AMHERST — Matt McCall started one freshman Tuesday against Westfield State. It took less than three minutes for him to add another to the basketball floor.
In UMass’ first public showing of the season, the second-year coach showed plenty of confidence in his youngest players. In particular, McCall tested Sy Chatman, who earned the start at center for the Minutemen, and forward Samba Diallo with heavy minutes. Guard Tre Wood also earned plenty of time on the court as the trio of newcomers all logged at least 20 minutes each in the 84-60 victory.
“It’s something I always looked forward to was playing my first college game,” Chatman said before adding he wasn’t nervous at all for his Mullins Center debut. “I probably got my nerves out when we had our scrimmage earlier in the season.”
The impact the freshmen made on the floor didn’t even show up in the stat sheet. Although Wood scored 11 points and Diallo led the team with six rebounds, it was the intangibles that stood out about the first-year players.
Chatman showed some hustle to chase down a fast-break opportunity and send the layup attempt into the second row of seats. Diallo set screens that helped free up shooters and passing lanes while also showing his battle on the glass. Both Chatman and Diallo showed a comfort level with being vocal on defense and directing traffic as needed.
“I was really pleased with our freshmen,” McCall said. “For their first collegiate game in front of fans, I thought all of them did something good. I thought Samba was good on defense, he got his length, his athleticism into the game. … I thought Sy had some really good plays, we have to teach him when to try to block shots and when not. … I thought Tre got his speed into the game. He had some really good finishes in and around the basket. He forced one in the first half, but other than that he didn’t take too many bad ones and kept us in the offense.”
DEFENSIVE DEFICIENCY: McCall didn’t hide his disappointment with how his team defended Westfield State. The Owls shot 44 percent from the floor, but of bigger concern was the ease in which they were able to get to the basket.
The Minutemen’s struggles on the defensive end were noteworthy to McCall because of how much he has emphasized that side of the court since the end of last season. Instead, he said, UMass focused on its offensive production and didn’t put the needed attention on playing defense the right way.
“I was really, really disappointed with us defensively, especially in the first half,” McCall said. “I thought we were way too consumed offensively to where we didn’t guard. That was the disappointing piece of (the game) that I told them at the half.
“… Late in the game, we just kept trading baskets. We kept getting whipped off the bounce. We have to get back to guarding one-on-one and guarding the ball and pushing back and not getting whipped off the bounce.”
The performance struck a chord with the team, too. As much as there were the highlight moments like Chatman’s block and Luwane Pipkins’ two steals, the Minutemen did allow the Owls to get to the basket too easily. Sometimes UMass was slow rotating over and other times it was simply focusing too much on trying to steal the ball.
Forward Jonathan Laurent said he thought the Minutemen needed to put more faith in the system and let the other team mess up instead of trying to force those miscues.
“As a unit we’re not pleased,” Laurent said. “We missed a lot of our lines, we missed a lot of step ups, too much gambling. We got to learn to trust our positioning, as coach always says, and let teams make mistakes instead of trying to force the mistakes.”
HOLLOWAY EFFECT: UMass has a lot of tape it can teach from over the next week before it opens the season for real next week against UMass-Lowell. But now the Minutemen have some other adjustments they must make in the next week with Rashaan Holloway returning to the lineup.
Holloway was held out of the exhibition game after missing a chunk of practice earlier this preseason with an injury. But he has been back the past two weeks at practice and his addition to the lineup causes a shift to how UMass plays on both ends of the floor.
McCall said adding Holloway back into the lineup doesn’t diminish the importance of Tuesday’s game, especially with seven players participating in either their first collegiate basketball game in over a year or their first one ever.
“The most important part of tonight was getting out there,” McCall said. “We have so many games who haven’t played and really getting those guys reps (was important). … There’s a lot to take from this, there’s a lot to work on, but now going forward, with Rashaan in the lineup, that completely changes the dynamics of our team, too.”
LOCAL CONNECTION: Amherst native Vawn Lord scored three points on 1 of 4 shooting in 12 minutes for Westfield State. The Owls are Lord’s third college team in three years after previously playing at Cuesta College (Calif.) in 2016-17 and Allan Hancock College (Calif.) last year.
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.