The Massachusetts basketball team is getting a little taste of what it’s like to live the lives of professional basketball players.
Following a 69-63 win on the road against Harvard Tuesday night at Lavietes Pavilion, UMass (2-0) has to endure a quick turnaround as the Minutemen host Central Arkansas Thursday at Mullins Center.
“I mean its not difficult to do it, it’s actually fun. You never want to wait like three days for a game,” Rashaan Holloway said about the lone day of rest between games. “That’s how I think basketball should be played: quick, fast, recover then get right back on the court.”
“It’s not easy, but we are athletes. It’s what we are supposed to do,” Seth Berger said.
Berger added: “The biggest thing is the mental side of it, getting mentally ready for it. We have a game tomorrow so we’ll get our preparation in today and get a nice sleep, then we’ll get ready to play.”
The Bears’ (0-1) only game of the season was a 98-81 loss to Tulsa Nov. 14.
Minutemen head coach Derek Kellogg said he hadn’t seen much film on Central Arkansas, but spoke highly of the Bears and anticipates them to be far more rested than his own team.
“They have some guys that can put the ball in the basket and I think they do a pretty good job in their half-court man-to-man defense. They move the ball fine, play a lot of five-out and have a lot of good one-on-one individual players,” Kellogg said.
Derreck Brooks led all Central Arkansas scorers against the Golden Hurricane with 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting including five 3-pointers. Jordan Howard (16) and Justin Foreman (14) both scored in double figures for the Bears as well.
With no one on the Central Arkansas roster taller than 6-foot-9, Kellogg anticipates Thursday’s game to be another track meet filled with small lineups and an upbeat tempo. UMass has found success using a smaller lineup of its own with Berger playing power forward and Zach Coleman (6-foot-7) playing center, especially when Holloway and Malik Hines have dealt with foul trouble early this season.
“Teams that play a lot of guards will get up and down and run with you. They play one traditional center and then their (power forward) is more like a (smaller forward),” Kellogg said.
“Actually, we match up with them pretty evenly, size-wise. So I’m anticipating the game getting up and down the court. They scored 81 in the first game. They’re not afraid to let it fly and play. We play a similar style where we’re not afraid to get out and force some tempo,” Kellogg said.
However, with the Minutemen only using an eight-man rotation, they’ve had to cut down the amount of actual practice time to make room for more film studies and individual player treatments. Holloway, who played 21 minutes against the Crimson, said he spent an hour and a half getting treatment for his knees and wrist.
Berger, another playing who’s battled the injury bug throughout his career, harped upon the rest of UMass players remaining healthy with the quick, one-day layover.
“We are all recovering, getting treatment and getting in here early and doing what we need to do,” Berger said. “We are all accountable for (individual treatment). We all realize that that every player is really important so we just try to do as much as we can to stay healthy and to keep our bodies healthy.”
“We’ll really work them mentally so we can get better without exerting a lot of physical effort. Playing as many games as we are in a short amount of time, I think the guys need to be sharp physically and have energy for tomorrow night’s game,” Kellogg said.
Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
