Wins No. 1 and No. 2 for the Massachusetts men’s basketball team certainly didn’t come as head coach Derek Kellogg may have liked them to.
After center Cady Lalanne played only five minutes in the first half in the season opener against Siena and the team struggled in Sunday’s first half nightmare against Boston College, the Minutemen have yet to put together a solid 40 minutes of basketball this season.
Kellogg hopes that will change as UMass hosts Manhattan in an 11 a.m. start as part of ESPN’s 24 hours of college basketball marathon on Tuesday morning.
“I’m hoping the guys can take the energy of being on national television and a good crowd and play well tomorrow,” Kellogg said.
The Jaspers opened the season on Saturday with an 81-66 loss against Florida State. Forwards Shane Richards and Ashton Pankey provided most of the offense as the two finished with 17 and 14 points respectively.
Manhattan features a four-forward, one-guard lineup which size mirrors that of the Minutemen. Cady Lalanne will likely get the task of matching up inside with the 6-foot-10 Pankey. Lalanne has more than 25 pounds on Pankey and will need to use every pound of that to his advantage to keep Pankey off the glass.
Lalanne has recorded a double-double in each of UMass’ first two games – 15 points, 10 rebounds in each – to go along with 5.5 blocks per game. Alongside Lalanne in the paint, Maxie Esho has been the Minutemen’s most productive player, scoring 21 points in the season opener and a career-high 23 against the Eagles.
Esho has also played a team-high 72 minutes this season, 10 more than any other player on the roster. The senior will likely cover 6-foot-10 Jaspers’ forward Jermaine Lawrence.
UMass is expected to come out with a full court pressure against Manhattan, who had 21 turnovers to just six assists against the Seminoles. The Minutemen went to their full-court press to start the second half against Boston College and forced 11 turnovers in the final 20 minutes in the midst of a 21-5 run.
A year ago, the Jaspers won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament championship and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 25-8 record.
However with the team’s success a season ago, controversy was brought to the program after reports surfaced that head coach Steve Masiello lied about graduating from the University of Kentucky on his resume when applying for a coaching job at the University of South Florida.
Masiello has a career record of 60-39 in his three seasons coaching the Jaspers, and returned to Manhattan after finishing his degree at Kentucky.
Tuesday’s game marks the third matchup in five days for the Minutemen to start the season. Although it’s been hard for Kellogg to make his corrections on the fly with limited practice time, he said he is hoping his team is in the right mindset when it’s tipoff time Tuesday morning.
“Early in the season, at least you’re not quite as fatigued from the travel and playing games through the course of the season,” Kellogg said.
“I think we’re in a decent frame of mind. I’m hoping our energy is where it needs to be. It’s been kind of a tough schedule, everybody understands that, but it’s college basketball. It’s a great time of year to be a college basketball player or fan.”
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
