Late in the first half of UMass’ win over Pacific Thursday, Minuteman freshman guard Luwane Pipkins tried to pass the ball to Rashaan Holloway in the high post.
The sophomore big man fumbled, and Tiger guard Maleke Haynes poked it free in traffic and threw an outlet pass up the floor.
Pipkins raced back down the floor like the loss of possession was a personal affront that needed correcting.
Six seconds later, Pipkins had the ball again. He poked it free from Ray Bowles and returned UMass to offense, drawing an appreciative cheer from the Mullins Center crowd.
It was Pipkins’ second of three steals in the game and his 31st of the season. His average of 3.9 steals per game is No. 1 in Division I.
“Leading the nation in steals, you can’t be mad about that,” he said smiling. “I just go out there and play. I just try to play the same defense on everybody. I just come out and play as aggressive as I can until the referee calls that first foul on me. If coach tells me to stay aggressive, I’m going to keep going.
His eight steals against UMass-Lowell tied UMass’ single-game record. It could be the first of many steals records he attains. The Minutemen are guaranteed at least 23 more games and could have more this season.
If he maintained his current pace, he’d finish those 23 games with 120 steals which would shatter Edgar Padilla’s single-season record of 108 in 37 games in 1995-96. Padilla’s career record is 249.
Pipkins’ career is exactly eight games old, so any talk of chasing history and career records is enormously premature. But Saturday at noon he’ll play at the Dunkin Donuts Center, the building that both John Linehan and Eric Murdock called home.
The two ex-Friars are No. 1 and No. 2 all-time in NCAA career assists. In the first game of the season, when he snatched eight from UMass-Lowell, River Hawk coach Pat Duquette compared Pipkins to Linehan, who had 385 career thefts in 122 career games for the Friars from 1997-2002. Linehan had just 50 as freshman.
It’s not Linehan or Murdock or even recent VCU star Brianté Weber, who is third all-time in career steals, that Pipkins is modeling his play after.
When he was a freshman at Chicago’s Bogan High School, his teammate Ronnell Buckner, a 5-foot-7 pest of a guard, rattled opponents by constantly harassing whomever had the ball.
“I just watched him. He just taught me the game,” Pipkins said. “I just took that from him and ran with it. In practice he was doing me the way I’m doing people now. I took that from him.”
He reminds UMass coach Derek Kellogg of Antonio Burks, who played at Memphis when Kellogg was an assistant coach there.
“It was miserable for the other team’s point guard whenever he was on the floor,” Kellogg said. “As Antonio got older, he fouled less and learned how to pick his spots. Luwane is in that process now.”
Kellogg said he and his staff expected Pipkins to be a catalyst defensively, but he’s been better than anticipated.
“We recruited a guy we knew was really tough and had some Chicago toughness about him,” Kellogg said. “The coaches are trying to harness his ability to attack gutsy without fouling as much.”
Pipkins and the Minutemen will head to Providence in a battle of team’s who have outshined their preseason predictions so far.
The Friars were picked ninth out of 10 in the Big East after losing Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil, who were both selected in the NBA draft.
But Providence has been much better than that so far. At 7-2, the Friars’ only losses are to Ohio State on the road and then No. 7 Virginia at the Emerald Coast Classic.
They have wins over Vermont, Grambling, Memphis, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Brown. Providence is 6-0 at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
Junior forward Rodney Bullock has been outstanding averaging 20.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game so far.
Indiana transfer Emmitt Holt has played well right away averaging 13.5 points per game.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage