NEW YORK – The bench has rescued UMass in three of its past four men’s basketball games and nearly did the same in the fourth.
Opponents have opened at least two-possession leads in the Minutemen’s last five games. They’ve trailed by double digits twice: at Harvard (where they rallied) and at home against UMass Lowell (where the comeback fell just short).
UMass’ second unit pared down an eight-point deficit against Hofstra at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sunday before powering a dominant second half.
“Always stay aggressive, keep the high energy and keep the toughness going off the bench. I feel like it’s not about how we have to fix things when we come off the bench,” UMass forward Dyondre Dominguez said. “We have to do the right thing from the jump and end it with the right things to do.”
UMass’ bench has outscored its starters in its past three games and in six of its 10 contests. Its leading scorer hasn’t started the game four times.
“I was really, really proud of the guys that played in the second half (against Hofstra). Those three freshmen, they gave us an enthusiasm for competitiveness,” UMass coach Frank Martin said. “That’s the biggest thing that we’re searching for right now is to get everybody engaged again. Give those guys credit in the second half, I know I’d rather get on this bus and take this three and a half hour bus ride knowing that we actually played with a purpose in the second half, then it’ll help me erase that first half.”
Hofstra scored 0.811 points per possession in the first half and shot 37.5 percent from the field, not great but better than the Pride’s 34.4 percent clip for the game.
UMass (8-2) turned the ball over 12 times and allowed three dunks.
“We got lucky, I thought. I mean, we could have been down 12-14 early in the game. We didn’t defend a soul. They just missed threes. We didn’t force them into difficult shots. I mean, it was really bad,” Martin said. “But the second half I felt we did a better job of guarding the ball. I thought our rotations were better. We played better on offense. We actually scored at the rim. There was movement, there was cutting, there was a purpose. When you play with no purpose on offense you give up a lot of layups on the other end. When you play with a purpose on offense with an aggression and you rebound it on the offensive end and and score it the rim, then teams don’t get out and run on you any more.”
Bench players occupied 57 percent of the second half minutes. Only Matt Cross (13 min and the game’s MVP) and Wildens Leveque (14 minutes) cracked double digits among the starting group. Cross was the only starter that scored after halftime, and bench players poured in 75 percent of UMass’ points.
TALKIN’ ABOUT PRACTICE – Martin was pleased with the way the Minutemen practiced Saturday before Sunday’s win. It’s been a point of concern for him since the Minutemen returned from the Myrtle Beach Invitational with a trophy in hand.
“They were really good. They were really competitive. It’s probably why I’m not surprised we had guys play that way (against the Pride), because it’s the best atmosphere we’ve had in practice in a couple weeks,” Martin said. “You either do things because you have an enthusiasm to be good at them, or you do things because someone’s telling you to do things. Right now we’ve got some guys that are doing things because I’m telling them to do things. That’s not good for them, because they get tired of me repeating it over and over. We obviously had enough guys that were competitive (Saturday) on their own to represent the team that we’re trying to become, and they played with it (Sunday). And that gives me a step to build on.”
NO CHARITY STRIPE – UMass shot just 6-of-14 from the free throw line and hit just two of its first eight against Hofstra.
The Minutemen have struggled from the line for most of the year, hitting just 66.5 percent. That’s in the nation’s bottom 50. They’ve only made more than 70 percent three times.
“This team’s a good free throw shooting team, the fact that we do what we did to start the game tells you that we’ve got some guys who mentally are not engaged with what we’re doing right now,” Martin said.
PERFECT RECORD – Martin noted after his news conference concluded that he’s never lost in the Barclays Center.
His South Carolina team beat Syracuse there in 2016, the year the Gamecocks went to the Final Four.
“Don’t tell my boss but if the (Brooklyn) Nets would like, you know, I’m undefeated,” he joked on his way out of the room.
The sentiment must have triggered a flashback for UMass fans, which watched John Calipari leave Amherst for the then-New Jersey Nets in 1996.
Martin and the Minutemen will be back at Barclays in March for the Atlantic 10 tournament, where it stands to reason both parties hope he’ll keep that record intact.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.