Watch any press conference from head coach Frank Martin, and it probably won’t be long before the veteran head coach begins talking about the value of player development.
Over his three years coaching the Massachusetts basketball team, Martin has already helped a couple young backcourt players grow. His two most successful examples–Rahsool Diggins and Jaylen Curry–are on this season’s UMass (6-10, 1-2 Atlantic 10) team, and both have grown in Amherst from depth pieces to double-digit scorers.
The next guard in that lineage may be Marqui Worthy. With Curry struggling and the Minutemen needing another scoring option, Wednesday’s 76-72 win over Dayton became the sophomore’s night. He answered the bell on offense to the tune of a career-high 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
“[Worthy’s] a great kid,” Martin said. “I never put him in games last year. He could have packed his bags and gone back to California. But he said ‘No, this is where I belong, you’re my guy, I love my teammates and I’m here.’.”
Worthy’s biggest basket came in one of the tensest moments of the guard’s career. With 40 seconds to play, UMass had the ball up one. The Flyers (11-5, 1-2 A-10) were not going to go down easy on the road, and to that point, they had responded every time the Minutemen tried to widen their lead late.
As the point guard on this crucial possession, Worthy was bound to eventually have the ball in his hands. He did touch the ball but it looked to be a little late, with the shot clock dipping below five seconds while he was behind the arc. That proved to make zero difference, as the sophomore remained composed and threw up a mid-range hook shot that swished through the net, giving UMass a three-point lead.
Those types of baskets were common for Worthy throughout the night. Perimeter shooting has never been the guard’s game, instead relying on mid-range jumpers and conversions at the rim. That continued to be his bread and butter against Dayton, but this time, it reached a new level.
A common theme for the sophomore on Wednesday was his calmness. During his freshman season, Worthy looked almost too comfortable at times, thinking he could get away with plays that may have worked in high school but not in Division I basketball. Over the course of this season, there’s been glimpses of Worthy keeping that coolness and pairing it with a greater understanding of how he can benefit his team. Against the Flyers, those glimpses carried through all of the 29 minutes he played.
The quality of the guard’s shots has also developed. From his first game last season to the end of November, it seemed like Worthy was always trying to score off shots that most college players would struggle making. That approach led to him shooting 33.8 percent in his freshman season as playing time fell. To make matters worse, he opened his sophomore campaign making just two of his first 15 shots.
Something clicked on Dec. 1 with a 5-of-9 night against NJIT, and from there, Worthy’s turned into a whole new player. The guard lets the game come to him more often, finding his spots before creating space and taking simple, yet effective, mid-range jumpers.
“My teammates [were] getting me the ball, I was taking the right opportunities and usually when I do that, good things happen,” Worthy said.
A similar basket to his final one was scored just a few minutes prior, as good hustle by Jayden Ndjigue kept the ball with the Minutemen for a second-chance opportunity. Once Worthy got the rock, he drove into the heart of the paint, and where his past self may have put his head down and tried a contested layup, this play ended in a made floater. Those types of decisions have paid dividends for him, and they’ve turned 13 percent shooting in November into 45 percent shooting in December and beyond.
While scoring was Worthy’s primary contribution against Dayton, the guard showed promise in other aspects of the game. For starters, many of his baskets would have been much more difficult looks without a quick first step that left multiple Flyer defenders in the dust. He only had two assists, but one came off a slow-developing play while the other was a bullet pass after a play broke down, showing the guard’s versatility in making the right call in different situations.
With the season already halfway done, an uptick in minutes is far from a guarantee for Worthy even after Wednesday’s performance. Diggins and Curry have held down major roles in the backcourt, and Martin even mentioned postgame that he played his other sophomore guard a little too much. Worthy used that time very well though, and combining his recent play with his coach’s track record, the sophomore could be in line for a bright future.
Dean Wendel can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @DeanWende1.
