They don’t get any bigger than this.
The Massachusetts men’s basketball team travels to the state capital on Saturday night for the seventh annual Commonwealth Classic against the 13th-ranked Boston College Eagles at the sold out Conte Forum. The Minutemen will be looking to win their sixth unofficial state title as well as to show that Tuesday night’s loss to Holy Cross was an aberration. In their last game the Minutemen (4-1) were defeated for the first time under new Head Coach Steve Lappas, dropping an ugly 67-56 decision to the Crusaders.
“Everybody’s ready to go, everybody understands that we shouldn’t have lost on Tuesday but we did and there’s nothing you can do about it,” sophomore point guard Anthony Anderson said. “But we’re not talking about Holy Cross anymore – we know what we have to do and everybody’s ready to go.”
Boston College (6-0) comes into the game as winner of its last 10 regular season contests and 22 straight at the Conte Forum. The last time the Eagles fell at home was all the way back on Feb. 23, 2000 in head coach Al Skinner’s third season at the Heights, when they dropped a 70-60 contest to Pittsburgh. Two of those 22 victories came at the expense of Lappas and his Villanova Wildcat squad. This will be the 20th meeting with B.C. for Lappas, as he comes in with an 11-8 all-time record against the Eagles.
Saturday’s game will be a homecoming of sorts for three Minutemen who hail from the Boston area. Senior guard Shannon Crooks as well as sophomores Anderson and Raheim Lamb all grew up in Beantown, and will be all that more fired up to take on the Eagles in front of their friends and family.
“That’s a big game. I live five minutes away from there, all my family is going to be at the game,” Lamb said. “I’m just going to be up and ready to play.”
In order to knock off the Eagles and make it a happy homecoming for that trio, UMass will need to shut down one of the nation’s best backcourts in junior Troy Bell and sophomore Ryan Sidney. Bell, a preseason All-American, has not missed a step since returning to the B.C. lineup for its season opener back on Nov. 18 against Boston University. After missing all of the preseason while recovering from knee surgery, Bell has come on strong, averaging 20.5 points per contest, good enough for second on the squad.
Bell’s partner in crime, Sidney, has gone from one of the Big East’s best bench players to one of the conference’s best players, period. After averaging 9.4 points per game last year as a freshman, Sidney has exploded out of the gates in 2001-02, leading the Eagles in scoring at 21.3 per game as well as rebounds, grabbing 10 per contest. Last Saturday Sidney dropped a career-high 29 points and grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds in B.C.’s 83-74 come-from-behind win over the Michigan Wolverines. However, Sidney suffered a fractured jaw yesterday at practice and will need to have his jaw wired. Despite the injury, his playing status for Saturday is uncertain.
“Part of [shutting down the B.C. backcourt] will be not turning the ball over. That will help stop them if they’re not stealing the ball and going in transition,” Lappas said. “If we can make it more of a half court game, that will help us.”
UMass’ backcourt of Crooks and Anderson will be given the task of shutting down these two, but they will not be alone out there. If either Bell or Sidney is successful at penetrating into the lane, they will then find Kitwana Rhymer waiting there for them. Rhymer has blocked at least two shots in each of the Minutemen’s five games this season and tied a career-high on Tuesday with six rejections against Holy Cross. However, Rhymer twisted a knee in practice yesterday and while he will play, it is unclear as to whether or not he will be at 100 percent. If he isn’t, look for Lappas to switch up his defensive sets more than he customarily would.
“They’re a team that you have to use a little bit of everything [defensively to beat],” Lappas said.
At the other end of the floor, the Minutemen will look to exploit the inexperience of Eagle center Nate Doornekamp. The seven-foot freshman from Canada will be put to the test by UMass’ big man trio of Rhymer, Micah Brand and Eric Williams. Those three will need to manage more than the 25 points and 15 rebounds that they tallied against Holy Cross if the Maroon and White wants to beat B.C.
