FAIRFAX, Va.
There was always going to be some adversity. Every team at every school every year faces something.
UMass is there right now. Two straight losses to open the Atlantic 10 is enough to have anybody uneasy, especially with the three toughest games on the schedule following in succession. This was always going to be a tough stretch.
The Minutemen’s record in this five-game portion of its schedule won’t define how good they are or what their future potential is. How they handle it, how they learn from it and how they emerge from it will say a lot.
“This is very important. It’s going to shape whether this team is going to fall or step up to the plate,” said junior guard C.J. Anderson. “Being a leader, I was just talking to them. We can’t hang our heads. I understand this one hurt, cause it hurt me, but this team has to get better. We have to be ready to come. We have a group of guys who aren’t ready to let down. We don’t have anybody who is a quitter.”
The tough component for the Minutemen is that they haven’t been there before. This group of new players and former players in evolving roles has never battled through a rough patch and then resumed succeeding, at least not together. That’s not to say they can’t, but they have to figure out how. It’s not always easy with a young team to prevent well-intentioned yet ill-advised attempts by players trying to do too much.
On most nights the Minutemen are going to get at least 15 points from Donte Clark, and Rashaan Holloway is in the midst of the longest stretch of dedicated focus in his career. UMass needs more from other people.
Its best chance of getting better is growth among the freshmen. Coach Derek Kellogg has committed to using his newcomers more and more. Unless something changes, it seems like juniors Seth Berger and Zach Coleman will continue to see only limited minutes. How they handle that could affect chemistry. Depending on how long injured center Malik Hines stays out and how rusty he is upon return, it’ll be interesting to see where his minutes are when he returns.
DeJon Jarreau has yet to fully return to playing the way he did before his foot injury. He’s had stretches where he looked like the player who stood out at Ole Miss and against Temple, but he hasn’t been able to stay at that gear consistently yet. He’s been more hesitant to drive to the basket than he had been. When he drives effectively, things open up all over the floor.
Kellogg has challenged Jarreau to do more.
“Most college basketball teams will go the way the guy who primarily has the ball in his hand is going,” Kellogg said. “I think he’s got another couple gears in there. When he gets to that spot consistently that he’s going to get to, we have a chance to win some more games.”
Luwane Pipkins’ desire to make a big play sometimes overrides making the smart play. Having enough confidence to make a play in a crucial spot is harder to instill than the wisdom of which play to make. He has already taken fewer bad shots than he did at the beginning of the year.
Kellogg made a big commitment to Ty Flowers and Brison Gresham against George Mason Wednesday. Flowers is improving defensively, as his shot-blocking helped key some UMass surges.
In a limited sample size after getting eligible late, Gresham has rebounded well and blocked shots despite looking like he’s still learning on the fly and at times thinking too much. It’ll be interesting to see how much more he’s capable of.
Kellogg said he knew problems like this were possible at this point in the schedule and was confident his team would get through it.
“I knew there’d be some ups and downs. I hope we find a couple ups now that we’re down a little bit,” he said. “I think we have fighters and guys with good character. I think we’re going to bounce back and play hard against VCU” Saturday.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage