Zone defenses flummoxed the UMass men’s basketball team for the first month of the season. Bryant and George Mason turned to them to limit sophomore center Tre Mitchell and keep the Minutemen out of the paint. It worked, as UMass struggled to score on key possessions that led to losses.
Naturally, Rhode Island started Wednesday’s game in a zone. The Minutemen were ready this time, jumping out to a nine-point lead in the game’s first 14 minutes, 28 seconds. Rather than hoisting 3s to bust the zone, which hadn’t been working (32.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc), UMass started cutting behind it.
Ronnie DeGray regularly found pockets of space on the baseline and scored two layups in the game’s first four minutes. He finished with a career-high 21.
The Rams switched to man defense in the last five minutes of the first half and rarely employed zone for the rest of UMass’ 80-78 overtime victory.
“We needed to be a little more composed against the zone, taking what was in front of us, not necessarily trying to make the home run plays,” UMass senior Carl Pierre said. “No matter what defense a team’s in, there’s always going to be some option that’s open. We just need to exploit it every time.”
STRONG START – At 3-1, the Minutemen are off to their best conference start since the 2013-14 season. They were 1-6 out of the gate last year.
“It takes a lot of pressure off the back end of the schedule. You can play with less stress and more freedom,” Pierre said. “Conference is always important to win games early to set the tone for the rest of the schedule.”
IMPACT OFF THE BENCH – Javohn Garcia hasn’t started the last few games, but he’s been an important part of finishing them. The freshman guard had nine points and three steals against the Rams.
“I thought he was phenomenal guarding those guards in the backcourt as a freshman,” McCall said. “(The steals were) just one-on-one defense in the backcourt. One of the reasons we decided to do it was we don’t need him in foul trouble. We need him in the game with the game on the line.”
RANGEFINDERS BROKEN – UMass shot 20 percent from the 3-point arc, making just 6 of 30 attempts. It was their fewest makes and worst percentage of the season.
The Minutemen hadn’t made fewer 3s or shot worse in a win since going 5 of 25 at Fordham on Feb. 22.
BACK IN BLACK – The Minutemen finally broke out their long-awaited black alternate uniforms and won. The women’s team lost when they wore the same jerseys against Rhode Island last week.
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT SITE – The Atlantic 10 announced Wednesday that the 2021 Men’s Basketball Championship won’t be at the Barclays Center but would be hosted at a campus site to be announced.
“The challenges presented by COVID-19 and the ability to host this event on campus provides the league with operational efficiencies, established local health departments relationships, and a familiarity of conference COVID-19 protocols,” Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said in a release.
The tournament will be at the Verizon Center in Washington for 2022 before returning to Brooklyn in 2023 and 2024.
FRESHMAN ABSENT – Dyondre Dominguez and Cairo McCrory weren’t available for the game. Due to federal educational rights protecting the privacy of all students at the university, McCall or anyone else with the program were not able to share information related to their status.