KINGSTON, R.I. — When UMass has been at its best on offense this season, Tre Mitchell has been the nucleus.
The Minutemen have relied on their freshman center to spark the offense whether it’s from attacking the rim or passing out of double and triple teams when the defense collapses. So it made sense that UMass went to Mitchell often in the second half Tuesday as it tried to claw its way back against Rhode Island in a 73-67 loss. The Rams could not contain Mitchell, though, as he exploded for 30 points by twisting his way around the basket for shots.
UMass kept running the same play, but couldn’t get to the end of it before Mitchell scored a basket or found the open shooter.
“One of our best offenses when teams decide to double him is go inside and allow them to double and then it opens up things for Carl (Pierre) and other guys on the perimeter,” coach Matt McCall said. “We were running a simple action that we never had to get to the ending of the play, I think we got to the ending of the play twice.”
Mitchell had his best game on the interior for the Minutemen, but it had little to do with the 30 points he scored. He found new ways to split double teams for shot attempts around the rim, made crisp passes to teammates when he couldn’t get to the rim, and most importantly didn’t have a turnover for the second time this season.
He credited his improvement to the film study with assistant coach Tony Bergeron, who has helped him learn how to better deal with the defenses opponents are throwing at him. He said he feels he’s now much better at recognizing the traps and other techniques teams use to slow him and finding his best countermove for those situations.
“I’ve seen it so much at this point that whenever there’s one person on me, it’s a field day,” Mitchell said. “When there’s two people, I’ve just done a good job at just being able to read it. I’ve been in the film room with Coach Bergeron a lot and he’s just helped me figure out how to get around double teams and stuff like that.”
At one point, Mitchell scored 13 straight points for the Minutemen over a nearly 10-minute stretch. Pierre wasn’t concerned by that fact, saying that if the freshman keeps scoring, UMass should just keep feeding him in the post.
“The guy had 30 tonight, so if he’s going to score every basket in a four or five-minute stretch, whatever it might have been, we’re going to keep dumping it down to him,” Pierre said.
GOING BIG — McCall was forced due to foul trouble to play Djery Baptiste and Mitchell on the floor at the same time for extended minutes in the first half.
Although there were some limitations with the lineup, the Minutemen had some success with the two centers playing side-by-side. Baptiste scored back-to-back dunks sandwiched around him disrupting a pass on defense and looked comfortable in a lineup that hasn’t seen much time together in games or in practice. The graduate student finished with four points and three rebounds.
“The big lineup because they’re so big and they’re so physical was good for us,” McCall said. “Djery gave us a good boost in the first half, I was happy with how he went out there and played with us. It’s something that hopefully will be a weapon for us going forward as well.”
TONY IN TROUBLE — Bergeron was in the middle of several of the more intense moments of Tuesday’s game. He was the reason the Minutemen’s bench was assessed a technical in the second half after arguing for a foul while Mitchell was battling in the post. He was also in the middle of the postgame scuffle, according to the television feed from CBS Sports Network.
Bergeron appeared to talk with Rhode Island’s Jacob Toppin, who played for Bergeron at Woodstock Academy, and Rams coach David Cox intervened and started having a conversation with Bergeron that grew a bit heated toward the end. As players, police officers and team officials tried to separate the coaches, the scrum became more intense as both teams started screaming at each other.