After a loss at Northeastern which snapped a three-game winning streak, the Massachusetts men’s basketball team looks to get back into the win column with a matchup against North Texas in the Hall of Fame Classic on Saturday.
“[North Texas] is a terrific team, we’re going to have to play really, really well to win,” UMass (6-4) head coach Matt McCall said. “We’ve got to understand we’re going to be late in possessions … so we’ve got to welcome that, we’ve got to grind it out, and we’ve got to play really good to win.”
The Minutemen’s offense has been rolling recently, but North Texas’ (4-3) defense seems more than able to handle any potent offense it matches up against. The Mean’s only opponent to top 70 points was No. 8 Kansas. Success from last year’s team of advancing past the first round of the NCAA tournament last year in an upset win against four-seeded Purdue seems to be translating for North Texas this season.
The leading scorers for the Mean Green is guard Tylor Perry and forward Thomas Bell who average 13.9 and 13.4 points per game respectively. Bell also leads the team in rebounds and blocks.
“[Thomas Bell] is their best player, he is kind of a do-it-all guy,” McCall said. “He can do a lot of different things, he’s tough, he’s physical. Defensively he’s able to switch… I think a lot of what they do and why they’re so good is because of him, not that the other players on the team aren’t great, but he’s absolutely outstanding.”
The full-court press is the newest tool in the bag for UMass as of late. After it being a focal point over the last couple years for the Minutemen on defense, McCall has sparingly thrown it out this season. It worked at times in the loss against Northeastern, and helped them confuse Penn State’s offense in the early-season win.
“We’ve got to continue to press … get teams later in the shot clock, not coming down and being able to just run one pick-and-roll and crank a shot,” McCall said.
“We’re going to have to defend them off the bounce. We’re going to be in a lot of situations where there’s five guys on the perimeter with a live dribble and they’re trying to just take it and go.”
Noah Fernandes already plays a large role in managing UMass’ offense this year, taking on the burden from the three starters who left the squad via the transfer portal after the 2020-2021 season. Fernandes has put up double digits in scoring eight of his nine games along with leading the team with 46 assists.
“Growing up people always told me if you’re a really good scorer then you can be a really good passer,” Fernandes said. “Because when you’re shooting the ball a lot the defense is going to adjust, and you’ll be able to find guys.”
Getting Michael Steadman going will help with many of the problems the Minutemen face in the paint and against the pick-and-roll. Especially in a matchup against such a physical team with solid forwards, Steadman’s impact cannot be understated.
Steadman has been slowly integrated into the offense since returning from his ankle injury, as he says he’s “still getting back into the flow of things” and will be at a 100 percent in “two weeks.”
The Minutemen head into a final stretch of three more non-conference games before they gear up for the Atlantic 10. Saturday’s contest against the Mean Green will be UMass’ last road game before a three-game homestand.
“I’m excited about this game,” McCall said. “I’m excited to see where we’re at coming out of this game, because I think it’s going to tell us a lot about our team and where we’ve got to get better at going into the A-10 season.”
UMass will take on North Texas Saturday with tipoff set to start at 4:30 p.m. at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
Pedro Gray Soares can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @P_GraySoares
