AMHERST — UMass coach Derek Kellogg said he’s still optimistic. With four games left beginning with Thursday’s 7 p.m. game at George Washington, Kellogg thinks his struggling team can turn a corner heading into next month’s Atlantic 10 Tournament.
“We’re trying to fix a few things. Nothing is majorly broken. There’s a few things that could turn the fortunes of a few of these games. Turnovers and giving up offensive rebounds has really hurt us,” Kellogg said. “It could be just a player clicking into that next level. We have four games left. We have a big one Thursday against GW and we have the conference championship. If we can click or improve we can put some fear in some teams.”
George Washington is in the midst of an unusual year. Coach Mike Lonergan was dismissed in September after a Washington Post article alleged Lonergan had subjected his players to “verbal and emotional abuse.” He was replaced by Maurice Joseph, who is spending the season as the program’s interim head coach before the school conducts a full search in the offseason.
Joseph, 31, is the brother of former Celtics draft pick Kris Joseph (2012) and the cousin of Toronto Raptor Cory Joseph. Maurice played high school basketball in Montreal with Olivier Lamoureux, who played one season at UMass under Steve Lappas.
The Colonials (14-13, 6-8 A-10) have struggled to shoot from inside the arc as their 40.8 percent overall shooting is 13th in the A-10, but they’ve excelled outside, shooting 36.7 percent from 3-point range which is among the best in the conference.
GW is the second best rebounding team in the A-10, grabbing an average of 5.4 more rebounds than their opponents. It is particularly strong on the offensive glass. It’s the No. 2 offensive rebounding team in the A-10 at 37.8 per game as it retrieves 32.8 percent of its own misses. UMass is the league’s worst defensive rebounding team at 38.0 per game (72.2 percent).
Neither team is terrific at taking care of the ball as 19.8 percent of Minuteman possessions and 19.7 percent of Colonial possessions end in turnovers.
If GW was contending for the Atlantic 10 title, Tyler Cavanaugh would be a conference player of the year candidate. His 17.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game are certain to put the 6-foot-9 senior forward on an all-conference team.
Junior guard Yuta Watanabe is averaging 11.7 points and 4.9 rebounds. The 6-foot-9, 196-pound Japan native’s skillset is comparable to former Minuteman Raphiael Putney, as he’ll play inside and outside.
“They’ve done a good job of finding a role for him,” Kellogg said. “He’s covered a lot of point guards and used his length and size to make it hard on them. He creates a unique matchup problem at both ends of the floor.”
STANDINGS — Avoiding the bottom four of the final Atlantic 10 regular season standings is unlikely for UMass (13-14, 3-11 Atlantic 10) at this point. It would become almost impossible without a win Wednesday as the Colonials, who are tied for ninth at 6-8 in league play, are the team above the bottom four that they’d have the best chance of catching.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage