AMHERST — As Matt McCall takes the coming months to review and tweak his program, the coach witnessed the perfect example of what he wants UMass to become in the near future.
Dayton came into the Mullins Center on Tuesday and served up a lesson in team basketball. McCall considers Dayton coach Anthony Grant a mentor after the two overlapped briefly under Billy Donovan at Florida. Although the two took over very different situations when they entered the Atlantic 10 together last season, their coaching experience has also shown through in terms of how quickly they have been able to instill their culture.
McCall said it is a credit to Grant that the Flyers were able to put on such a performance in Tuesday’s 72-48 dismantling of the Minutemen.
“Those guys play the game the right way for each other and it’s a reflection of him,” McCall said. “You talk to people around the business about Anthony Grant, high character, such a presence, cares about people, in this business he’s one of the best. Integrity, do it the right way, you never hear his name in any kind of NCAA things ever.”
As well as Dayton’s individual stats looked in the box score, McCall said the Flyers should be applauded for their selflessness. He said while UMass’ players have been consumed about their individual performance many times this season, there was never that sense from Dayton during the game. There was a desire to simply make the right play and then celebrate whoever ended up scoring at the end of the sequence.
The Flyers never seemed to waver from their identity either, sticking to their principles no matter the combination of five players Grant put on the court.
“To me, the most impressive thing about Dayton is those guys are completely connected and they’re so bought into how they want to play, their style of play, their coaching staff,” McCall said. “They’re a team. They’re a team and they play like a team.”
McCall could not say the same thing about his own team after Tuesday’s performance. The second-year coach revealed that an unnamed player was late to the team’s shootaround before the game and he was critical of his team’s reaction to the past two games.
He said Randall West, who led the Minutemen with six rebounds despite playing just nine minutes, was as genuinely upset after the loss to Dayton as he was happy after the win over Saint Joseph’s on Saturday. West played just two minutes against the Hawks and didn’t record any statistics, but McCall said he was genuinely excited about the comeback win.
That type of reaction was lacking from some of the other Minutemen, and McCall was honest about saying that is an area that is holding back UMass at the moment.
“I didn’t get a sense when I was in the locker room the other day after we beat Saint Joe’s that every single guy in that locker room was really, really happy that we won,” McCall said. “That’s a team. You hurt together when you lose, you’re upset when you lose and then when we win, regardless of if I played 30 minutes, 15 minutes, five minutes or one minute, I’m genuinely happy to see my teammates have success and to see us have success. We’re not there yet and that’s why we can’t win and win consistently.”
INJURY BUG — UMass was without five players against Dayton, shortening McCall’s bench to 10 players, eight of whom are on basketball scholarships. Curtis Cobb (foot) and Khalea Turner-Morris (knee) missed the loss with longer-term injuries, and Luwane Pipkins was sidelined by the hamstring injury that forced him to sit out four of the previous five games.
The surprise came in the other two players who wore black sweatsuits at the end of the UMass bench. Freshman Samba Diallo had inflammation in the same knee that forced him to miss two games earlier this year. Meanwhile, fifth-year senior Rashaan Holloway picked up an eye infection that relegated him to being a spectator.