AMHERST — At a certain point, Matt McCall was done explaining the actual plays on the court.
There were dozens of mistakes UMass made on both ends of the Mullins Center court, Wednesday against Fordham. The Minutemen let the Rams do whatever they wanted to on offense in the first half, allowing them to drive the lane with ease and also leaving them open on the perimeter. They couldn’t execute simple lob passes into the post when Fordham simply put its defender in front of the UMass post player.
But those mistakes were just symptoms of a larger problem for UMass in its 85-67 shellacking at the hands of Fordham. What really troubled the Minutemen was what was going on inside their own heads for the 40 minutes of game time.
“We can talk about a million different things we didn’t do,” McCall said. “We didn’t play hard, we didn’t compete, we don’t take pride in being at UMass.”
UMass did not make players available to the media postgame.
The lack of effort was evident in UMass’ worst first-half defensive performance since Nov. 23 against Nevada. Fordham made 63.3 percent of its shots and scored 47 points against a lackluster defense and didn’t have to break much of a sweat to do so.
The Rams connected on four alley-oops in which the guard cut behind the entire defense to finish the layup at the other end of the lob. They also capitalized on the Minutemen’s lack of attention by burying wide open 3-pointers, many of which came with no UMass player within three feet of the shooter.
It didn’t get much better in the second half as Fordham finished the game shooting 60.7 percent from the field and made 11 of 20 3-point attempts.
“That was as disappointing, as ugly and as uninspired of a performance that I’ve ever been on the bench since I’ve been doing this,” McCall said. “As a manager, as a grad student, as an ops guy, an assistant coach or as a head coach, I’ve never been a part of that disappointing of a performance. We played like the worst team in the Atlantic 10, and that’s what we are right now.”
On the other end of the floor, UMass (8-15, 1-9 Atlantic 10) was lifeless on offense for most of the first half. Half of the Minutemen’s points in the opening 20 minutes came at the free-throw line and roughly a third of their possessions ended in turnovers. UMass committed 11 of its 15 turnovers in the first half, and those early miscues led to 16 points for the Rams (10-12, 1-8 A-10).
“I said to them at practice (Tuesday), ‘When the basketball is in your hands, the program is in your hands,’” McCall said. “Some guys might not care, I don’t have enough care for the program. Well, OK, your future is in your hands, and you can’t just hand the ball to the other team or you’re messing with your future. We don’t value the ball enough and it’s costing us games.”
The starting guards — Carl Pierre, Keon Clergeot and Curtis Cobb — combined for three assists and seven turnovers, a sign of how much UMass missed Luwane Pipkins, who didn’t play due to a hamstring injury he suffered Saturday against Saint Joseph’s. Yet Pipkins’ absence wasn’t a valid reason for some of the mistakes the guards made with the ball in their hands.
McCall said Pipkins has earned a lot of trust based on his performance last season and how well he has managed the floor even when he isn’t producing at the same clip this year. The coach said there were several players eager to prove they could have the same impact for the Minutemen, but none of them were able to capitalize on their chance in the spotlight.
“You have your opportunity now with him being out, but what are you doing with it,” McCall said. “Did we miss Luwane? Of course. But I’m more disappointed with other guys that have been waiting on their opportunities, and when you do get that opportunity, what are you doing with it and did you make the most of it?”
Pierre led the Minutemen with 19 points. Unique McLean had 10 points off the bench.
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.