NEW YORK — Matt McCall enters his second season as the UMass coach with higher expectations on the program. The Gazette sat down with McCall during Atlantic 10 media day Thursday in Brooklyn, N.Y. to talk about the upcoming season and the adjustments McCall has made entering year two.
The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Recorder: What’s your reaction to being picked eighth in the preseason poll?
McCall: I try not to pay much attention to anything in the preseason, there’s no trophies given out for anything in the preseason. That’s no disrespect, it’s just an opinion. Everything is going to be decided in between the lines and we’ve got to continue to put our focus on getting better, improving every day and playing our best basketball once conference play hits. We have a lot of time now and then, and we just have to keep getting better.
Recorder: Do you mind some of the bravado Luwane Pipkins showcases at times?
McCall: Luwane is one of the toughest players I’ve ever coached, and that’s going back to my days at the University of Florida and Chattanooga and Florida Atlantic. Luwane is a guy that wants a challenge and accepts a challenge, it’s part of what makes him a great player. There’s not too many 5-foot-8 guys out there that can go out and average 24 a game on a team that has five scholarship players, getting double-teamed and trapped. He welcomes it and as far as him bringing it every day in practice, I’ve been very pleased. I don’t think he’s been complacent at all, even with all the accolades. Luwane wants to win, I’ll say that first and foremost when it comes to him, but he’s a guy that empowers his teammates, too. I don’t think Carl Pierre has a good of a freshman year as he did without Luwane instilling confidence in him as the year went. His toughness is what separates him.
Recorder: How much did you and the staff focus on taking some pressure off Luwane this season?
McCall: The biggest thing for Luwane is trying to help him and Carl deal with the expectation piece now that they’re both going to deal with going into the year. But there’s a lot more firepower out there on the floor, Luwane and Carl shouldn’t have to play 38 minutes per game like they did last year. There’s more bodies, there’s more depth, we’ll be able to press more and do those types of things, I just want Luwane to keep getting better and to continue to put our team first, continue to put winning first, and everything else will fall in line.
Recorder: Who is the glue guy on this team?
McCall: We’re going to rely an enormous amount on Carl and Luwane from a leadership standpoint. With eight guys who didn’t play last year, we’re going to have to rely on the guys who really did and got that experience. Luwane and Carl both will be two guys that from a leadership standpoint keep our team connected out on the floor and keep our team connected in face of adversity. There’s some rust that we have to play through right now. With eight guys who haven’t played, we’re going to go through some adversity here in the beginning and we’ve got to stay together and we’ve got to stay connected.
Recorder: How do you deal with the expectations from fans on this year’s team?
McCall: We haven’t done anything, we finished 13 out of 14 teams in the league last year. Yes, we were in a lot of games. Yes, a lot of games were close, but at the end of the day, we didn’t win those. Had we finished middle of the pack in the league last year, maybe we should have been picked higher. But we need to prove that, we’ve got to prove we belong as one of the best teams in this league, and we’ve got to prove that in between the lines with how we play and how we perform and by winning games and winning close games. We’ve got to find ways now to win those games. The expectation piece will come, but right now we’ve got to focus on getting better. We have eight new guys, we’ve got to become even more connected as a team and we’ve really got to be playing good basketball when it’s thrown up in the air on Nov. 6.