After a long hiatus, the Massachusetts men’s basketball team will finally return to action this weekend, taking on the Northeastern Huskies on Friday and Sunday afternoon. UMass will play its first game since playing Rhode Island on March 7 before last season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s definitely exciting to say the least,” sophomore center Tre Mitchell said. “It’s kind of surreal with everything going on and how many obstacles have been in our path. But we finally get to lace ‘em up and do it for real.”
The Minutemen take on the Huskies after ending a 14-day quarantine because of positive tests within the program, which forced UMass to withdraw from the Mohegan Sun “Bubbleville” tournament on Thanksgiving weekend. Practice and other team activities were on pause from Nov. 17 until Dec. 5.
“Maybe initially the first few days there was some rust,” senior Carl Pierre said about exiting quarantine. “But we’ve been going hard, so I think we’ve been able to knock that rust off.”
The Huskies will play its first game of the season when they visit the Mullins Center on Friday. The Minutemen have been historically successful against Northeastern with a series record of 38-18, winning each of its last five matchups including an 80-71 win on Nov. 12 of last year.
Northeastern’s roster will look a bit different this time around, as 2019-20 leading scorers Jordan Roland and Bolden Brace are no longer on the team. Redshirt junior Shaquille Walters and sophomore guard Tyson Walker, who each started 29 games last season, will be expected to lead the charge for the Huskies instead. Northeastern’s roster also includes six new players, including Notre Dame transfer and Massachusetts native Chris Doherty.
“They provide a challenge because they have so many new guys,” head coach Matt McCall said. “Tyson Walker had a terrific freshman year; Walters had an excellent season as well for them. But they’ve got a lot of new faces, I think they’re going to present challenges just from the unknowns of their personnel.”
In this out-of-the-ordinary season for the Minutemen however, scouting opposing teams has been an added challenge. With an unstable schedule, UMass has been focusing heavily on self-improvement while watching film, rather than honing entirely in on its opponents.
“Every time I think we are playing an opponent I start watching film on them and it seems like 24-hours later I get a call that the game is cancelled,” McCall said. “I just think it’s one of those years where the scouting piece of it, as a coach that puts an emphasis on it, you have to focus on yourself and your team.”
“Games are going to get cancelled, and all of a sudden you may be playing someone on a Friday and you’re preparing for them on Wednesday, and that game could get switched to a different opponent on Thursday. Continuing to focus on our style of play, what are we doing and how teams are going to adjust to us; the scouting piece of it, it’s important but it cannot be more important than what are we doing to get ourselves better every day.”
The Minutemen have also experienced a great deal of roster turnover, adding five freshman and two transfer players in Noah Fernandes (Wichita State) and Mark Gasperini (American University). With a plethora of new players, depth will prove useful early in the season for UMass, allowing them to roll out a variety of lineups. Without fans in the crowd to cheer them on, it will be a team effort to bring the right energy into every game.
“We literally are two or three deep at every position,” McCall said. “If someone’s not bringing that energy, there is someone sitting down that you can put in the game to bring it. We have the depth to be able to do that with this roster, which in times like this is very valuable to have.”
Tre Mitchell and Carl Pierre are near locks for the starting lineup in the season opener. Mitchell averaged 17.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game last year, earning him Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year honors. As one of the best back-to-the-basket players in all of college basketball, Mitchell will look to dominate against the inexperienced Huskies team.
Pierre started every game the last two seasons for the Minutemen, averaging 12.1 points over his UMass career. His three-point percentage has decreased from 47 percent his freshman season, to 38 percent in his sophomore year to 33.5 percent in his most recent campaign. Nevertheless, the fourth-year guard will add shooting and a veteran presence to the lineup as he looks to bring those numbers back up.
Returning as a redshirt freshman for UMass is guard TJ Weeks, who flashed in 10 games last season before missing the remainder of the year due to injury. Weeks is now fully healthy and ready to go in his second year for the Minutemen and should add some scoring after averaging 14.7 points per game, 1.8 steals and shooting 48.5 percent from three in his limited playing time.
“[TJ] looks terrific, he’s full go,” McCall said at A-10 Media Day. “You have to give his parents and TJ a tremendous amount of credit for staying disciplined, to be able to get himself to the point where when we stepped back on campus, he was full go.”
“Our biggest thing with TJ is managing expectations for him,” McCall continued. “He doesn’t have to go out and think that [he’s going to shoot 50 percent from three.] We want him to focus on shooting good reps every time, being an extremely reliable defender, playing with that motor and energy that he brings, and being one of our better rebounders.”
Despite an already interrupted season due to the coronavirus, past playing experiences should help the Minutemen mesh early on. Seven players hail from Woodstock Academy in addition to second-year assistant coach Tony Bergeron. UMass will look to use its chemistry and depth to open the season on a strong note against the Huskies.
“It’s no question that as a competitor, as a coach you get nervous, you get anxious for the ball to be thrown up in the air,” McCall said of finally being able to play. “Once it is, the team that plays with the best effort is going to win the game. There will be some rust from both teams having not played, but we just have to go out, play really hard, play really inspired and I think our guys are ready to do that.”
Dan McGee can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TheDanMcGee.
