Massachusetts men’s basketball coach Steve Lappas may not be a gambling man but he will be looking for a little luck on Saturday afternoon at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. to change his team’s recent fortunes.
The Minutemen go into tomorrow’s encounter with Central Connecticut State at the Mohegan Sun Arena in the midst of a three-game losing streak. The Blue Devils however, come in on a three-game winning streak and stand at 7-2 overall.
In order to knock off the Blue Devils, UMass (4-3) will need to redouble its efforts on the defensive end of the floor. In their first four games, all wins, the Minutemen held their opponents to under 37 percent shooting from the floor. However, in each of its three losses, UMass has allowed teams to shoot above the 37 percent mark including on Tuesday night, when UConn hit almost 48 percent of its field goals and 57 percent of its threes en route to a 69-59 victory at the Mullins Center.
The primary focus of the Minuteman defense will have to be CCSU senior center Corsley Edwards. Edwards has notched four double-doubles this season and leads the Blue Devils in both scoring (19.3 points per game) and rebounding (10.3 per contest). He will be matched up with senior Kitwana Rhymer; UMass’ leader in rebounds and blocked shots. Despite scoring 12 points against the Huskies, Rhymer struggled at the offensive end, making just 5-of-14 field goals and having four shots blocked in the first half.
If Rhymer is able to contain Edwards, something no opposing big man has been able to do so far in 2001-02, the Blue Devils will need to look to their backcourt duo of Ricardo Scott and Damian Battles. The pair are averaging more than 25 points per game and hitting better than 35 percent of their long range attempts.
Those numbers are almost identical to those of their backcourt counterparts, Anthony Anderson and Shannon Crooks of the Minutemen. Crooks is having his best season to date in Amherst after sliding over to the two-guard, averaging a team-high 15.3 points and 4.1 assists. His backcourt-mate Anderson has twice been named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week for the way that he has efficiently run the UMass offense.
At the other end of the floor UMass will need to get on the board early and often, thus not falling behind in the game’s opening minutes. It took UConn just six and a half minutes to open up a double-digit lead on Tuesday night and it took Boston College even less time to do so four days earlier. In both cases the Minutemen could not recover, went into halftime down big and proceeded to lose.
Another key will be the reemergence of sophomore small forward Willie Jenkins. After winning the starting small forward job at the beginning of the season, Jenkins averaged almost eight points in 20 minutes over UMass’ first four games. However, Jenkins has failed to score in each of the three losses, seen his playing time drastically reduced and lost his starting spot to Raheim Lamb.
With eight days off between this game and their next on Dec. 23 against Maine, the Minutemen will be looking to get back to their winning ways, put this recent slide behind them and pick up some positive momentum as they head toward the start of the A-10 schedule.
