Hot on the heels of a 62-58 victory over the University of Oregon on Tuesday night at the Springfield Civic Center, the Massachusetts men’s basketball travels down to Raleigh, N.C. for a matchup with North Carolina State on Saturday afternoon. This will be the Minutemen’s first road game of the season, and probably their toughest test up to this point.
“It’ll be interesting to see how our younger guys respond in a different environment,” UMass Head Coach Steve Lappas said. “That’s why the Springfield game was good. Even though it was a favorable environment, it was still a different location, a different place. So hopefully that will help us going into a completely hostile environment on Saturday.”
The Wolfpack come into the game with a 5-1 record, but were on the losing end of a sloppy 64-50 decision in their last game, Tuesday night in Columbus, Ohio against Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Against the Buckeyes, NCSU turned the ball over 21 times and hit just 27 percent of their field goals, including a dismal 4-27 showing from behind the arc.
Their five wins have all come at the friendly confines of the Entertainment and Sports Arena and were all against weaker competition. But despite N.C. State’s struggles against quality competition, Lappas and co. know that they will be in for a fight on Saturday afternoon.
“They run a very Princeton-like offense, they’re a very good slashing team and they back door cut very well,” Lappas said. “Yet they are also a good three-point shooting team.”
Leading that “Princeton-like offense” will be a pair of guards, senior Anthony Grundy and freshman Julius Hodge. Grundy leads the team in scoring with 13.5 points per game, while Hodge, one of the most highly recruited high schoolers last year, is close behind, averaging 12 points a contest.
If UMass is to be successful and improve to 4-0 for the first time since the 1995-96 season, it will need to stop those two from having a major impact. Shannon Crooks will likely be given the task of containing Grundy while sophomore Willie Jenkins, one of the biggest surprises for the Minutemen this season, will be asked to shut down Hodge.
“Willie is a pretty smart defender, he uses what he has well,” Lappas said of his sophomore forward who has already scored more points this season than he did all of last year. “He knows how much space to give a guy, and that is important.”
At the other end of the court, the Minutemen will look to expose the Wolfpack’s lack of size and experience on the interior with their own two big men, Micah Brand and Kitwana Rhymer. The duo comes into the game averaging more than 22 points and 12 rebounds between them, numbers they will look to expound upon on Saturday.
“I’d like to get Micah and Kit involved early in the game so that they can take advantage of [N.C. State’s lack of size and experience,]” Lappas said.
Josh Powell, the reigning ACC Rookie of the Week, will be given the task of stopping one of these two down on the blocks. He registered just six points on 2-of-6 shooting and five boards on Tuesday against Ohio State, and UMass will be hoping that he has a similar off night on Saturday.
The other key for UMass at the offensive end will be Crooks. The senior guard is the only Minuteman to score in double figures in all three games so far this season. He is playing a team-high 35 minutes per game, averaging a team-high 14.3 points per contest as well as leading the squad in steals and assists. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise for Crooks this season is his 42.9 three-point percentage, almost 16 percent better than in his first two years in Amherst.
All the action gets underway from the Entertainment and Sports Arena at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon.
