Did the UMass men’s basketball team learn its lesson about overlooking opponents with bad records? Wednesday’s 7 p.m. game at Duquesne should reveal the answer.
After beating Dayton in mid-January, the Minutemen seemed to get ahead of themselves and struggled in losses to Saint Louis and Fordham, two games that have dug UMass a hole in the Atlantic 10 standings. After beating Saint Joseph’s Saturday, the Minutemen (13-12, 3-9 A-10) head to Pittsburgh for a game against last-place Duquesne (9-16, 2-10).
Among the biggest differences in UMass’ play Saturday was freshman DeJon Jarreau, who was far more under control than he’d been in recent games. His teammates seemed to feed off his poise.
“I feel good again and more confident again. That came from practice,” Jarreau said. “I just had to calm down and start just playing the game again. I just wanted to try to get us back to where we needed to be and try to keep everybody’s head in it. I’m eager to play the way I know how to play and run my team.”
Jarreau thought the Minutemen had room to keep building heading into postseason, which starts in three weeks in Pittsburgh.
“We have six more games and practice too. We have more than enough time to build on that,” he said. “Nobody got down. We just said we have to work harder and get better as a team.”
UMass coach Derek Kellogg said he’s seen the improvement coming.
“He looks like he’s getting more comfortable with the position,” he said. “He’s a really good kid, who is working hard. He’s got a great attitude. If he can put it all together we become a much better team. He showed some leadership and poise out there. Every day is a learning process for him, but he’s improving, which is big for our team.”
The Dukes have battled through their own growing pains as they look like an almost completely new team from last year. Their top four scorers are gone and the two most productive returning players — Darius Lewis and Eric James — are playing drastically fewer minutes.
Freshman guard Mike Lewis II leads Duquesne with 13.1 points per game, while graduate transfer guard Emile Blackman is next with 12.2 points per game.
Four of Duquesne’s top six players in minutes played are freshmen or sophomores, and Blackman wasn’t on the team a year ago. They’ve struggled to come together. Defensively the Dukes allow 75.4 points per game, which is 13th in the conference, and their 44.1 percent field goal shooting allowed is 11th. Offensively they’ve registered more turnovers (364) than assists (316).
SCOREBOARD WATCHING — Tuesday’s results all went the way UMass would have been rooting for.
Saint Louis’ loss to Dayton dropped the Billikens to 4-9, a half game ahead of UMass, while St. Joe’s loss to VCU dropped the Hawks a half game behind UMass at 3-10.
UMass will be rooting for Rhode Island over Fordham in a battle of two of the league’s three Rams. Fordham is a game ahead of the Minutemen at 4-8.
Either George Washington or Davidson, who are both 5-7, will lose Wednesday when the Colonials visit the Wildcats. UMass still faces both of those teams.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage