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I think I like the Dingle answer best, but there are many past guys that could be used here as glue guys. It's what stands out about Cal and his coaching tree, Cal grew his entire rep on hard nosed, want it more, play above yourself teams but once he started being able to get McD's all Americans, he stopped looking for these guys. And it trickled down to Pastner and Kellogg in my opinion. Memphis lacks the same exact thing UMass does (boxing out, doing the little things above and beyond) and they succeed a bit more solely because they are a bit more talented. Dingle might be the biggest glue guy I remember. Of course, Mike Williams was swag before swag was known.

del padre wrote:Monty Mack. Scorer, defender, and could handle the ball.

This. With a PG like Chaz getting the ball to him, we would have scored a ton of points.

Harper.
He would score, rebound and teach all of them what playing hard really means.

InnervisionsUMASS wrote:

del padre wrote:Monty Mack. Scorer, defender, and could handle the ball.

This. With a PG like Chaz getting the ball to him, we would have scored a ton of points.

I'd go with Monty as well. kid could fill it up and was always moving

I'm on board with Monty Mack.

I agree Ricky or Gary would have also have had an enormous impact.

It is a brain bender question though. Not only do you have to imagine how good a player would be on the current team, you also have to evaluate how good a player was because of the team he played on.

Sometimes I see a player on another team and I think, wow if that dude had better players around him...That Anisoke (spelling?) guy on Siena fits that category.

Donte Bright - always loved him and thought he was underrated.

Mike Williams. Had a knack for hitting game winners and would have helped out in some of those close losses. Would have been an asset to the march to the Sweet 16!
Honorable Mention
Al Skinner - Double /Double with over 50% shooting
Jim Town - could have used one of his 27 rebound games.
Mark Haymore - could have used a low post player who shot 60%.

I'd take Lorenzo Sutton on this team especially after Jesse went down. He could score lights out, and had a nice 3pt percentage as well

Man this is such a good question. It forces you to take a slightly different look at what we were lacking this year. If there's one thing it highlights for me, it's that there were so many things that could've made a huge difference at one time or another during the year. We could've used another ball-handler against VCU, better rebounding against Butler, better team defense against St. Bonaventure, better interior defense against Miami.

In every game it would've been really nice to have a consistent offensive threat other than Chaz and I wish we had someone who could draw fouls. Rebounding, defense, toughness and turnovers could also have been better.

There's no one person that could fill all those needs, but I think the closest thing might be Gary Forbes. If we could have 2, I'm thinking Harper Williams and Monty Mack.

TheInsider wrote:Will Hearndon.. He might not have helped us get any further but watching him in this offense with Chaz throwing lobs would be a lot of fun.

This.

Lasme... nothing like an A10 Defender of the year to get a triple double with pts, boards, and blocks!! With Lasme, we would have won GW, Charlotte, St Bonnie, and Temple for sure. The other losses.. I am not so sure.

Butter wrote:I think I like the Dingle answer best, but there are many past guys that could be used here as glue guys. It's what stands out about Cal and his coaching tree, Cal grew his entire rep on hard nosed, want it more, play above yourself teams but once he started being able to get McD's all Americans, he stopped looking for these guys. And it trickled down to Pastner and Kellogg in my opinion. Memphis lacks the same exact thing UMass does (boxing out, doing the little things above and beyond) and they succeed a bit more solely because they are a bit more talented. Dingle might be the biggest glue guy I remember. Of course, Mike Williams was swag before swag was known.

If you want another Terrell Vinson on the team then Dingle would be your man. They're career stats are almost identical except Vinson averaged two more points and one less rebound.

I would rather have someone who could rebound and score like Weeks, Jim Town or Tim Edwards. Or, another scorer like Mack to replace Morgan's points.

Dingle was way better than TV on defense, and was a much better rebounder. More than the stat indicates.

TV had a much more diverse offensive game. I don' think they're very similar players.

Peter Bernard, a 2-guard before the position was invented, who could shoot as well as anyone who followed at UMass. Instant offense. His points per game would have been much higher if there had been a three point shot.

Gary Forbes would have been huge for this team. Him and Chaz would have loved each other. I think people forget how awesome he was. It can be argued that he was the best UMass player since Camby.