Anyone that’s watched the Massachusetts men’s basketball team play over the past few seasons has certainly noticed its high-motor, run-n-gun, frenzy of entertaining basketball.

You might have even caught a fast break, half-court alley-oop on ESPN’s Sportscenter Top 10 Plays when you sat down with your morning cup of coffee and breakfast.

And as exciting as that style of play may be – when it’s working – at its core, the UMass brand of basketball isn’t a good one. It’s playground basketball. It’s by no means fundamentally sound, and at times it’s difficult to watch when nothing is happening on the court.

It doesn’t take a basketball expert to understand what the Minutemen are doing offensively. The center or power forward sets a high ball-screen for the guard, the guard then looks to either drive to the basket or have the center post up on the block. And what is everyone else doing during this as the two-man game unfolds? Standing, watching and waiting.

Far too many times UMass players stand along the perimeter and watch the play develop with the hope that the basketball will somehow fall into their hands for an open shot. And with a 29.5 percent 3-point shooting percentage, opposing teams aren’t flying all over the place to close out on outside shooters.

There needs to be more off-ball movement, screens or frankly anything that gets players moving off the ball. This standing-and-watching fiasco only works with a point guard whose style of play is drive-then-kick. The offense is a standstill and there is no fluidity whatsoever. The Minutemen aren’t taking advantage of players like Derrick Gordon and Maxie Esho, who have proven the ability to finish at the basket. Maybe a few off-ball screens would open opportunities up for them.

But wait, this system can work in the NCAA, just look at Kentucky. The Wildcats are currently ranked No. 1 in the polls and are one of only two teams left unbeaten, sitting at 19-0 on the season.

Well obviously it will work for Kentucky.  When you have coach John Calipari and handfuls of the nation’s top recruits waiting at your doorstep, then yes, you can get away with it.

I’m sorry Mullins Militia. I hate to break it to you, but that type of talent isn’t coming through Amherst any time soon.

But didn’t it work for the Minutemen last year? They did make it to the NCAA tournament and were ranked as high as No. 13 nationally.

Again, that system can be effective to a certain degree. However, last year when UMass showed stretches of success – primarily in the beginning of the season – once teams started to slow down the tempo, making it more of a chess match, the Minutemen struggled. They aren’t a team that thrives off half-court sets. That just simply isn’t how they operate.

They also don’t have Mr. Do Everything, Chaz Williams.

As a matter of fact, the overwhelming art of team-basketball is slowly becoming a lost art form across the NCAA, and you can partially thank the Amateur Athletic Union for that.

AAU basketball is slowly becoming the downfall of good basketball in America. It turns a 5-on-5 game into a 1-on-1, who’s better contest. No teamwork, no passing, no fundamentals – just the “me show.”

Even one of our generation’s greats, Kobe Bryant believes that AAU basketball is ruining our youths’ ability to understand the game at a complete level.

“AAU basketball,” Bryant said to ESPN on Jan. 3. “Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It’s stupid. It doesn’t teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don’t know how to post. They don’t know the fundamentals of the game. It’s stupid.”

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I need to change with the times and stop hoping for another version of the 1986 Celtics or 2014 Spurs to come walking through the doors at the Mullins Center every night to play pass-first basketball.

Who knows, maybe UMass’ newest point guard recruit Luwane Pipkins kid can find a way make it work like Williams did

But please, if this style of play isn’t leaving the game anytime soon, can we at least get some sort movement to change things up every once in a while?

Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.