First test

UMass passed its early season warmup – now it’s time for the test.

The Maroon and White take on Southern Illinois in Carbondale tonight … on the line is a chance to play Duke in Madison Square Garden. The Blue Devils slaughtered Georgia Southern 97-54 to advance to the semifinals.

The Minutemen had little trouble with Arkansas-Monticello last night – even though their Division II post players made Coach Kellogg “nervous.”

“It was great to get our first ‘W’ on the season,” Kellogg said. “We were a little concerned and nervous because all reports coming in were they were a good post team.”

Being nervous about UAM’s big men play makes me nervous, coach.

Southern Illinois squeaked out a win over Division II opponent California (Pa.) and only put up 66 points in the game. However, if Kellogg was nervous about UAM’s big men, SIU’s Carlton Fay must have given him nightmares.

Fay dropped 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against California.

Across the board, SIU is favored, but some people aren’t ready to count out UMass just yet.

…the 16-team 2K Classic for the benefit of Coaches vs. Cancer is already underway and the favorites to get to the Nov. 20 semi-finals at the Garden is Duke, UCLA, Michigan and Southern Illinois, which all host regionals.

But we wouldn’t count UMass out of the mix.

First year coach Derek Kellogg’s Minutemen, which beat up on Division II Arkansas-Monticello, 90-71, tonight in the Carbondale regional, has a terrific, experienced backcourt in Chris Lowe from Mt. Vernon and Ricky Harris and should give Southern Illinois all it wants tomorrow.

Here comes the first big game of the season – on hostile grounds. Go get ‘em boys.

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Dan Duggan, a former Collegian editor, wrote an article on Anthony Gurley for the Boston Herald.

UMass had recruited Gurley, and he considered taking his game to Amherst after high school. A year later, with Travis Ford leading the Minutemen back to the top tier of the Atlantic 10, Gurley had a second chance. The easy decision was welcomed after such a turbulent year.

“That point and time in my life was so hectic,” Gurley said. “I was already thinking about transferring, then I decided to come back to school, and then my coach passes away.

“I just wanted to get back closer to home and get out of there. I just really wasn’t happy in that situation. Once I finally made my decision, it felt like there was a lot of weight lifted.”

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The UMass field hockey team will take on Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.