2019-20 season

Anything and everything that is UMass Minutemen Basketball.
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MJatUM
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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by MJatUM » Thu Dec 05, 2019 10:52 am

The coaches have mentioned they are still recruiting and would like to add a big man in the 2020 class. I think Sy will be fine against most 5's, with the exception of truly dominant back-to-the-basket big men, but I'm not sure Tre would be terrific against them either. Sy has bulked up quite a bit since last year.

69MG
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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by 69MG » Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:08 pm

Podcast with Ryan Bamford. The first 12 minutes or so are BB, then comes FB. He has some interesting comments on last night's game, Sy and Dibaji.

https://twitter.com/UMassAthletics/stat ... 2525616128

Worcester_To_Amherst
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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Worcester_To_Amherst » Fri Dec 06, 2019 7:40 am

What's the back story with Naadir?

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Jackson96
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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Jackson96 » Sun Dec 08, 2019 12:31 pm

For anyone interested (Nobody, party of none) and the rest of the world here’s what I’ve got for game grades so far:

Lowell B
Fairfield C
Northeastern B+
CCSU A-
Rider B+
Virginia B
St Johns C
Rutgers C-
South Carolina D+
Harvard F

I think generally we played pretty well through the Virginia game but after that we haven’t really played and/or coached very well. I do think the effort has been there for the most part, with the lone exception being the Harvard game. I think coaching has hurt us as of late, in particular against St Johns and South Carolina. Both of those games were very winnable. Also Rutgers may have been a tough one to win but I don’t feel like the team was put into the best position to have that chance.

At any rate I think the 5-0 start against a non-murderer’s row group of teams may have masked that this is still an incredibly young team that needs to get stronger and tougher and also learn a lot of things. The last few games have also shown that the coaching staff needs to learn some things as well. I’ve always been more of a glass half full kinda guy (while trying to be realistic) and so I like to think all of these things will happen.
"I wrote a column and it went national"

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by capezona » Sun Dec 08, 2019 12:57 pm

My concern is that the bulk of good teams on our schedule are still upcoming games. We've got 14 games left with teams under 100 rpi. And that's not counting VCU (118) and Davidson (117). Only 5 games left with teams with worse rpi's than we have. I know rpi is sometimes pretty goofy but with 10 games in it's starting to settle out. The team has talent but has to get things figured out pretty quickly.

Almontis
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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Almontis » Sun Dec 08, 2019 9:58 pm

Mike Krzyzewski's 3rd year at Duke was his worst before turning things around.

But, yeah, we're gonna get clobbered in our league without major improvements, and fast.

The good news is the issues look very fixable. There's a lot to be optimistic about; there's also a lot of uncertainty. I'm in through the process this year.

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Juice Stand » Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:53 am

Mike mentioned in the TJ Weeks thread that this season is starting to feel like it's unraveling. I'm interested to hear people's takes on the remainder of the season. I tend to agree with Mike that it's starting to feel lost. The 6 game losing streak amplifies that, but it's also the player availability situation:
  • Buggs: out for year with ACL
  • Kolton Mitchell: slowly recovering from hand injury. Will be reevaluated in January (seems like he might be out a while longer than originally intended)
  • Dibaji Walker: NCAA purgatory, maybe we hear something on the 18th, but 50/50 that his waiver gets denied
  • TJ Weeks: Has been a force offensively and now is out for an undetermined amount of time with a non-sports abdominal injury
If anything happens to Tre or Carl we'll really be up a creek. I love how hard these guys are playing, but the deck is stacking up against them pretty quickly.

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Floyd » Sat Dec 14, 2019 9:52 am

I'm going with the optimistic approach:
TJ 's injury isn't serious and he misses another game or two, Dibaji gets his eligibility, and Kolton heals up and works his way in to the depth chart.

Its been a while since we've had a good run of luck so its about time.

If Kolton isn't ready until late January or so, do they redshirt him to split up the class between him and Sean and save him a year? Keon has been pretty solid off the bench
Time to Win

Almontis
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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Almontis » Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:20 am

I'm also going with the optimist approach, although another game like the Harvard game could change that.

- Tre Mitchell had his best game against Yale. He was diving for loose balls and fighting for rebounds. We all know he has offensive skill, but that doesn't win games. When he's diving on the floor and battling for rebounds, our team looks different. I hope that continues.

As cliche as it's become, it's really about program culture right now. When these guys are battling, responding the right way, playing tough for 40 mins, and holding each other accountable, we're going to have a formidable squad in the coming years.

I'd guess we're a few pieces away - our two most recent signees plug that, with probably a need for one more guy with size and toughness down low who can gobble rebounds.

I wouldn't mind seeing some Djery and Tre on the floor together, too, this year.

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by 69MG » Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:39 am

Almontis wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:20 am
I wouldn't mind seeing some Djery and Tre on the floor together, too, this year.
I'm with you on this. MM did say on the podcast that he's considering it.

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Roadtrip » Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:52 am

^That might work with East/Clergeot, Pierre, and Weeks.

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Juice Stand » Sat Dec 14, 2019 1:35 pm

I'm definitely optimistic about the future of this program, just starting to get a little cautious with my expectations for the remainder of the year based on the shrinking bench. Fingers crossed, I hope Weeks is ok, Kolton recovers fully, and Dibaji gets his waiver.

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by 69MG » Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:25 am

Is anyone else getting concerned about how many healthy bodies we have? Right now, we are playing with basically 7 guys: Tre, Djery, SY, Samba, Carl, Keon and Sean. Preston gets some minutes, but he isn't fully in the rotation. CJ has been discussed in his thread. That's 9 out of the 13. TJ, Buggs and Kolton are injured and Dibaji is in limbo.

Worst case - TJ is out for an extended period (2 months), Kolton doesn't come back until late January and the waiver is denied on Dibaji. I doubt we win more than 10 games as our core group will be worn out and we better not have any more injuries.

Best case - TJ misses just a couple of games, Kolton comes back mid January and Dibaji gets his waiver. I think we can get to around 15 wins.

I like the future of this team, but maybe not for this year.

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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by capezona » Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:06 pm

69MG wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:25 am
I like the future of this team, but maybe not for this year.
Ugh! How many years have we been saying that. Although I also feel optimistic beyond this year.

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Old Cage
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Re: 2019-20 season

Post by Old Cage » Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:15 pm

Here's a nice read that should lift a little of the "woe is me" starting to show in the above posts. I have no idea about the writer.

https://cbbcentral.com/2019/12/17/10-fr ... -semester/
"Jack didn’t have any envy in him," Calipari said. "He was the greatest coach to ever coach here."

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