AMHERST — When UMass needed a basket Saturday against Saint Joseph’s, there was never a doubt who was going to be the prime target.
Carl Pierre has become the easy go-to guy for the Minutemen when they need to score, and the sophomore made those chances count against the Hawks. UMass worked to find Pierre space for a 3-pointer off a screen at the top of the arc to bring the Minutemen within one with 17 seconds left. A few moments later, he found the soft spot in the Saint Joseph’s defense to make the winning jump shot from the foul line extended.
Although Luwane Pipkins was not on the floor for either of those games – he’ll likely miss a fifth game Tuesday against Dayton due to that hamstring injury – those moments signal a shift of sorts in the program. For much of this year, Pipkins was the undisputed leader of the Minutemen and was the heart and soul of the team on and off the court. While that still holds true in many way, his injury gave Pierre the space to become a more vocal leader on the court, and the sophomore has devoured the chance.
“He’s growing into that leadership role, and he wants that,” coach Matt McCall said. “He’s seen what good looks like and how it should like, and he’s seen what bad looks like and how it shouldn’t look. As we move forward with this program, our four core values, he’s about all four of them. He does everything right on the floor, he does everything right off the floor, that’s your leader. You want guys like that being vocal in your locker room, in huddles, in timeouts, out on the floor, that’s what you want.”
In the last four games without Pipkins in uniform, Pierre is averaging 22.3 points per game and shooting 57.1 percent from the floor, including 54.3 percent from behind the arc. He’s had that type of success with Pipkins on the floor this season – 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the win over Rhode Island last month – but he hasn’t been nearly as consistent as during this latest stretch.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Pierre, who is finding his voice ahead of what will likely be the most important offseason of his UMass career. He will be one of the core pieces around which McCall will build his culture and the coach said he’s been very pleased with the sophomore’s progress through a little less than two years in Amherst.
“He’s been through a lot as a player,” McCall said. “He’s seen a lot as a freshman and even as a sophomore … and as we move forward into this offseason and next year and everything, he is one of the leaders of the program and he’s really grown into it. I’m very proud of his development over the past couple of years.”
FRIENDLY COMPETITION – Tuesday’s 7 p.m. game between UMass (10-17, 3-11 Atlantic 10) and Dayton (18-9, 10-4) will pit against each other two coaches who share a long history. McCall and Flyers coach Anthony Grant overlapped during their tenures at Florida, which makes these games much harder for the Minutemen’s second-year coach.
“I don’t like it at all actually,” McCall said. “That to me is the hard part. Now once the ball’s thrown up in the air, you focus on doing your job and trying to win the game, but I didn’t enjoy it as an assistant when he was at Alabama or (Dayton assistant) Donnie Jones was at UCF and I enjoy it less as a head coach. I want to see him do well and I want to do well, and that’s what makes games like this difficult.”
UMass and Dayton run many of the same concepts, especially on offense, because they derive from what former Florida coach Billy Donovan ran. Both Grant and McCall spent at least a decade under Donovan’s tutelage in Gainesville, although Grant was an assistant under Donovan for his first two seasons in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The familiarity with each other’s style has kept the previous three meetings between these teams over the last two seasons very competitive. Last year, the Minutemen won by two in Dayton before surviving the Flyers in double overtime at Mullins Center. In Janauary, Jalen Crutcher hit a 3-pointer with 1:10 left to break a tie and lift Dayton to an eventual five-point win at home.
“A lot of what we run is very, very similar,” McCall said. “Obviously their personnel is different, but I think that’s why these games have been traditionally close.”