AMHERST – The comforts of home and a present await the UMass men’s basketball team after the Minutemen went 1-2 at the Jersey Mike’s Classic last week in St. Petersburg, Fla.
UMass (3-3) is 2-0 at the Mullins Center and will host UMass-Lowell at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Minutemen have won five games in a row against the River Hawks, never losing when both teams have met as Division I opponents.
But this isn’t your older brother’s UMass-Lowell team. The River Hawks are 4-1 and have taken out two Atlantic 10 opponents on the road — Dayton on Nov. 13 and George Washington on Friday.
“This is going to be a challenge for us, no question about it,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “They’re coming here fully confident.”
UMass, conversely, lost two of its three games at the Jersey Mike’s Classic in St. Petersburg, Fla., last week. The Minutemen allowed at least 88 points in every game. McCall and his staff watched every defensive possession and made field goal by the opposition with the team.
“Our lack of aggressiveness, always being back on our heels, never attacking, just constantly being backed up, backed up, backed up,” McCall said. “We have a chance to be a really good team. Our offensive numbers are through the roof right now. Just think if we can figure out the defensive side of the ball. We can win a lot of basketball games.”
The Minutemen are allowing 79 points per game, tied for 311th out of 350 Division I programs. Their minus-six rebound margin per contest is tied with Morgan State and UC Davis for No. 322.
But help has arrived. Montana transfer Michael Steadman has fully recovered from an ankle injury and will make his UMass debut Wednesday. The 6-foot-10 senior forward averaged 9.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for the Grizzlies.
“(He adds) physicality up front, he adds a scoring presence up front,” McCall said. “Defensively, he’s able to guard pick and rolls, he’s a longer, bigger guy, obviously can block shots. Gives us depth up there, but he can anchor our defense.”
The Minutemen have relied on Trent Buttrick and Greg Jones as bigs while playing Dyondre Dominguez and Dibaji Walker in smaller lineups.
“I know I can help a lot on the defense and rebounding. Seeing them struggle in those areas at some points in different games was like ‘damn I need to be out there,’” Steadman said. “I didn’t want to rush a recovery and be out another month or two.”
The Minutemen will need all of the edge they can get against UMass Lowell. The River Hawks allow just 60.4 points per game and hold their opponents under 40 percent shooting.
“Teams do not score (against them). If you watch the Dayton game, you can see Dayton get frustrated on offense,” McCall said. “They fight through screens. There’s no driving angles. It’s an extra pass game. We can’t over penetrate, we can’t over dribble. We’ve got to be ready to accept the physical confrontation.”
UMass-Lowell doesn’t rely on one go-to scorer. Max Brooks leads the River Hawks averaging 11 points per game, but they have three double-digit scorers (Everette Hamond and Justin Faison) and six players that score at least seven points per game.
“When you play a team that has one good player, it’s kind of easy because you just load up on him,” UMass guard Rich Kelly said. “When you play a team that has a lot of solid players, it’s harder to guard because anyone can beat you. It just takes more attention and focus from all five guys on the court.”
UMass has alternated wins and losses in each of the season’s first six games.
“It’s a long year, but we’ve got to become unconditional winners,” McCall said. “Regardless of the condition, I play well, I don’t play well, I play, I don’t play at all, we’ve got to be happy with the result of the game. You’ve got to continue to point it out, continue to confront it. It’s been the same message, ‘we’ over ‘me.’”