Who are you, and what have you done with the Minutemen?
It is as if an alien ship swooped down during one Mullins Center practice and abducted each and every member of the Massachusetts men’s basketball team. They were replaced by a squad of tenacious roundball warriors, capable of functioning as one on the court and dissecting each and every opponent with otherworldly precision.
Capable of going 8-1 in the Atlantic 10 to claim a share of first place, all but erasing the 2-9 debacle composed by their Earthly predecessors.
The Rams of Fordham were left rubbing their eyes in disbelief after Saturday’s not-so-close 85-59 encounter with UMass at the Mullins.
Their defenses had been useless against an aggressive Maroon and White squad that shot over 50 percent from the field scored 20 of the game’s first 24 points.
They were stunned repeatedly by UMass’ deadly accurate fire from deep space (8-of-15 from three-point range).
Their resistance was futile against the Minutemen’s reserve army of Jackie Rogers, Ronell Blizzard and Jonathan DePina (a combined 21 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks off the bench).
UMass employed some sort of cloaking device against two of FU’s biggest weapons, making guard Jason Harris (four points) and forward Jeff McMillan (five points) all but disappear.
Is this a different group of athletes hitting the hardwood for coach James ‘Bruiser’ Flint? The numbers would certainly support the whole abduction-conspiracy theory. Take the stats of the 2-9 pre-conference squad versus the 8-1 Atlantic 10-leading current group and even the most Scully-esque skeptic would have to consider that these aren’t the same b-ball beings.
Return of the Jedi: First and foremost, the team’s leader and biggest scoring threat has finally become just that, after enduring a miserable early-season funk. Monty Mack appeared to be under some sort of mind control against teams like Connecticut (three points) and Boston University (seven points) in December when he struggled to get open looks against straight box-and-one defenses that he had seemingly mastered last season.
The preseason A-10 Player of the Year shot a horrendous 29 percent (46-of-157) from the field during the team’s 2-9 stretch, including a vile 0-for-9 outing against the Huskies and a forgettable 6-of-23 showing against North Carolina.
Flint sat down with his young Jedi over winter break and implored him to ‘use the force,’ i.e. the many picks and screens of his teammates, to get the open shots that he’d need for his offense to come alive. The results in the second-half of the season have been nothing short of extraordinary: Mack has averaged 22 points per game on 46 percent shooting from the field (71-of-156) with mostly wide-open looks off screens and curls.
The Predator: He came from a distant land, looking to beat the biggest and best he could find and prove he was the indeed the king of the frontcourt. He’s Kitwana Rhymer of the Virgin Islands, of course, but this 6-foot-10 paint predator had an equally sizeable problem in the team’s first 11 games: he couldn’t stay on the floor. Rhymer averaged only 22 minutes of play over that span, including 37 minutes total against Iona, Marquette and Ohio State.
Though Rhymer’s numbers over that span looked promising (8.6 points, 6.5 rebounds per game), it became obvious that he’d have to stay on the floor longer if he was to become a force in the Atlantic 10 jungle.
Well, four double-doubles later it has become obvious that No. 33 must be stopped when teams are designing their defensive game plans against the Minutemen. Rhymer used his out-of-this-world strength to dominate Dayton (19 points, 13 rebounds) and destroy Duquesne (15 points, 12 boards) and has drawn countless double-teams in the process that has helped long-range gunners like Mack and Shannon Crooks ‘stay on target.’
Space Jam: His weird multi-colored ‘space shoes’ draw as much attention as his 6-foot-8 frame when he checks into games. But watch his feet too long, and Eric Williams will blow right by you for an easy put-back. The burly transfer spent much of the early season as a silent member of the Maroon and White bench corps, but he has stepped up recently and played a huge part in the team’s resurgence.
‘Space Jam’ ripped down a game-high 10 rebounds against Rhode Island on Jan. 30, after totaling 10 points and nine boards in wins over George Washington and Xavier. UMass’ six-game win streak has seen Williams shoot 57 percent (8-of-14) from the field with 22 rebounds in only 61 total minutes of play. Prorate those stats over six full games, and man his teammates call ‘E’ is a huge part of the ‘W’s’ that his team is enjoying.
Men in Black: The officials seemed to play as big a part in UMass’ nine early-season laws as any single player: opponents attempted a staggering 302 foul shots in the Minutemen’s first 11 games, for an average of 27 per game. New rules about contact in the paint and hand checking befuddled Flint’s troops, especially in their first four games (39 free throws attempted by the opposing team per game).
After the team’s 91-76 loss to Oregon on Dec. 2, both the players and the coach of the Ducks admitted that the barrage of whistles made the game less of a basketball contest and more of a charity stripe shoot-off. And a snowball effect occurred from there, as frustration over calls led to sloppy play defensively for the Minutemen.
The officials seemed to have settled down tremendously since the onset of conference action, allowing a freer flow to the game without turning into a hack-a-thon in the process. Though the overall numbers don’t reflect that huge of a difference (opponents have averaged 21 foul shots per game over the last nine games) the games themselves have been much more basketball-centric: Rhode Island’s Zach Marbury attempted 13 of his team’s 16 freebies on Jan. 30, and Dayton attempted only seven foul shots total in its Jan. 18 loss at the Mullins Center.
Temple’s John Chaney, however, would probably beg to differ with the argument that the refereeing has gotten better. His 20-minute tirade after the Owls’ 65-64 overtime loss in Philadelphia included several choice comments about ‘three blind men,’ ‘policemen beating people with sticks’ and ‘courage.’
Losing gracefully? Clearly an alien concept to the aging Chaney. Maybe he’ll be the next one taken up by whatever interstellar beings have taken control of UMass.
Adam White is a Collegian columnist.