An 8 a.m. tipoff for Winthrop-Queens? Rise and shine on Day 1 of college hoops
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Winthrop and Queens tipped off the ‘25-‘26 college basketball season at 8 a.m. Monday.
- Winthrop won 81-74 over Queens in Rock Hill, S.C., closing the game on an 8-0 run.
- The teams each held a series of early-morning workouts to adapt to the early start.
It was 8 a.m. on a Monday.
It felt like it was time for a college class, when you were a freshman and didn’t yet know how to set up your schedule. It felt like one of those days when you got up at an ungodly hour to save a few bucks on an early flight, only to get to the airport dreadfully early and see a 50-deep line at Starbucks. It felt, in other words, kind of rough.
But that was before tipoff of Game 1, Day 1 on the opening day of college basketball, when Winthrop and Queens agreed to tip off at breakfast time so they could play the very first game of the 2025-26 season. For the players, that meant getting up at 5 a.m., eating pregame breakfast around 6 a.m., warming up at 7 a.m. and all systems go at 8 a.m.
The game was tight throughout and eventually won by Winthrop, 81-74, with the Eagles scoring the contest’s final eight points. It was cool. The Rock Hill Sports & Event Center was filled to capacity with 1,300 fans for this Division I game between two colleges separated by only 24 miles — Winthrop in Rock Hill, South Carolina; Queens in Charlotte.
A friend of mine who was there said his son, a current student at Winthrop, was getting extra credit from his professor for showing up for this one. Kudos to that professor.
With help from those bleary-eyed students, it did get loud in a hurry, as the two teams inaugurated a manic Monday that was officially the opening entry in “The Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon.”
“Really an unbelievable way to start the college basketball season,” Winthrop coach Mark Prosser said.
“I hope we’re invited again, because we would love to be a part of it,” Queens coach Grant Leonard said. I know these guys (the Queens players) would too. What a platform to play on.”
The teams had both tried to prepare for the schedule, with each holding a series of early-morning workouts.
“We were having practices all week at 8 a.m., right?” said Winthrop center Logan Duncomb, who scored 12 points and had eight rebounds in his team’s victory. “And 7 a.m. lifts, too. A whole week of circadian rhythm.”
Circadian rhythm? This was definitely the first time I’d ever heard that discussed in a postgame press conference, but resetting your internal body clock did turn out to be important for this one.
Neither teams’ 3-point shooting touch ever awakened, however. Queens went 6-for-30 (20%) from deep and Winthrop wasn’t much better at 8-for-25 (32%), which meant most of the game was contested the old-fashioned way, via drives and rebounding and tough defense.
Both these teams will have a shot at making it into March Madness and the literal field of 68. Winthrop was only picked fifth in the Big South preseason poll, but has a natural scorer in guard Daylen Berry (a game-high 23 points Monday) and buys into good defense like the Eagles always have.
Queens, out of a three-year transition period and now eligible to win its conference and the resulting March Madness berth for the first time, was picked No. 1 in the ASUN preseason coaches’ poll. The Royals also have the conference’s preseason player of the year in Chris Ashby. But Ashby shot only 3-for-12 and had a modest 10 points Monday. Queens was led by Yoav Berman, who had 19.
The game was over by 10:12 a.m. You could still get served breakfast at many restaurants, if you wanted to. The players would still be able to make their afternoon classes. Dozens of other men’s and women’s college basketball teams played later in the day — including two more games in Rock Hill.
But at that moment, Winthrop stood alone in the country.
“It’s fun,” Prosser said, “to be the only team in the country with a win right now.”
Never miss a Scott Fowler column. Go to www.charlotteobserver.com/newsletters and sign up at “Scott Fowler’s Latest” to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
