UMass Basketball

The Minutemen (2-4) have struggled to begin the season. Their trip to Atlantic City was no different.

As part of the Legends Classic, UMass served as a host for the opening rounds of the tournament and automatically qualified for the semi-finals and a trip to Atlantic City. The other qualifying hosts included Rutgers, Florida, and Michigan State.

After trailing by 19 points in the beginning stages of the second half, the Minutemen made things interesting down the stretch before eventually falling at the hands of Rutgers, 83-75.

Leading scorer, Ricky Harris, struggled in the first half scoring only two points, however, was the key part in the comeback attempt for UMass. Harris finished with a team-high 22 points despite the slow start offensively.

Anthony Gurley chipped in with 19 as well.

Rising sophomore Michael Rosario had another big game for Rutgers (3-2), tallying 22 points in the victory.

Although the excitement did not come the way of UMass in Atlantic City, the Florida Gators shocked No. 2 Michigan State in the other semi-final game providing UMass with what will probably be their toughest test of the season.

The Minutemen were steamrolled by the Spartans, 106-68. Michigan State used a 30-3 run in the first half to ensure a convincing victory.

Anthony Gurley led the way and tied a career-high with 24 points in the loss. Michigan State will likely fall in the polls come Monday, but certainly bounced back strong in the game over UMass, controlling nearly every aspect.

Despite the 2-4 start to the season, UMass has appeared to establish a solid one-two offensive punch in Ricky Harris and Anthony Gurley. Both are threats to go for 20+ points on any given night, continuously proving that through the front six games of the year.

The Minutemen will try to get back on track on, but have a tough stretch of opponents looming in their near future. UMass will take on Quinnipiac, one of the tougher teams in the Northeast Conference this season, before heading to Holy Cross and a trip to New Jersey in preparation for a game with Seton Hall.

Head coach Derek Kellogg and his squad will need to figure out a way to ensure getting victories in the games they “should” win. At this point, early in the season, they cannot afford to dig themselves an even deeper hole.

The non-conference tests that the Minutemen face over the next few weeks may present a few problems for a team that has already opened up the season at 1-2.

After being completely outplayed in their first two contests of the season, UMass was able to pick up a win on Saturday night over Arkansas-Fort Smith, 94-68 as part of the Legends Classic.

The Minutemen had a pair of home games this past week while serving as one of the regional hosts for the Legends Classic. Despite losing at the hands of Cornell last Wednesday night, UMass automatically qualified for the trip to Atlantic City for the later rounds of the regular season tournament.

Match-ups with Rutgers and then potentially Florida or Michigan State have Coach Kellogg and his squad looking to solve their early season problems as quickly as possible.

In their front three games, UMass has had plenty of flaws exposed, the biggest of which certainly has to be their issues of consistency on offense.

Senior Ricky Harris was expected to be the leading scorer for the Minutemen this season, but what fans could not have expected is just how much of the scoring load he would have to take up in order for UMass to be successful.

Harris scored 15 points in the season-opening loss to Central Florida, followed by performances of 26 against Cornell and 18 against Arkansas-Fort Smith. However, at times, especially in the game against Cornell, UMass has seemed completely lost offensively and with a look that only Harris can put the ball in the basket.

Anthony Gurley, a former Wake Forest member, has shown flashes offensively of aiding Harris in scoring the ball. He has scored double digits in each of the first three contests, including 21 in Saturday’s win over Arkansas-Fort Smith.

In the match-up against Central Florida, the Minutemen set a school-record in attempting 38 three-pointers, making only 12 of them. In the Cornell loss, they shot only 25 percent from behind the arc, finishing 4 of 16 from 3-point land, a stat considerably lower following the school-record number of attempts against UCF.

The season is early and for UMass their offensive numbers do raise many questions for a team who is desperately searching for an identity. Coach Kellogg and his group have plenty of time to look to improve, however, with the schedule that is presented in front of them, the ability to find an offensive groove should be urgent.

The Minutemen (1-2) will welcome St. Francis (NY) to the Mullins Center, tomorrow night November 24th, in a game they must look to capture before heading to Atlantic City this upcoming weekend.

*Photo Credit: Masslive.com, Eric Gallant

It seemed like such a long time ago that UMass threatened the national college basketball stage. In fact, it was quite a long time ago.

Head coach Derek Kellogg enters his second year in leading the Minutemen with enough talent to compete in the Atlantic-10. However, it is may not look that way.

Rightfully so, UMass has done nothing to earn any hype heading into the 2009-2010 season, and with the losses of Chris Lowe and Tony Gaffney, the Minutemen appear as if they might be in trouble again.

But just how far away is this UMass squad from making some noise in the Atlantic 10 Conference?

Two seasons ago, the Minutemen put together a 10-2 finish down the stretch, including victories over Syracuse and Florida in the NIT Tournament, which in turn raised some expectations in Coach Kellogg’s first season.

Last year proved to be very dismal for the Minutemen though, and heading into this season there is more than enough room for improvement.

Ricky Harris is back to lead the way for UMass after averaging over 18 points a game last season. He will be the first option offensively for Kellogg.

Transfers Hashim Bailey (Memphis), Anthony Gurley (Wake Forest), and Sean Carter (Oregon State) all had very short stints amongst the higher competition. Gurley was once a Top-100 recruit out of high school, as rated by Rivals.com, and although he played last season, Bailey and Carter have only just become eligible this season.

Coach Kellogg has brought in five talented freshmen for this season, including Terrell Vinson and Sampson Carter. Vinson was considered a Top-50 recruit by ESPNU, while Carter was ranked as the No. 27 incoming freshmen small forward in the nation.

Although, the talent may be there for UMass, that only goes so far. The Minutemen certainly have the roster to compete amongst the elite in the A-10, but putting it together on the court is something they have struggled with.

After barely escaping, 80-78, in their lone exhibition matchup of the season against Dowling College; the issues have been raised almost immediately.

UMass will open the season on the road at Central Florida before returning home to play Cornell on November 18th . Two early tests for the Minutemen may just give a peek into where this UMass team may be heading.

*Photo Credit: masslive.com/The Republican/Christopher Evans

If the tie is any indication, Memphis head basketball coach John Calipari likes to wear the color blue.

Could this be foreshadowing? I hope not.

One of my earliest NCAA memories is John Calipari's 1995-96 UMass basketball team, a team he guided all the way to the Final Four as a chipper 37-year-old. During Calipari's eight years in the Atlantic 10 Conference, UMass amassed a 193-71 record, including 91-41 in conference.

Aside from this dream 35-2 season, Calipari was instrumental in leading his team to the NCAA Tournament four other times, where he won at least one game in all four years.

In addition to this, his success included a trip to the Sweet 16 in his first postseason appearance, followed by an eventual Elite Eight and Final Four appearance.

You can tell by his resume, just like in life, that Calipari worked his way up the chain the same way his teams always rose to the occasion; he got the best out of them.

Calipari propelled this miracle 1995-96 season as a No. 2 seed to take a job in the NBA with the perpetually woeful New Jersey Nets, where he didn't fare nearly as well.

After a season that debuted with a stunning 92-82 victory over No. 1 Kentucky, no one knew what was in store for his team, fresh off an Elite Eight appearance the year before.

In what would conclude as a dream season, led by National Player of the Year and eventual No. 2 overall draft pick Marcus Camby—the only player on the squad to make it in the NBA—no other player averaged so much as 10.5 points per game. It was simply superior coaching.

The dream season ended with a Final Four loss to Rick Pitino's Kentucky Wildcats, 81-74.

It could be a cruel twist of fate 13 years later should Calipari join long-time rival Pitino in the Bluegrass State.

National pundits seem excited by the idea of this yearly intrastate rivalry and all its prospects. As an observer of a rival school that would have to witness Calipari turning Big Blue into a national powerhouse again—during all eight years, at the least, of his tenure—I am hoping that doesn't happen.

The thing that makes Calipari so interesting is not the fact that he can simply dominate a weaker conference in Conference USA. It's the fact that he turns little known schools from mediocre conferences into national powerhouses.

Should he go to Kentucky, he'll be just another Wildcat, and just another Wildcat coach forever in the shadows of Adoph Rupp and Pitino—two people he'll always be compared to, but will never outdo, simply because they did it first.

He supposedly stated that going to Kentucky is a once-in-a-lifetime job, like coaching football at Notre Dame, and that it would be hard, if not impossible, to turn down.

If you watched ESPN's First Take this afternoon you heard that, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis boosters met with Calipari and supposedly offered to match "whatever Kentucky offered."

Skip Bayless and Jemele Hill went on to debate Calipari's future, but each agreed that the longer this drags out, the better it looks for Memphis to retain him.

So with money being on equal footing, and rumors of the use of a "private jet" and "generous retirement package," it is a matter of loyalty vs. legacy, and the choice is up to Calipari.

I know what I would do, and that is finish what I started in Memphis where I could dominate and get an easier path into the NCAA where anything is possible once you get in.

My biggest fear is that Calipari's 2009 recruits, which again are tops in the nation, most notaby national No. 1 Xavier (pronounced Zav-e-a) Henry, could follow Calipari to UK, where any teaming with Jodie Meeks and/or Patrick Patterson would be unbelievable...not to mention unstoppable. They are ranked 1-3 on rivals.com.

Throw in the fact that Memphis also covets the nation's No. 1 point guard in John Wall and forward DeMarcus Cousins, and you've got a trio of young, balanced scoring. (Think Fab Five II, but on a smaller scale).

Just think, what if the Fab Five was never able to exist? Not only would Michigan be void of two exciting Tournament runs, but the legend and legacy of this trendsetting class would be gone too, not to mention the baggy shorts which came into style along with their playground attitude.

Think of their potential roster:

C DeMarcus Cousins

PF Perry Stevenson

SF Patrick Patterson

SG Jodie Meeks

PG John Hall

Sixth man Xavier Henry?

What do we call it if they go—six deep???

And it could have been, should have been, for Memphis.

Sure, they wouldn't have Patterson, Meeks, or Stevenson, but I'm fairly certain that Calipari could have more than adequately filled in the so-called "missing pieces," and the team wouldn't have lost a step.

That is the situation we as college basketball fans would be robbed of seeing should "Coach Cal," as ESPN has dubbed him, accept a job under the nation's microscope, complete with their unrealistic fanbase.

Memphis was becoming quite the trendsetter as the nation's premier one-and-done school of student-athletes—or as Bayless puts it, "Athlete-students." By the time the season ends and their grades come in, they'd already be working out, talking with agents, and preparing for the draft.

It is simply a shame that UK can—and did—throw tons of money at Calipari, gloating all the while by saying, "Hey we are UK. You know he's gonna take it!"

This brash attitude has been evident from the beginning. From the talk radio prognosticators to the anticipating articles that have already been written, you can just tell they know they got their man...and they aren't afraid to brag about it.

Talk about spoiled rotten. For shame. Two little seasons of misfortune, including one absence from the NCAA Tournament, and all of a sudden they claim, "Never again are we to suffer such an embarrassment!" as Calipari falls into their laps for the taking.

They should have to experience what the Ole Miss' of the conference feel like for just a little bit longer.

If I'm a Memphian, Memphis alum, student, faculty member, or general college basketball fan in general, I'm stunned and angry.

Quick: Who can name Calipari's predecessor?

If you can't answer "Tic Price," or simply choose not to, there is a good reason for that. Calipari brought Memphis basketball back from the likes of the Larry Finch era or Dana Kirk before that.

A removal of Calipari, and I fear a similar regression for the program, and their fans who deserve better, all this coming just 11 months after the school's first and only NCAA Finals appearance. What a whirlwind of emotional highs and lows.

Here's hoping Calipari has a change of heart, comes to his senses, and denies UK their mulligan, rather, their get-out-of-jail free card.

In keeping with the musical theme of this piece, another song comes to mind, this one by The Four Seasons.

It's title? "Stay."

Every day I will give a new reason to be pumped for the upcoming college basketball season.  Here's the 72nd reason to be excited for college basketball season.

100 years.  There aren't a lot of things that have been around for 100 years.

On Nov. 10, UMass basketball can boast they've been around for a century when they open their season at the Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic.

The Minutemen have had lots of success over the past 100 years.  According to B/R's Brett Lissenden, they are the 51st-most prestigious program in the country since the tournament expanded over two decades ago.

Now, while the whole 100th year celebration will be all fun and self-promoting, it's not the true reason to be excited over UMass.

It's the fact they run up and down the court in Usain Bolt-like fashion.

The Minutemen finished fourth in the country in tempo at almost 76 possessions a game.  Most teams finish around 70, while slower-moving teams like Georgetown typically don't crack 60 possessions in a game.

UMass' furious pace really played to their advantage in 2008, and it will again in 2009.

The Minutemen were the first team in 80 years to go into Syracuse's Carrier Dome and come away with not one, but two wins in a single season.

Early in the non-conference slate, UMASS beat Syracuse 107-100.  Yes, you read that correctly.  That game was played at the pace of an NBA game, and the score reflected it.  SU simply couldn't keep pace and eventually lost the game late.

The same happened in the Postseason NIT.  UMass came to the Dome, got down 21 points in the second half with 14 minutes to play, and came back to drop the Orange 81-77 in an 83-possession game.

The Minutemen were led by several seniors, including Etienne Brower, Gary Forbes, and Dante Milligan.

They do bring back several key components.  Guards Ricky Harris and Chris Lowe will anchor the offensive attack, with Tony Gaffney and Matt Glass manning the frontcourt.

The center will be the brother of former Florida Gator and current NBA benchwarmer Matt Bonner.  The 7'1'' Luke Bonner has showed great range from everywhere on the court while also using his height to dominate under the basket.

UMass will also throw freshman David Gibbs into the mix.  He's a highly touted recruit that scores very high on the recruiting scale at an 85.  He's described as very quick and explosive, two attributes that will make him a perfect fit in the track meet UMass calls basketball.

This lineup will face numerous tough challenges in the non-conference schedule.

The Minutemen get a shot at both National Championship game participants, Memphis and Kansas, and will participate in the Preseason NIT.

UMass will also host BCS conference foes Boston College and Vanderbilt.

So reason 72 to be pumped for the start of basketball season is the chance to watch UMass basketball celebrate its 100th year of existence by scoring 100 points a game.

I could write about my hometown of Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, but there's not much to talk about in my hometown other than Anne Sullivan, the teacher of Helen Keller came from here. In 1999, Mike DiMauro created the what is today's Beat Mike Network here.

I could also talk about Agawam, Massachusetts, which Feeding Hills is a part of, but there's not much to talk about. Agawam is the home of current Boston Red Sox PA announcer, Carl Beane (my mom was in his graduating class). Agawam is also home to Six Flags New England, which held the NFL Cheerleading Contest back in either 2006 or 2007.

Before Agawam was incorporated in 1855, it was a part of West Springfield. West Springfield is the home to Olympic gold medalist Tim Daggett, Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Chris Capuano, and former Simpsons co-producer Mike Scully. West Springfield is also home to the Eastern States Exposition.

Before West Springfield was established in 1774, it was a part of Springfield. Springfield is the "Official Birthplace of Basketball". In 1891 at Springfield College, James Naismith created the game of basketball. In 1968, the Basketball Hall of Fame opened up at Springfield College. It moved to the coast of the Connecticut River in 1985 and then a newer hall was built in 2002. Basketball is not the only thing that came from Springfield. Sirius DJ Nina Blackwood, Milton Bradley (game board creator, not MLB outfielder), Ashley Gearing, Dr. Seuss and Kurt Russell are among the people that came from Springfield.

Springfield also hosted the NCAA's Division II Men's Basketball Elite Eight in the early 1990's and it returned in 2007. In addition to that, it also hosts the Hall of Fame game every year for college basketball. Derek Kellogg, also a Springfield native that recently became the coach of UMass is trying to make a deal that would allow UMass to play some of their home games at the MassMutual Center.

Go North on Interstate 91 to Holyoke, you'll find the home of Volleyball. If you go west on the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90), you'll find the town that had the very first baseball game in Pittsfield. In 2004 in nearby South Hadley, you also had the LPGA make a stop on their tour for that year.

While watching the first two rounds of March Madness this weekend, I got in the mood to think back to all of my favorite Cinderella stories and buzzer beaters. 

One of my favorite aspects of college hoops is the fact that there are over 300 Division I Men's Basketball programs. Moreover, the fan base of each team is not always as geographically finite as the boundary of your average professional sports franchise. 

For instance, I am a Syracuse Orange fan because of family ties, despite growing up during a great stretch for more local favorites (UMass and UConn). 

Don't be afraid to add heart wrenching stories of defeat. Anything goes. Whether you're a George Mason fan or alumnus of Florida.

Whether you have celebrated recent success, or your team is going through a drought, and March forces you to go through your own catalogue of mental highlights from yesteryear... we all have a favorite moment, story, or team, that they recall every year, around this time.

Now's your chance to share your favorite college hoop memories with the rest of us.  This experiment will only be as strong as the contributions.  So, comment early and reply often. 

I'd love to get a dialogue going about some of our favorite moments (or in some cases, least favorite moments).

Now for our Disclaimer:

I know we sometimes get heated when discussing our favorite/most hated teams, but let's try to keep it respectful and offer solid commentary when posting. 

Please refrain from posts that simply state, "Duke sucks" (whether I may personally agree or not) or "UCLA rocks." If they do not add constructively to the conversation, then please leave them out. 

I'm not saying we can't sling a little mud at the programs we "hate", but make sure to add some content to the argument as well. 

Get creative—tell us where you were, how it happened, how you celebrated.  Anything you'd like, but be sure to add to the conversation and give specifics (years are especially helpful if at all possible).