As the end of the regular season approaches for the Massachusetts men’s basketball team, the final three games on its schedule become more important by the day. As of Feb. 28, the Minutemen (11-17, 6-9 A-10) are No. 12 in the A-10 standings, holding the same conference record as Rhode Island and Davidson.
The Rams (17-10, 6-9 A-10) come to Amherst on March 1 to face UMass in a key matchup for both squads as each attempt to secure a first-round bye in the A-10 tournament. When the Minutemen last faced Rhode Island on Jan. 29, they lost 88-82 after battling back from a 21-point deficit.
The road ahead for UMass looks tough, facing the No. 10 Rams, No. 9 St. Bonaventure and No. 3 Loyola (all A-10 rankings) to end the season. The Minutemen haven’t faced the Ramblers yet, but struggled against the Bonnies in a 74-59 loss on Feb. 15.
Sitting a game back, UMass will attempt to climb up three spots in the conference standings to escape the pillow fight between the bottom six seeds in the first round of the A-10 tournament. The Minutemen’s 6-9 A-10 record is tied with Rhode Island and a half game behind St. Bonaventure, making the outcome of these matchups key to UMass’ seeding.
“We’re trying to embrace the reality of the adversity that’s hit us. That’s the thing with a season, the difficult moments, they never stop coming,” head coach Frank Martin said. “We dealt with the adversity of who we needed to be as a team to win games, we didn’t run from it and we started getting to a really good place.”
The break in the Minutemen’s flow could be attributed to the many illnesses that have plagued the team over the last few weeks. A majority of the UMass roster was sick prior to losing to the Bonnies on Feb. 15.
Many Minutemen continued to battle the ailment, but it was clear that most were lagging as the team put up its two lowest scoring outputs of the season in losses against VCU and George Washington. UMass is currently on a four-game losing streak with its last two losses coming by over 20 points.
“That bug attacked our team, and then the injury bug,” Martin said. “[Daniel] Rivera hurt his knee about a month ago and he refused to miss [games] and now he’s done for the regular season. Now can he play in the conference tournament? That decision will be made in two weeks.”
The Minutemen will greatly miss the services of Rivera, their leading rebounder and starting power forward, to end the regular season. This injury shortens UMass’ depth and versatility at power forward and center, two position groups that Martin has been critical of throughout the season.
“If [Jaylen] Curry is back in, we’ll start [Daniel Hankins-Sanford] at the four and our usual three guys on the perimeter and then the question is what we’ll do at the center spot,” Martin said. “We’ve been playing Luka [Damjanac] a little bit more so I expect him to get more minutes, and then those other guys [will play center] by committee: Shahid [Muhammad], Malek [Abdelgowad] and Amadou [Doumbia].”
While an unfamiliar rotation of centers could be involved in the Minutemen lineup, Jaylen Curry’s potential return could help reorganize the UMass offense after he missed the previous three contests with a wrist injury.
The sophomore guard has been a key factor for the Minutemen this season, leading the team in assists per game (3.8) and averaging the second-most points per game (12.8). The last time UMass faced the Rams, Curry put up 15 points with five rebounds and three assists while going 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
While it will be hard to replace the two-way impact of Rivera in at least the next three games, there’s potential that Curry’s presence could refocus the Minutemen as the regular season winds to a close.
After ending February with a 2-5 record, UMass will attempt to start March off on the right foot against Rhode Island on March 1 at 6 p.m. That game will be available to watch on ESPN+.
Tym Brown can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @tym_brown1.
