2025-26 Winthrop Preview
The 2025-26 Big South Hoops Hub Preview of Winthrop
Winthrop
Background and 24-25 Recap:
Entering the season, Winthrop was looking towards March 9th being the only other Big South team with a first place vote in the preseason poll, and they had a very interesting path to do so. They entered Johnson City as the 3 seed after tying with UNC Asheville to end the season causing them to face Longwood, and they won. Then they faced the monster slayer in UNC Asheville, and again they won. After beating the only two Big South teams to beat High Point all season, many thought they COULD do it, and for the first 24 minutes it seemed like they could.
Then it all fell apart, High Point went on a massive run led by their bench and ended Winthrop’s season along with the college careers of their big 3 in Kasen Harrison, KJ Doucet and Kelton Talford. Now Mark Prosser had to rebuild and try to make a run at a conference where he is now one of the stalwarts of the conference, in the city that is known for being the pinnacle of Big South hoops.
Returning Players:
G: Isaiah Wilson
Coming off almost two missed seasons due to injury, it was refreshing to see Isaiah Wilson play again. It was even better seeing Wilson play significant minutes across 33 games last season. While Wilson only averaged 2 PPG and 2 APG, that is more than what I would have expected with him coming off such a massive series of injuries. He even showed some flashes of pre-injury Isaiah with 8 points against Bob Jones and 6 points against Longwood in Johnson City.
Before coming to Rock Hill, Wilson was a solid young player at Richmond playing in 53 games for the Spiders, starting 18 of those 53, most coming in his sophomore season as a fringe starter for the Spiders. In his sophomore season, Wilson averaged 2.3 PPG, 1.1 RPG and 0.7 APG across 33 games and 15 starts. This was off the heels of a freshman season where Wilson played in 20 games, averaging 1.8 PPG and 1 RPG, including 3 starts.
Awards/Notable Facts:
277th ranked player by 247Sports in the Class of 2020 with offers from UMass, Drexel, DePaul, Georgetown and more.
F: Tommy Kamarad
Returning thanks to the JUCO waiver ruling, Tommy Kamarad is hoping to build off a pretty successful season last year at Winthrop. In the 29 games, Kamarad played in for the Eagles he averaged 3.9 PPG and 2.8 RPG but started 14 of those 29 games, and did a lot of this that weren’t noted on the stat sheet. Along with that, in those 14 starts, Kamarad averaged 5.8 PPG and 3.9 RPG helping Winthrop have a 10-4 record in those games.
Kamarad came to Winthrop after two very good seasons at Arkansas Tech in which he averaged 7.8 PPG in his junior season and 12.2 PPG in his senior season while shooting over 35% from behind the arc in both seasons. The move to Arkansas Tech came off the heels of two seasons at Otero College in which Kamarad averaged 8 PPG and 9.8 PPG across both his freshman and sophomore seasons, also shooting over 35% from behind the arc, including shooting 44% in his freshman season.
Awards/Notable Facts:
2023-24 GAC All Tournament Tech
2023-24 All GAC Honorable Mention
C: Logan Duncomb
The last of the returners for Winthrop is former Indiana Hoosier, Logan Duncomb. Last season Duncomb played mostly behind established Winthrop big men in KJ Doucet and Kelton Talford in which he averaged 3 PPG and 2.5 RPG but really started to show good promise down the stretch last season. During the non conference portion of the season, Duncomb only averaged 2.1 PPG and 1.7 RPG compared to the conference portion in which Duncomb averaged 3.4 PPG and 2.9 RPG including tying his career high 10 points vs Charleston Southern.
Before coming to Rock Hill, Duncomb spent time at two other stops but only played for Indiana, as Duncomb stepped away from basketball for health reasons before ever playing for Xavier. Duncomb played two seasons at Indiana in which he was mostly a reserve player only appearing in 18 games across two seasons averaging 2.9 PPG and 0.7 PPG in those two seasons in the candy stripe pants.
Awards/Notable Facts:
68th ranked recruit in the Class of 2021 according to 247 Sports with offers from Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Purdue, Xavier and others.
McDonalds All American Nominee
C: Tai Hamilton
Returning after coming over from William and Mary last season, Tai Hamilton is ready to fight for the #2 big man spot, and maybe the starter. Last year, Tai appeared in 26 games for the Eagles averaging 1.9 PPG and 2.5 RPG across around 8 MPG as the 2nd/3rd big man. Tai had an amazing stretch between late Nov and late Dec in which he played over 10 MPG, except against Mercer in which he played 9 minutes. During this stretch Hamilton averaged 3.5 PPG and 3 RPG.
During Tai’s freshmen season at William and Mary, Tai actually had a bigger role playing over 12 MPG in the same amount of games for the Tribe. During that 26 game stretch, Tai averaged 1.5 PPG and 3.1 RPG and ended up ranking 14th in Blocks in the CAA conference, including 8 games with 2 or more blocks.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Led the state of NC in Blocks in 2021-22 at 1 of 1 Academy
Selected for the Queen City All Star Game in 2023
Incoming Transfers:
G: Kareem Rozier - Duquesne
Coming from Duquesne after playing in all but one game (against Winthrop) in the past three seasons, Rozier comes to Winthrop as one of best transfer guards in the conference. Last season at Duquesne, Kareem averaged 6.7 PPG and 3.3 APG with only 1.1 turnovers per game as a fringe starter only starting 10 of 32 games. The seasons before Kareem averaged 5.2 PPG as Duquesne’s as a sophomore while starting 21 of 37 games and averaged 3.9 PPG as the bench point guard during his freshmen season in the 2022-23 season.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Ranked 10th this past season in the NCAA for Assist/TOV Percentage.
Was Duquesne’s active game leader with 101, and most active consecutive games at 90.
G: Daylen Berry - Charleston Southern
One of two intra-conference transfers to make the move to Rock Hill, Daylen Berry comes for Charleston Southern. During his most recent season at Charleston Southern, Berry was thrust into the starting lineup, starting all 32 games for the Buccaneers averaging 13.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 2.8 APG and was the first CSU player since 2015 to have more than 50 steals in one season.
Before moving to the Big South, Berry played sparingly in two seasons at Charlotte. During his two seasons in Charlotte, Berry only played in 37 games, 16 in his sophomore season in which he averaged 1.6 PPG, and 21 in freshmen season where he averaged 1.4 PPG.
Awards/Notable Facts:
One of only 6 players last season to play 53 minutes or more in one game. (Played 53 minutes vs Winthrop on Jan 15th)
Played over 39 minutes in 11 games last season.
G: Joshua Meo - Coastal Carolina
Another player who played against Winthrop in the previous season, this time as a non conference opponent, Joshua Meo coming over from Coastal Carolina. Last season at Coastal Carolina, Meo averaged 8.5 PPG, 2.9 RPG, and 2.2 APG including a 10 point performance in his game vs Winthrop. Meo started all but one game for Coastal Carolina, in the one game Meo didn’t start he played 30 minutes per game against Georgia Southern in which he scored 15 points.
Before making the move to Coastal, Josh played two years in the JUCO ranks, one with Mineral Area CC and the other at St. Petersburg College. During his time at Mineral Area, where he played with Upstate transfer Tyler Smith, Meo led the team in scoring with 14.2 PPG while also averaging 4.6 RPG and 3.3 APG. At St. Petersburg, Meo also led his time in scoring this time with 16.2 PPG, also tallying 4.6 RPG and 2.8 APG.
Awards/Notable Facts:
2023-24 NJCAA 3rd Team All American
2023-24 NJCAA Region 16 Player of the Year
G: Braylhan Thomas - Georgia Southern
Mark Prosser might be one of the best post game handshake recruiters in the country, as Thomas was another player whom comes from a team Winthrop faced, albeit Thomas didn’t play in that game. During this season, Thomas played 25 games in which as a freshman, started 8 of them, averaging 3.1 PPG and 2.5 RPG for the Eagles this past season. Two of Thomas’ best games came against Western Michigan and South Alabama where he had 11 in each game.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Won SC 2A Player of the Year in the 2023-24 season
Was the FIRST Georgia Southern freshman since 2005 to have 11 points and 13 rebounds in any contest (vs Western Michigan)
G: Kody Clouet - San Diego
Making an over 2,300 mile trek from San Diego, comes Kody Clouet, whom has had a very interesting college career beginning in NAIA, then D2, then WCC and now to the Big South to play for Winthrop. During his most recent stop at San Diego, Clouet averaged 8.9 PPG and 2.7 RPG but had some stellar performances like 35 points in the regular season finale against Portland including shooting 8-10 from 3. In his last 4 regular season games and first conference tournament game, Clouet averaged 20 PPG and 3.6 RPG.
Before making the move to San Diego, Clouet played at both Southeastern Oklahoma State and at now defunct St. Katherine’s. At SE Oklahoma State in both seasons Kody was one of the stars of the show. In his junior season, his first at SE Oklahoma State, Kody averaged 11.9 PPG and 5.4 RPG while also having a 4.0 or higher in school. During his second season at SE Oklahoma State, the stats continued to climb averaging 17.6 PPG and 5.1 RPG helping his team win the GAC Conference Title. At St. Katherine’s as a freshman Clouet averaged 16 PPG and 6 RPG earning his Male Scholar of the Year at St. Katherine’s.
Awards/Notable Facts:
2022-23 GAC Elite Scholar (Only one to win the award that season)
2023-24 All GAC First Team
2023-24 Second Team Academic All American
F: Pharrell Boyogueno - Gardner Webb
The second of the two intra conference movers this time Pharrell Boyogueno from Gardner Webb. This last season at Gardner Webb, in which Pharrell started all the games except for two when he was coming back from injury, he averaged 7.9 PPG and 4.3 RPG including a 13 point game against his new team in Winthrop.
Before ending up in Shelby, NC, Pharrell played at Caldwell Tech for two seasons at the JUCO level at Caldwell Tech. In his sophomore season which happened to be his breakout, Pharrell averaged 14.2 PPG and 9.5 RPG on a stellar 49.5% 3PT shooting on over 100 attempts including 5 20+ point games. In his freshmen season Pharrell put up a respectable 8 PPG and 6.5 RPG with only 6 of his 23 games played being starts.
Awards/Notable Facts:
2023-24 First Team All Region 10
2023-24 Region 10 Defensive Player of the Year
F: Seifeldin Hendawy - Loyola Chicago
Coming from Loyola Chicago where Hendawy really didn’t see the court much at all, only playing 70 mins during the entire season. Of those 70 minutes, 35 of those came across 3 games, 12 minutes against Non D1 Eureka which was his best game with 4 points, 2 steals and 2 assists, 12 minutes against Charleston with 2 points and 1 assist, and then 11 minutes vs Murray State with 4 points. Coming out of the NBA Africa Academy, Hendawy was very highly touted after a strong U17 FIBA World Cup in which he averaged 13.4 PPG and 5.9 RPG.
Awards/Notable Facts:
161st ranked recruit in the Class of 24’
Played with the Egypt Senior National Team in the 2025 AfroBasket Qualifiers.
F: Edward Nnamoko - New Mexico State
Hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, Edward has had a long journey to Rock Hill having played for both Georgia State and New Mexico State before ending up at Winthrop. The most recent of those two stops was New Mexico State when Edward averaged 1 PPG and 1 RPG in limited playing time only appearing in 20 games and only averaging 5.2 MPG and only seeing double digit minutes twice.
Before going to New Mexico State, Nnamoko spent two seasons at Georgia State in which he saw pretty good playing time, playing in 56 games across the two seasons. In his sophomore season, Nnamoko averaged 3 PPG and 4.4 RPG recording his first double double vs Toccoa Falls with 11 points and 16 rebounds. As a freshmen, Nnamoko saw all 19 starts of his college career up to this point with 16 of his 28 games being in the starting 5 in which he averaged 1.8 PPG and 3.6 RPG, but was usually around the 5-6 rebound range outside a few outliers to the downside.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Led Georgia State in Blocks in 2023-24
Finalist for SBLive’s Florida High School Boys Basketball 3A Player of the Year Award
Held offers from Winthrop, Tulsa, Temple among others before committing to Georgia State
Incoming Freshmen:
G: Kaleb Evans - Lexington HS (SC)
Considered one of the best, and by some people the best recruit in South Carolina, Kaleb Evans chose to stay in state to play for the Eagles. Last year, Evans spent time at both Lexington and Moravian Prep. In this past season at Lexington, Evans had multiple double double’s and was usually the best player on the court this past season.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Crossed the 1,000 point mark on Dec 5th
2024 RoundBall Classic All Tournament Team
Roster Prediction:
Roster Thoughts/Ratings:
Guards: B+
Kareem Rozier: 5’9 guards have been successful in the past of this conference, especially ones that are very quick and can shoot. Rozier does both at a very good level and with the ability to keep the ball secure with amazing playmaking skill. The only concern is he can’t shoot at the rim, but I like the center group’s ability to make sure he doesn’t need to do that.
Joshua Meo: One of the more interesting adds for Winthrop is Josh Meo, he wasn’t really efficient at the D1 level at Coastal Carolina. That same lack of efficiency followed Meo from St Pete and Mineral Area. He can shoot the 3 at a good clip with around 30%+ but that’s really all he does at a good level. If he’s a catch and shoot guard than it’s a good add, if you expect more then I fear you’ll be disappointed.
Kody Clouet: Having a shooter is very important and getting one with Kody’s level is very big in this conference. Clouet shot 32% at San Diego but hit almost 90% from the line, and now he enters a system that is usually Top 5 at getting to the free throw, could be a big year for Winthrop if Clouet can get to the line.
Forwards: B
Tommy Kamarad: I really enjoy Tommy Kamarad, I don’t know if he will take over the KJ Doucet role of a forward who can stretch the floor while your traditional big man stays down low but if he can do that, it should be a pretty good season for Tommy.
Logan Duncomb: If Tommy Kamarad fills in the KJ Doucet role, Logan will likely need to fill in the Kelton Talford role. The only area where Duncomb is being more secure with the ball and a better shooter but in limited minutes last season he wasn’t too far off KT’s analytical stats.
Pharrell Boyogueno: Pharrell is a very interesting player, he is a defensive stud with just stellar length and ability to change the game either with blocks and steals but also with just shutting down players. The offense is there, but shows up in spurts, some games he’s good for 15 points, some games you get 0-2 from him. If the offense can get figured out, a stellar addition from Coach Prosser. If the offense stays inconsistent, it’s still a very good addition.
Tai Hamilton: If I had to pick one word to describe Tai Hamilton, it’s raw. He’s raw in two ways, one he doesn’t really have defined playstyle outside of being a decent paint defender but even then I wouldn’t say he excels at it, he’s also raw because he has not played a massive amount. I do expect Tai to build out and not be considered raw at the end of the year, to what extent he will be more known is to be seen.
Bench/Reserves: B-
Thoughts: Winthrop has a very solid guard group as a bench with Isaiah Wilson who can be a solid PG option off the bench. Daylen Berry whom could very well start, especially with his stamina ability. Braylhan Thomas while not having played as much as the other two has looked very good in his time that he has played. Then to cap it off, a young star in Kaleb Evans who very well could be Paul Jones-esque and be an impact freshman.
The forward core, much like the guard core, is pretty deep. You have Edward Nnamoko who is just a solid big man to have off the bench. You have Seifeldin Hendawy who was a highly touted prospect and showed during U16-U18 competition and then likely Tai Hamilton as another bench big who can just be a defensive stalwart and another body to use off the bench.