 games. He averaged 5.9 points per
game last season and was very efficient on the
offensive end at 62 percent from the floor.
Senior Donovan Carter and sophomore Tevin
Prescott also return from last year’s team but saw
limited action. Carter played in five games while
Prescott saw limited time in six games.
Four freshmen expecting to make an impact
on the front line for the Eagles are Jarad Scott,
Josh Davenport, Ivan Saicic (pronounced Even
Sigh-Itch-Itch) and Duby Okeke (pronounced Oh-
Kay-Kay).
LARRY BROWN
