UMass entered Sunday’s loss to Davidson with eight available players. Injuries and foul trouble tightened the rotation even more.
Four UMass starters played more than 30 minutes, and the three reserves averaged just 17.3 minutes. The Minutemen were without Kolton Mitchell (concussion), Preston Santos (personal leave), Dyondre Dominguez and Cairo McCrory. McCall hasn’t been able to comment on Dominguez and McCrory due to federal rules protecting university students privacy. Santos hasn’t played all season. McCrory played 69 minutes in five games, while Dominguez (48 minutes) and Kolton Mitchell (32 minutes) have each appeared in six.
“I think our depth has been something that’s been good for us and not having it is going to impact the game. Does fatigue become a factor? Can we run and trap (Davidson star) Kellan Grady more in the second half?” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “I mean, yeah I think the depth’s a factor. I’m not trying to make excuses.”
Senior guard Carl Pierre led UMass with 36 minutes but shot 1-for-7 from the floor and didn’t hit that field goal until the game’s final five seconds. Freshman Ronnie DeGray III, who led the Atlantic 10 for most of the season, also went 1-for-7 in his 31 minutes. McCall just didn’t have many other options
Junior forward Dibaji Walker started despite a lingering wrist issue and fouled twice in the game’s first 10 minutes. He didn’t play the rest of the first half. Walker was the primary defender on Grady and held him without a field goal in the first half. Walker started the second half and picked up his third foul just three minutes and 30 seconds in. He played another four minutes midway through the half but checked out for good with 9:46 left. Grady scored 20 points in the second half.
Walker was in the game for 12 minutes total.
“There’s a lot of guys in that situation that wouldn’t give it a go like (Walker) did, but he wanted to be out there with his teammates,” McCall said. “He was the one guy who was frustrating Grady. He’s out there obviously in pain as well and trying to compete and compete at a high level.”
Freshman guard Javohn Garcia is the first guard off UMass’ bench. He started four games for the Minutemen after a 23-point debut. Garcia picked up two fouls in eight minutes of action in the first half then played sparingly in the second.
Redshirt freshman TJ Weeks Jr. made the most of his 22 minutes. Weeks tied for the team lead with 16 points and made 4-of-5 3-pointers.
Sophomore center Tre Mitchell only sat for six minutes, and nearly all of that time was because of injuries. He went down hard on his leg in the first half then left the game’s final 2:42 with a shoulder injury. Davidson outscored UMass 15-10 with him out. Mitchell’s status is day to day, so he could return Wednesday at VCU.
GASPERINI BREAKS THE SEAL – Fifty-one minutes into his UMass career, graduate transfer center Mark Gasperini scored his first point as a Minuteman. He converted a reverse layup with 9:01 after a post pass from Tre Mitchell.
The former American center missed his first 11 shots before Sunday’s layup.
“It felt great, I was happy for him,” Weeks said. “Hopefully we see more go down for him.”
Gasperini played three years at American and compiled 906 points. He shared the floor with Mitchell often against Davidson, racking up a UMass career-high 11 minutes. The Minutemen have mostly run the lineup 5-on-0 in practice since they lack the bodies to fully flesh it out.
“You want to be able to play it live. That lineup can be good for us at times, we just have to continue to work on it,” McCall said. “Especially if teams aren’t switching pick and rolls and they have two traditional bigs at the same time.”
DROUGHT FROM DEEP – Davidson only made five 3-pointers, tying a season-low set against Texas in the Maui Invitational. The Wildcats average 9.1 triples per game, first in the A-10. Only two of them came in the first half, when the Wildcats shot 2-of-11. They missed their first six 3s.
ZONED OUT AGAIN – The Wildcats deployed a zone in stretches during both halves, mixing up their defense. UMass, which has struggled against zones all year, handled it well in the first half but fell into old, poor habits and struggled after halftime.
“We were generating good looks, they just weren’t going in,” McCall said. “The second half we got a little stagnant.”
UMass had three scoring droughts of at least three minutes: one in the first half and two in the second.