— Story by Taylor Kennedy
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The University of Charleston Golden Eagles are coming off its best season under head coach Dwaine Osborne. The Golden Eagles finished last season with 25 wins, which was the second time UC has won 25+ games since 2010.
Coach Osborne and his squad finished second in the Mountain East Conference (MEC). The Golden Eagles received the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic Region Tournament in Division II NCAA Tournament.
Coach Osborne understands that this upcoming season will be a unique year with COVID-19 still lingering. He says that the first priority is to make sure that everyone stays healthy.
“It is going to be super important for us this year to just keep ourselves healthy. Typically, you think of injuries with that, but I think this year with the COVID situation it has been a bit of a fiasco for everybody in terms of trying to piece everything together well. We gotta try the best we can with that, and hopefully have a full deck every time we go to play,” says Osborne.
Osborne wants to see the same connection that last season’s team had and replicate that into a bond and success for the 2021 team.
“Last year we had a really good team. We had a really talented team, but we had a really connected team. Trying to figure out how to replicate the connectedness that we had last year, and even building from the year before that is going to be super important for us if we are going to be successful,” says Osborne.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a hard adjustment for some. Coach Osborne has been impressed with the way his players have dealt with the pandemic, despite only having one confirmed positive case since the fall.
“Our guys are not perfect. I am not perfect. Sometimes we may have our masks below our noses or occasional things happen. I think, for the most part, they have really just tried to do a good job doing what they are asked to do. They want to play. We are doing everything we can to try and make sure we follow all the guidelines that have been put in place, and I think our guys have been committed to trying to do that,” says Osborne.
Recruiting has been another key adjustment for coaches to adapt to. The interactions between the recruit and parents may not happen due to COVID, and other aspects of recruiting may not happen due to the ongoing circumstances. Coach Osborne says that he and his staff were fortunate to snag a few early signees.
“In building this team, we were fortunate we signed a player or two early before the pandemic really hit, which was good. We had connections to almost every player that was built prior to the pandemic, and that helped us in bringing this particular class in. With the NCAA giving another year back, we believe that most if not all of our seniors will return. We are not going to have very many. We signed one early, and I am thankful to be able to do that and add him to the program,” says Osborne.
Coach Osborne and his team are welcoming five incoming freshmen (two W.Va. natives) and four transfers. Coach Osborne is giddy about this season’s recruiting class.
“I have been super excited about them. I think we have a couple of freshman guys that are going to be impactful for us not just in the immediate but in the long-term and have a chance to have very special careers. We were able to get a couple of transfer guys that were proven. All of those guys were guys we either recruited out of high school and tried to get in and they went Division 1 and we did not get them, or they were guys we have ties to through various people. It gave us an opportunity to have a little bit more knowledge about them prior to their arrival and trying to make sure they fit the culture we have at the forefront of what we do,” says Osborne.
The Golden Eagles are returning a couple of key playmakers from last season’s runner-up squad. Coach Osborne is optimistic that they will continue the success from last season into this year.
“We have four players that played 20+ minutes on last year’s 25 win team. Lamont McManus and Seth O’Neal, our point guard, and center, will really anchor that a little bit. Again, they have been here for the entirety of their careers. Both of them have started since they were freshmen. They have played significant minutes. They have played in the championship game two of the three years they have been here. We really count on those guys on their experience and leadership for a lot. Super thankful for those guys,” says Osborne.
McManus finished first in the MEC in field goal percentage shooting just above 67%. He also led the team in total blocks with 27. O’Neal was one of the best players in the MEC who shared the ball efficiently. He finished second in the MEC in assists per game (5.3) and assist to turnover ratio (2.4). Both of them are two of the three seniors on this year’s team.
Osborne is thankful and grateful for this year’s senior class, and he believes their legacies will live on at the University of Charleston.
“Their impact has been really significant. I think it will long outlast their careers here. I think a lot of what we have, what we built, and the foundation that we have to continue building as we go forward. It really anchors around what those guys have been able to do. They were a part of us coming from a situation where we had taken a lot of transfers as the predominant way of recruiting. They were the first class after we built the new arena. They were really the anchor of that first group. What they have been able to help us do and establish during the last few years has been really important not only for our success right now but what we believe will be good things to come in the future,” says Osborne.
Osborne also likes what he is seeing from an upcoming junior and sophomore this season.
“I think Keith Williams has played some really significant minutes in his two years here, and Eddie Colbert was a freshman last year who played about 18 or 19 minutes a game and just got better and better and has a huge upside. We are super excited about him,” says Osborne.
The University of Charleston is preseason ranked No. 21 in the NABC poll. The Golden Eagles will welcome Concord University into the Wehrle Innovation Center on January 7 to open the 2021 season.