2021-2022 Season

[capezona]

Watching the Siena / St Bon game waiting for our game to start. Ten minutes in, Siena leads by 8. I'm sure that won't hold up.

[eldonabe]

Yes, because your average New Englander, especially a sports fan, is such a warm and fuzzy creature. Really easy to connect with them. McCall must just not be trying hard enough.

Maybe he should put on his hard hat and get right to work on that ...

[MikeUMA]

Looking at the roster...
https://umassathletics.com/sports/mens- ... er/2021-22

Are we already cashing in on the NCAA's offer to get a bonus year? Looks that way. Jones is listed as a Junior, even though he has played 3 full (2 at JMU, and 1 at Southern CT in 2019-20).

CJ Kelly also shows as a Junior, but he has only played 2 seasons, so that squares.

Preston shows as a Junior, but as he sat out last season I expected him to show up as a Soph.

[capezona]

Technically, couldn't Weeks still be a freshman? His first year was a medical redshirt year, second was COVID.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Yep... def on the 6 year plan!

[capezona]

Just watched the end of the Dayton-UMass Lowell game. UML won by a point at Dayton.

[69MG]

This may be the craziest year yet. This is just a sample:

folzybear
@folzyfantasy15
UMass-Lowell beat Dayton.. geewhiz this opening week of college basketball

folzybear
@folzyfantasy15
Wagner beat VCU.. Even low-major teams beating mid-majors look good

[Juice Stand]

So you're saying we have a chance against Penn State tomorrow night?

[bobolink]

This may be the craziest year yet. This is just a sample:

folzybear
@folzyfantasy15
UMass-Lowell beat Dayton.. geewhiz this opening week of college basketball

folzybear
@folzyfantasy15
Wagner beat VCU.. Even low-major teams beating mid-majors look good

or just a down year for the A-10, as on top of UMass, Dayton and VCU bad losses, Duquesne lost to Hofstra and Davidson lost to San Francisco (out there, maybe not that bad a loss). Only 5 of the 14 teams went 2-0. I think that's about half as many as usual.

[UMassfan_19]

Yeah think a-10 is. 2 bid league and that 2nd bid will come from an a-10 upset and bonnies running most of the table

[Floyd]

We're 2 games in. I'll give them a chance to gel and find their groove and then see how much damage they can do in the league. Like to see Steadman out there and see how he fits in. I agree someone needs to step up as the go to scorer, so when we need a bucket, they can get it. Settle the rotation with the best group and dig in

[capezona]

We'll know a lot more in the next 6 days.

[DanaDingle3]

The 3/4 court press was outstanding last night -- kept Penn St. off balance all game. I don't think the Yale game was just about effort, it didn't look like we made any changes schematically to make them uncomfortable. It is a good sign, though, that McCall out-coached a first year head coach last night.

There will be nights we're not hitting from the outside. I think the past couple games showed this team has to put defense first, and that should probably involve the ability to throw different looks out there.

Really interesting quote in Grabowski's piece in the DHG (https://www.gazettenet.com/Penn-state-u ... l-43567103):

"McCall credited the defensive improvement to UMass not switching any action that didn’t involve the basketball, since that philosophy led to a lot of finger pointing and back cut layups against the Bulldogs.

'When you take away the switching, now you’ve got to take some ownership. You get beat back door, that’s on you. You get hung up on a screen or you’re late, that’s on you,' McCall said. 'I think our guys took some pride in that.'"

Any update on Steadman, BTW?

[69MG]

Any update on Steadman, BTW?

Pre-game, Tyson Wheeler said that Steadman might be ready for Weber State. He said "might be". No boot on last night so that's an improvement. I'm in the camp that if Steadman is OK and can play D and grab some boards, we have a chance to be good. It would move Buttrick to the 4 and we become a much bigger team but still have 4 shooters on the floor.

[jrdupe]

^
I agree! Buttrick is a very good rebounder and has really good hands...seems like if he gets his hands on the ball, he keeps it! Early on I thought we were going to get out rebounded by 20. Jones did not get a rebound but on a couple occasions I saw him block out his guy all the way out of the lane which allowed someone else to grab the ball...so I think he can come in and spell Buttrick and Steadman and they really wouldn't lose much on the rebounding side. Really pleasantly surprised at how good Buttrick is...I know it's only 3 games but he just seems fundamentally sound.