Adios, New York

Next stop, Memphis.

The UMass basketball team lost to Southern Illinois last night, meaning the Minutemen won’t be heading to Madison Square Garden to play Duke. There was good and bad in this game, but I’m glad the team – specifically Chris Lowe – got this performance out of the way.

Lowe knows he wasn’t exactly on the top of his game.

“A lot of teams are going to pick me up full-court. Tonight, I didn’t provide any leadership,” Lowe said.

“I didn’t do what (a preseason) all-league player should do, and 10 turnovers, that’s unheard of. But everybody has a bad game, and I’ll bounce back.”

Lowe had 10 turnovers and zero assists in what will probably go down as his absolute worst game in a UMass uniform.

Next the Minutemen have to travel to Tennessee to take on Calipari’s Tigers on Nov. 17. Having some time off will probably help mend some of the mental – and physical – wounds the Minutemen acquired in Carbondale … a place UMass can’t win for some reason.

Now we have to wait on the status of Luke Bonner, who went down with an apparent knee injury. Bonner isn’t exactly the focal point of the offense (or defense, for that matter), but we need all our big men healthy. We don’t have enough depth as it is.

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Travis Ford has the No. 9 ranked recruiting class at OSU.

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.

Happy new year

And it begins.

Tonight, the Minutemen start their season against Arkansas-Monticello in the 2008 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. For UMass this is the beginning of a transition year – for the Weevils, this is a second exhibition game.

Last week, UAM received nine votes in the preseason National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll. According to the team’s Web site, the votes mark the first time since UAM has joined the NCAA the team has received votes in any preseason poll.

UMass should be able to walk through this Division II opponent, but as we saw last week, UMass is still looking for its identity – barely beating Dowling, another D-II squad.

The Weevils have five players taller than 6′6, so the Minutemen will have to start crashing the boards NOW. There are no more excuses, and there is no reason to let the other team’s guard get more than five rebounds (Dowling’s shooting guard had eight).

If no one else remembers – UAM’s head coach, Mike Newell, has been providing some bulletin board material.

“We have a chance to beat UMass,” Newell said.

“Fortunately, we’ve been put into what I think is the weakest region. If we win our first two ballgames, then we’ll be playing in front of Madison Square Garden. I’m confident in saying that this game is the biggest in school history.”

The winner of tonights came will play either Southern Illinois or California (Pa.). I’m warily confident in the Minutemen, but bad things are known to happen in Carbondale.

Revenge

We all know what happened on Saturday – now it’s time to play spoiler.

This weekend, the Minutemen will face UNH and have the chance to put a serious damper on the Wildcats’ playoff hopes. UNH is coming off a loss to Villanova, and need one more win to reach the eight victories needed to qualify for the FCS playoffs.

These will be desperate Minutemen. Their playoff hopes are fading and their only chance to revive them will be a win over UNH.

UMass has losses to Texas Tech, James Madison and Richmond to go with the loss to Maine and will try to get back into the playoff discussion against the Wildcats.

The Minutemen defense had improved in recent weeks, but Maine rolled up 296 yards rushing on them, For its part, the Maine defense held Massachusetts to 311 yards of total offense. Not only that, but the Black Bears intercepted four Liam Coen passes in the game.

If nothing else, I hope UMass plays for pride this weekend and takes down their CAA rivals. The loss to Maine stings a little, but a win over UNH always takes the bite out of a tough loss.

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Hidden somewhere between the pages of UMass athletics – the men’s soccer team won the A-10 regular season title.

Granted, this is a far-off cry from last year’s Final Four run, but it’s still very impressive for the boys to win the conference after a slow start to the season.

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The UMass women’s basketball team pounded Bishop’s University in its exhibition game.

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A little late on this: Gary Forbes was drafted No. 4 overall by the Sioux City Skyforce of the NBA’s Development League.

This is the second time in two years we’ve had a played in the D-League – Stephane Lasme played there last year.

Take it in stride

Get off the ledge folks – it’s just an exhibition game.

The Minutemen played pretty even with an average Division II team last night, winning 91-87, but don’t think the game serves as an indicator for the rest of the season. If nothing else, we got a chance to see what we’re working with and what UMass needs to work on.

First of all: How about that Anthony Gurley?

Gurley put up 17 points and showed us that he will be the third head to the Maroon and White’s backcourt hydra. Ricky Harris ad Chris Lowe showed us what we already knew, and the trio scored a remarkable 58 points between them.

For those non-Math majors out there, that’s almost 64 percent of the team’s total points.

It also appears that Tony Gaffney is going to see a lot of playing time – meaning he needs to lose a little bit of his aggressive tendencies to keep from fouling out against bigger opponents. Gaffney played more minutes (34) than anyone else on the team. He also gave us five steals, so his defense appears to have carried over from last year.

Another positive, Gary Correia is still improving and will see some minutes this year behind Lowe.

Now, the bad:

Where are the big men, and why aren’t they taking any shots?

Gaffney led all forwards with 10 points, but he only took four shots (and luckily hit them all). Aside from that Luke Bonner took three, Terrell Lynch took four, and Matt Hill took one (in limited playing time).

It’s math time again: UMass forwards took 18 percent of the team’s total shots (65).

That is not going to work throughout the season.

Another thing that will not fly is getting outrebounded by a smaller team. How can a crop of Division I athletes get outrebounded by a Division II team – especially on the offensive boards? Bonner played OK, but it’s not acceptable to let another team’s GUARD grab eight rebounds.

Also not great – this is the same Dowling that Travis Ford beat 96-55 three years ago.

I think Kellogg may have said it best:

“When you look at the board in our locker room, it says UMass Basketball, intensity, enthusiasm, passion. No one walks into the Mullins Center and out plays you. Quite honestly that team out worked us and out played us.”

‘… the wins will come’

Dowling, ladies and gentlemen, Dowling.

This small, Division II, liberal arts college kicks off a season of questions for the UMass basketball team:

How will the team respond to a new coach and new system?

How will the frontcourt size up?

Can the guards carry the load?

Can UMass duplicate or build upon last year?

That last question is the kicker.

Travis Ford didn’t exactly leave the shelves empty when he took off for Oklahoma State, but he did leave Coach Kellogg with a lot to figure out.

The excellent guard play of Ricky Harris and Chris Lowe is to be expected at this point. Both players have received preseason accolades from different magazines and the Atlantic 10 itself. Lowe is the heart and soul of the offense, and Harris is going to be the motor that keep it running.

Aside from them – what’s next?

The post is going to live and die with Tyrell Lynch and whether or not he’s ready to be a prime-time player
in the Atlantic 10. Apparently he was good enough for SEC ball, but academic questions led to him never step on the court for the Auburn Tigers.

The Republican had him covered yesterday.

“Quite honestly, we need him,” Kellogg said. “We need him to rebound, be a defensive presence and score some baskets, too.”

“It’s always tough after being out a year, but he’s come leaps and bounds from the beginning of the (school) year.”

Complementing Lynch is going to be Tony Gaffney and Luke Bonner. This duo makes me want to believe in magic: I wish I could put Gaffney’s aggressiveness in Bonner’s frame.

I love the way Gaffney plays, and if he can build on what he did last year, there is no doubt that he could be one of the best defenders in the conference. He has the ability to block shots and has a great knack on help defense. Tony is going to make or break the defensive effort in the post this year – here’s hoping he can stay out of foul trouble.

Bonner is the seven-foot question mark. There are times where he looks like he actually knows what he’s doing (see the quarter- and semifinals of the NIT), yet there are other times when he looks like a lost dog, floating goofily around the perimeter. He needs to get down in the post, and he needs to collect rebounds and use his size to get close baskets. If he can do this in reasonable spurts, UMass should benefit in conference play. Perhaps Memphis and Kansas can scare him into shape.

Kellogg told the Collegian that he’s optimistic about the big boys.

“They’ve been very good players in practice. They’re going to have every opportunity to step forward and make names for themselves,” Kellogg said. “If one guy could put up double-digits [in rebounding] and the other came close to [double-digits] that would be great.”

There’s another thing UMass fans are going to have to get used to: normal enthusiasm. Kellogg is not going to shout from the mountains that Bonner is an NBA player and that our guards will play for the Dream Team, like Travis Ford did on a weekly basis. He understands what he has, and he respects the team in front of him. I think this is a good thing for UMass fans: We started to believe in the smoke and mirrors, but there is no Fun House at the Big Dance.

That leaves me with the third guard – Mr. Anthony Gurley. After transferring from Wake Forrest, UMass fans started to believe again. Gurley looks like he could be the fill in for Gary Forbes – an apt ACC scorer that can excel at the Atlantic 10 level. Gurley lacks Forbes’ size, but he has the pedigree to go along with an impressive three-point shot.

Gurley averaged more than 6 points a game with Wake – Forbes averaged about 7 and 9 points at Virginia his freshman and sophomore years, respectively.

All of this needs to be held together by our new coach – a local boy that has returned to his alma mater to make good. Yet, according to the Boston Herald, Kellogg isn’t here to talk about the past … he’s here to deliver the future.

“He never talks about back in the day,” senior guard Chris Lowe said. “He’s trying to teach us how to win and how to play defense. He’s never saying, ‘Oh, we did this and we did that.’ He doesn’t want to talk about that. He wants to talk about the future.”

And even though he doesn’t have Fordesque optimism, he still has an uncanny ability to say all the right things.

“If we’re playing UMass basketball,” he said, “at some point the wins will come, the fans will come, and the national media will be there.”

I hope you’re right coach, but UMass fans need to understand that this is a process. We need to understand that we’re on our last glass of recovery water from the Lappas era, and we’re still getting over the Travis Ford breakup.

We need to understand that UMass basketball is back, and we need to know that someday soon our questions will be answered.

Another option

The Rhode Island Rams have (finally) bailed on the option offense under new coach Dan Rizzi.

In the past, the Maroon and White had an answer for the trick-and-flick offense (save for monsoon-like conditions), and were able to roll past its southern rivals. This year, the Rams will go to the air in Kingston Town – however, I’m still not worried about a ‘ting.

Derek Cassidy is captaining the ship for URI and has more than 2,000 yards through the air and 15 touchdown passes. However, Cassidy doesn’t have laser-point accuracy and has tossed 12 interceptions in nine games.

Take note: All of last season, Cassidy had five touchdown passes and 1,025 yards.

Even though the scheme has changed, the results are about the same. The Rams are scoring just over 20 points per game, very similar to the option-earned 20.7 from last year. The yards per game are down almost 20 – this year URI is averaging a total of 326.3 ypg, last year they had 347.9.

Without captain Sean Smalls, the Minutemen are going to have to stand strong against URI’s plethora of average at receiver. The Rams have six players with more than 10 catches, and only Shawn Leonard has more than two touchdowns.

URI’s resume is weak – at best. The Rams barely beat Monmouth, a good NEC team, and beat up on in-state rival Brown. Other than that, the Rams have lost to everyone … including an absolute beatdown by Villanova on 10/18.

UMass, on the other hand, has to win the rest of its games to be considered for the FCS playoffs and is coming off a dominating victory over Bryant. To boot, senior Liam Coen is playing his last college game in his home state – you better believe he’s going to be ready.

My prediction:

• UMass – 28
• URI – 10

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Draft Express had a nice writeup on Stephane Lasme.

Just a month or so off being cut by the Miami Heat, Lasme has adapted himself superbly to European basketball thus far, allowing him to produce impressive numbers in nearly every statistical category, in both the Euroleague and Adriatic Leagues. Lasme has given Partizan a huge boost with his activity on the glass and defensively in the paint, as well as in running the floor in transition and being a terrific target to catch and finish passes around the rim. He’s drawing tons of fouls, making a huge impact as an offensive rebounder, and possibly most surprisingly, is showing a very advanced understanding of his team’s half-court offense with the way he’s moving the ball around the court intelligently.

This could be a very important season in Lasme’s development as a player, and he’ll surely learn quite a bit more playing twice a week against a high level of competition than he would have warming an NBA bench. If he continues to perform the way he has early on, he’ll have quite a few options for himself this summer.

Happy new year’s game

The FCS national championship is all but moved to January.

As mentioned earlier this week, the Championship Subdivision has been looking to move its championship game to the day before the BCS title game. The 2010 championship game will be played on Jan. 5, 2011, according to Trading Markets, via the Chattanooga Times.

“It has been approved at this point, it’s set, and what’s happening tomorrow is just the presentation of the updated proposal,” Leech said.

Beginning in 2010, the playoffs will expand from 16 to 20 teams and thus require an extra round of games. They will begin as they do now, a week after the regular season ends. The semifinals will be played on that third weekend in December and then the title game will be played between Dec. 29 and the BCS title game, depending on ESPN’s schedule, Leech said.

This is huge for the FCS, but I’m not sure how much it’s going to help individual teams. Sure, there will be more exposure ONE day a year, but that will not change the image of the subdivision when the national championship game is still played in front of relatively tame crowds in Tennessee.

It appears that the powers that be in Chattanooga aren’t too happy about the move.

For the Greater Chattanooga Sports and Events Committee, which coordinates the event, the primary issue with expansion was keeping the game and game-week activities from taking place right around Christmas, which would create staffing problems and likely affect ticket sales.

“The thing that we absolutely wanted to avoid (playing around Christmas), we avoided,” Sports Committee president Merrill Eckstein said. “One of the advantages would be a ‘National Championship Week,’ if ESPN promoted it that way. It could end up giving us a heck of a national TV audience and we could do well at the gate as well.

If it doesn’t work out in Chattanooga, I say move the game somewhere else. Obviously it’s going to have to be in the South or a dome – Georgia Dome, perhaps? That might be a bit excessive considering the record national championship attendance in Chatty hasn’t been more than 30,000… just a thought though.

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Rivals has Anthony Gurley as one of its top 10 transfers.

This athletic wing was the only Wake Forest player to transfer following the death of former Wake coach Skip Prosser in July 2007. Gurley chose to move close to his home in Boston. The former four-star recruit had scholarship offers from a number of ACC schools coming out of high school. He’ll add some scoring punch – he averaged 6.4 ppg in 14.5 mpg in his lone year at Wake – and new Minutemen coach Derek Kellogg already has said he expects him to be one of the top defenders in the nation.

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The Boston Herald had an article on the UMass hockey team.

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Gary Parrish wants UMass to lose in the 2K Sports Classic.

There is no guarantee the Blue Devils and Bruins will meet in the championship of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer, but it’s clearly the game that would be the most interesting. Nothing against UMass, Michigan or Southern Illinois, but I’m sure the folks at the Gazelle Group will appreciate it if those schools all play well but fail to advance to the title game. It’s Duke-UCLA or bust!

You’re killing me Smalls

Sean Smalls is done for the season.

As reported my several media outlets yesterday, the Minutemen’s senior captain will see his college career end early with a cracked hip bone. Smalls reportedly hurt it on a punt return during the Bryant game.

From the Republican:

“That was disappointing, and disappointing for him as well,” UMass coach Don Brown said. “It doesn’t look good. Obviously it’s a crack in the hip bone so it doesn’t matter how big it is, it’s significant.”

The worst part: He got injured by a damn punter.

“On the punt return I was basically jogging in and the punter clipped my ankles and I just came down on [my hip] wrong,” Smalls said.

Oh, and not just any punter: this punter.

Damn you Brian Donnelly.

Honestly though, why the hell has Smalls been returning punts anyway? Smalls is only averaging about four yards a return and has a long of 14. Why couldn’t UMass have left this up to one of the offensive skills player – like say Victor Cruz.

Now we get to see some of the depth for the Maroon and White’s secondary.

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On other football news: Georgia State has purchased land for its practice facility. GSU is joining the Colonial Athletic Conference in 2010.

The foundation bought the land and a building on the site for about $6.6 million, officials said in a news release.

The athletic association plans to construct an artificial turf football field, a 50-yard grass football field and a coach’s office and locker room complex. An existing structure on the site will be incorporated into Georgia State’s plans, officials said.

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Marnie Dacko spoke at the Atlantic 10 media day, and I guess she has been working with men’s assistant Vance Walberg. It appears she might use his dribble-drive offense next season.

I’ve got to take advantage of his expertise, so I’ve been sitting in all of the men’s practices and learning from Vance. He’s made me a believer in the dribble-drive offense, so we’ll see what happens this year.

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La Salle coach John Giannini is comparing Mississippi transfer Vernon Goodridge to Stephane Lasme.

“He would rank with the best players that I’ve seen in the Atlantic 10. He reminds me of Stephane Lasme [Massachusetts] who was a great player or Pops Mensah-Bonsu [George Washington].”

Preseason players

The Atlantic 10 made its preseason picks, and UMass’ guards are getting the respect they deserve.

Chris Lowe is listed on the preseason First Team All-Atlantic 10 and Defensive teams. Ricky Harris was a Second Team All-Atlantic 10 pick.

The Minutemen are picked to finish sixth in the conference.

The scariest thing about this list is the All-Rookie team, which is essentially Xavier’s recruiting class. As if the Musketeers haven’t been good enough during the past five years, it appears our friends from Ohio are going to remain atop the A-10 for years to come.

The X-men are also picked to finish first in the A-10 this coming season.

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Speaking of UMass hoops, Jack Leaman is having his number retired at Boston University on Nov. 14.

Previously, only six men’s basketball jerseys – No. 4 (Kevin Thomas ‘56), No. 11 (Drederick Irving ‘88), No. 12 (Tunji Awojobi ‘97), No. 33 (Steve Wright ‘80), No. 44 (Arturo Brown ‘83) and No. 54 (Jim Hayes ‘70) – have been retired and placed up in the rafters of Case Gymnasium.

“I know that Jack would be so humbled to think that his college alma mater would feel that he was deserving of such a great honor,” said Rita Leaman. “I will be forever grateful to Boston University for this tribute to Jack.”

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According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the FCS National Championship game could be moved to the night before the BCS Championship.

That would be amazing exposure for the division. CAA Commish Tom Yeager thinks so, too.

“We think it’s going to present a fairly unique opportunity for us,” Yeager said. Athletic directors at schools that play CAA football and their coaches enthusiastically support the proposal, he added.

“This way, it’s going to replicate kind of a bowl experience,” Yeager said. The missing piece so far is a venue. Yeager said the NCAA would study warm-weather and indoor possibilities.

The Times-Dispatch is also reporting that VCU might add football in the future.

“I think it will be difficult for us not to have a serious discussion about it because of [the size of the university],” he said. “We’re not the VCU of 15 years ago, where you have a lot of commuters and a lot of people who are transient. This is a destination school.”