Game 13, 2015-16: at La Salle 1/3/16

[fenway617]

Nice win. It doesn't happen without Space.

Agree/.

And have to think they'd won at least one of not both games in Florida if they had him.

[mlaconte459]

Always nice to get a W in the first conference game.. But come on with the whole "any road win is a good win" and "its always tough to win on the road" La Salle is BADDD. They will finish 12th-14th in the conference. But it was a game we were expected to win and we did. A loss to them and we would of been poised to finish bottom 3 in the conference. I dont think this game or the Dayton game will tell us anything about this team. I think we need to wait and see what happens when we play the Bonnies at home to get a good gauge on how we can expect the conference season to play itself out. Since they are one of those teams that will most likely fill out the 4-8 spots in the conference.

[Uminuteman]

Always nice to get a W in the first conference game.. But come on with the whole "any road win is a good win" and "its always tough to win on the road" La Salle is BADDD. They will finish 12th-14th in the conference. But it was a game we were expected to win and we did. A loss to them and we would of been poised to finish bottom 3 in the conference. I dont think this game or the Dayton game will tell us anything about this team. I think we need to wait and see what happens when we play the Bonnies at home to get a good gauge on how we can expect the conference season to play itself out. Since they are one of those teams that will most likely fill out the 4-8 spots in the conference.

Unless we beat Dayton! Of course that will be the same night I collect my $400 million Powerball win as well.

[vanmeter]

Pleased with the win, albeit LaSalle may be the worst (or close to it) team in the league.

Berger played well and always plays very smart. Glad to see him get the minutes (34). If Space stays away from poor offensive decisions he will be a big help. Very nice to see what is essentially a 7 man rotation as I, for one, thinks that Holloway is not an answer.

At Dayton will be the most challenging game we have in the A10. Would be happy (and encouraged) to get 2 of the next 4.

[cam9219]

Surprised no one has mentioned that the Explorers were doubling down on Space's post up touches down the stretch. He didn't always make great decisions out of them, but it shows you the respect that a conference member has for him as a scorer. I hope other conference teams continue that because it will open up a lot for our scoring guards.

Berger the obvious MVP. He was efficient in everything he did.

And yes I will continue the "road conference game wins are tough" train regardless of opponent. Look at the traditional power's non-conference schedule, there is a reason they only play a few road games at most.

[baseline47]

^ re: doubling Space. He forced a couple of shots, but he also managed to pass to open teammates, something we haven't done too well in recent years. Space seems big and strong and mobile. Need that this season.

I only watched the 2nd half. What happened to Holloway? Has Space taken over Rashaan's minutes? Does Rashaan Holloway look slimmer?

[Chris20]

Lasalle is awful. But we aren't so great either. So for this UMass team, any road win is very nice, even against Lasalle.

[NilesGold]

La Salle is a bad team, they're poor in all facets of the game, in particular rebounding. Even still, it was great to see UMass offer up at least some resistance on defense and pound La Salle on the glass because UMass has been really bad in both areas lately.

[Jackson96]

Re: Holloway -- he can only pay in spurts given his conditioning and then when teams go small he also sits so those spurts get even shorter. La Salle played pretty small.

He clearly has talent but it also very clearly a work in progress due to his size. I haven't noticed much of a change in his conditioning to date. Hoping it all comes together for him. No idea if it will or not, but hope it does because what he has you can't necessarily teach.

[NilesGold]

^ The only way he should be in the game is if his offense can make up for his defensive shortcomings and if UMass is able to take advantage of that offense. Holloway is an extreme liability on defense, he doesn't have the speed to defend ball screens or to defend 99% of opponents if they can drag him out of the paint. He showed some real promise earlier in the season on the offensive side of the ball, but lately he's been pretty terrible there too. The La Salle game was just the latest example where he couldn't defend and he wasn't adding nearly enough on the offensive side of the ball to make up for it.

[UMassHoops]

Great job to get the win, hopefully that builds some confidence with the team to take it to the next level.

Berger was phenomenal as he has been all season. Forgetting the stat lines he makes all the plays that don't show up as well.. loose ball tips, keeping rebounds alive, etc. He's my favorite player on the team, I wouldn't mind 4 Bergers and a point guard on the floor.

It was really apparent Holloway will have to make the conditioning leap or be a very short minutes player in the A10. This was one of the worst teams we will play and he has tremendous upside, hope he finds his inner Jack LaLanne.

Trey is clutch, I have no problem with him getting the green green light.

Space showed that even with his limited time with the team he's already our best big man. Couple forced attempts and a few where he seemed to want to be a 5'11" point guard and not a big man but clearly he has the talent to keep a defense honest. His development is one of the keys to the season IMO, and hopefully he stays injury free.

T-Berg just keeps playing hard, love the kid even if the ceiling isn't high.

All in all a satisfying win, hope we bring our A game to Dayton.

[MikeEsq]

I attended the game. It was my first time in Tom Gola Arena. I've seen high school gyms in Indiana that dwarf that place. Really, really impressed by Berger. In contrast to some of his teammates, he always played smart and is deceptively tough with the basketball, be it rebounding or bringing it up the court once or twice. Very fundamentally sound.

I really didn't like Space's bull-like moves in the paint, but they were letting the teams play for the most part and it paid off for us. Trey, Clark, and Hinds continue to play too much hero ball and make dumb decisions. They would push the ball up even after all five LaSalle guys were back on D. I'm still waiting for DK to call a play.

All in all, though, a great win that I didn't think we could get - even against a putrid Explorers team. Dr. John had DK's number early in Kellogg's career; now it seems things have shifted. Glad to see it. Looking for a better fundamental performance against Dayton this week.

[UMass87]

... I'm still waiting for DK to call a play. ...

Good luck with that.

[UM Fan]

Always nice to get a W in the first conference game.. But come on with the whole "any road win is a good win" and "its always tough to win on the road" La Salle is BADDD. They will finish 12th-14th in the conference. But it was a game we were expected to win and we did. A loss to them and we would of been poised to finish bottom 3 in the conference. I dont think this game or the Dayton game will tell us anything about this team. I think we need to wait and see what happens when we play the Bonnies at home to get a good gauge on how we can expect the conference season to play itself out. Since they are one of those teams that will most likely fill out the 4-8 spots in the conference.

Can't agree with your comments on Dayton.

[Worcester_To_Amherst]

Pleased with the win, albeit LaSalle may be the worst (or close to it) team in the league.

Berger played well and always plays very smart. Glad to see him get the minutes (34). If Space stays away from poor offensive decisions he will be a big help. Very nice to see what is essentially a 7 man rotation as I, for one, thinks that Holloway is not an answer.

At Dayton will be the most challenging game we have in the A10. Would be happy (and encouraged) to get 2 of the next 4.

I'll be outright ecstatic if we end up taking 2 of the next 4. I wouldn't even be disappointed with a 1-3 stretch. These next four teams range from good-very good. Right now we're playing mediocre at best, not to say I didn't enjoy the LaSalle win. The guys turned up the intensity when they needed to.

We've finally developed some solid secondary scoring and play-making between Space, Berger coming into his own as a player (which I LOVE and can't wait to see the rest of his career), and even T-Berg giving us some semblance of contribution without hurting us.

What's frustrating to me is the disappearance of our "three-headed monster". Trey is doing what we all hoped he would this season (and what we missed from him last season) so no complaint with him. Donte is putting up solid numbers but he still hasn't begun to scratch the surface of his full potential. Recently Jabarie has been playing like a tentative underclassmen rather than the senior leader point guard he showed earlier this year (and that we need him to be).

If these 3 can start to gel and consistently give us 50+ points per night like I think they can then this A-10 season is going to be very exciting and pleasantly surprising based upon preseason predictions. Even with my maroon colored glasses I'm not very confident in this coming to fruition, but I know there's a chance.

It starts tomorrow. We need to give Dayton a hard fought game and start to build some positive momentum headed into the Bonnie game at home. I'm very afraid that a poor showing against Dayton could quickly become a 1-4 conference start.