OLEAN, N.Y. — Derek Kellogg is sticking with the red team and sticking with the zone.
UMass plays its final regular season game Saturday at 4 p.m. against St. Bonaventure before next week’s Atlantic 10 Tournament.
Kellogg said the week-old adjustments are permanent. The second team of Zach Lewis, C.J. Anderson, Ty Flowers, Brison Greshan and Malik Hines will make their third straight start and they’ll do so in a 3-2 zone.
“I didn’t think the start bothered us,” he said. “We’ll stick with the same group and maybe do some different subbing as the game goes.”
Kellogg thought Wednesday’s loss to Richmond helped put the focus of practice on the 3-2 zone.
“It gave us a little better vision of some things we hadn’t seen against La Salle, but (Richmond’s T.J.) Cline is a special player that not many teams have,” he said. “We have some rotations to work on and we’re trying to get better at it.”
Neither team can improve their postseason situation, but both either are, or could be playing to protect their respective place in the standings.
UMass (14-16, 4-13 Atlantic 10) is 12th, a game ahead of Saint Joseph’s and Duquesne, which are both 3-14 and play each other Saturday at 2 p.m. If the Hawks win, the Minutemen would clinch the No. 12 seed and a third game against St. Joe’s, Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the tournament.
If Duquesne wins, UMass will play the Dukes, the tournament’s de facto home team, Wednesday at 6 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena. In that scenario, a Minuteman win vs. SBU would give UMass the No. 12 and the home white uniforms, while a loss would make them the No. 13 playing in maroon.
St. Bonaventure (18-11, 10-7) is fifth in the A-10. It can’t finish higher than that, but it’s trying to hold off George Mason and George Washington, which are both 9-8.
“We want to go and play well and try to win a basketball game and try to get better to see if we can make a run in the A-10 Tournament,” Kellogg said. “If we put a 40-minute game together I think we can beat anybody.”
The Bonnies bookend UMass’ conference schedule. St. Bonaventure pulled away in the second half to beat the Minutemen, 89-77, in both teams’ Atlantic 10 opener on Dec. 30 at the Mullins Center.
The Bonnies are the Atlantic 10’s highest scoring team at 78.0 points per game. Their free-throw shooting is an underrated part of that. They’re second in the Atlantic 10 at 76.0 percent from the line, and they get to the line more than anyone else. Their 724 trips and 550 makes are well ahead of anyone else in the conference.
Jaylen Adams is second in the league at 20.9 points per game and leads the conference at 6.5 assists per game. Matt Mobley isn’t far behind on the scoring chart. His 19.3 points per game puts him fourth in the A-10.
“With 40 points per game between Mobley and Jalen Adams, they have the most potent backcourt in our league,” Kellogg said. “They’ve got a really good vision of what they’re trying to do.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage