AMHERST — With 3 minutes, 52 seconds left in Wednesday’s game, Dibaji Walker picked up his fifth foul.
The sophomore left the court to earn a hug from coach Matt McCall and a standing ovation from the Mullins Center crowd after scoring a career-high 22 points in UMass’ 91-76 win over Saint Joseph’s.
It’s been a bumpy road for Walker during his collegiate career, starting less than a year ago when his coach at Cleveland State was fired and most of the team left. While many of those transfers got quick decisions from the NCAA about their eligibility, Walker had to wait until Dec. 29 to earn clearance to play for the Minutemen this season.
Then he played in eight games and wasn’t living up to the expectations he set for himself. He scored just 32 points in those appearances and found himself stuck on the bench at times because of his poor performance. So leaving the court to that applause meant a lot to Walker on Wednesday.
“It felt really good, I’ve been waiting for a long time,” Walker said. “It’s been brewing, so it’s about time, it’s been due.”
The first few games were tough for Walker because he wasn’t able to use the jab step that was critical to his play. He said he would go through it too fast and get called for traveling, which didn’t allow him to find a rhythm. He also seemed to be settling on the perimeter a lot, taking more than twice as many 3-pointers as any other shot in the first eight games.
Against the Hawks, however, Walker found a home with his mid-range jump shot. He took just three 3-pointers in the win and made 8 of 10 from inside the arc as part of his 22-point performance. He drifted into the soft spot of Saint Joseph’s zone and feasted on the shots that came to him. It was basketball at its most basic element of finding open space and exploiting it.
“He’s so talented offensively,” McCall said. “As a coach, you always want to put in a new play or how could we move the floor or whatever it is. It’s just keeping it simple with him and get him the ball in spots where he can be successful.”
MINUTEMEN MOXIE — No coach is rooting for an actual brawl to transpire on the court, but McCall was pleased with how his team didn’t back down at two intense moments.
The first came when sophomore Samba Diallo and Saint Joseph’s Ryan Daly started shoving each other after the Hawks had taken a timeout and Diallo swatted the ball out of Daly’s hands. Carl Pierre was quick to the scene to defend Diallo and had some words of his own with Daly.
The second was when Tre Mitchell was called for a foul while going up for a rebound and got tangled up with Anthony Longpre. The pair were eventually separated by officials and assessed technicals for the skirmish, but even in that moment, there were two or three UMass teammates there in support of Mitchell.
“How about just having some fight, too,” McCall said. “You never want a fight to break out, but we showed some toughness there, ‘Hey, we’re not backing down.’ You never want it to escalate any more than that, … but it’s great (to show that toughness and support).”
THE DALY FIX — Walker had just one word to answer how UMass slowed down Daly in the second half – Samba.
Diallo was the main player tasked with stopping Saint Joseph’s leading scorer, and when Diallo was on the court, the sophomore severely limited Daly. However, it was a team effort for the Minutemen to slow down Daly after he scored 14 points in the first half.
In the second half, Daly was held to just eight points, three of which came on a shot from inside the Power U near midcourt as the shot clock was set to expire. He didn’t score as much because he was often forced to pass the ball out of the tight defense UMass applied, even when the Hawks were able to free Daly from Diallo with a screen.
“I ain’t going to lie, I’m going to give him his props,” Walker said. “We did as a team, though, because sometimes he did get smacked by screens and there was a point where I was on him. If he gets hit by a screen and he dies on the screen, someone has to step up, so we all did our part.”