UMassHoops.com

Wow, it's March. Last true road game of the regular season, and maybe our last visit to Belk Arena for a while, coming up on Saturday. Same as last week: 2:30 start on USA. The NBC Sports App will also have it.

UM is currently the 6 seed and Davidson the 12. @liminutemen hasn't updated his probabilities in a few days, but I think the Cats still have a chance in climbing out of Tuesday, so they should be motivated. They also have 2 more after this game (we only have 1).

Matchup: https://bracketologists.com/matchup/NDAxNTk2OTMx

Nope, it's still February

Bringing this to the top. This is an important game, but all of the other happenings have pushed it to the back burner. Today is the last day of classes before Spring Break.

From the Davidson message board:

Re: Up next: UMass
Post by stevelee » Fri Mar 01, 2024 11:43 am

Students will be gone for spring break. The senior pep band members were recognized at the women’s game, already.

Just started looking at Davidson. They are 5-10 in the A10 with 3 games left. They are better than their record. If we had their schedule, we might be closer to 5-10 than 9-7.

8 of their 10 losses are to:
Richmond (twice)
Dayton (twice)
Loyola
VCU
GMU
SBU

As a reward, they get to play Loyola 1 more time.

InnervisionsUMASS wrote: Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:24 am Nope, it's still February

It is now March. Please proceed!

69MG wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 12:02 pm Bringing this to the top. This is an important game, but all of the other happenings have pushed it to the back burner.

This game isn't on the back burner for me, where's the watch party at? We haven't had much success against Davidson. Since they moved to the A10, we're 1-7 against them, the one win coming when they were a first place team and Keon Clergeot hit a game winner with 5 seconds left https://umasshoops.com/wiki/doku.php?id ... t_davidson

If we ever had a chance against Davidson, it's now. Winning on the road is hard of course, but Matt McKillop is not Bob McKillop, this is the best UMass team in quite some time, and didn't Davidson lose one of their top players to injury recently? Berkman is a longtime loyal fan, he'll be at the game in NC, I'm hoping they give him a good one.

Win one for Berkman should be the team’s motivation. I think he’s sitting 5th row but we need to get him right behind the bench.

This is a huge game for UMass. A N.I.T. bid may be at stake. There are a whole bunch of teams in the A-10 with good overall records, and they all will not be picked.

^^ They lost Skogman, a starting big. He's 6'10 and was averaging 13 points, 5 boards and 47% from 3 (taking 4 per game). But he's been gone for over a month now so I'm sure they've adjusted. They are not lacking in height as they start 2 guys who are 6'10. Bailey is the offensive threat (14.7 and 6.3 in A10 play). Logan is the rim protector. He only averages 2.6 points and 3.3 boards in 16 minutes but has blocked 24 shots in 15 games.

After the two guys at 6"10, nobody over 6'7 who plays any minutes.

Camby4Life wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 6:13 pm Win one for Berkman should be the team’s motivation. I think he’s sitting 5th row but we need to get him right behind the bench.

I got my tickets about 6 weeks ago and these were the best seats available behind the UMass bench. Will have a UMass hat and sweatshirt on so I should be easy to spot. Tickets cost me $ 66 with the tax and fees. A lot more than UMass.

bottom line wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 6:36 pm This is a huge game for UMass. A N.I.T. bid may be at stake. There are a whole bunch of teams in the A-10 with good overall records, and they all will not be picked.

And that, is the bottom line!

I think Skogman has been tough on us in the past and I'm not unhappy that he won't be playing tomorrow. He is a damn good player and I hoped that Frank would get him as a transfer.

Usually I'd prefer an NIT run to an embarrassing one and done in the Big Dance. However, I think the program could really use the excitement of squeezing into the tournament with an upset in Brooklyn.

I don't think we could possibly squeeze into the NCAAs without a serious implosion of all teams above us. Would take a miracle to scrape out a play-in game but that would be wild to get a play-in win like DK did his first year at LIU - if I am not mistaken.

NIT is going to be a different gig this year, I think, as I heard no auto bid for regular season champs. Will be interested to see how that changes the field. My guess is NIT loads up on big schools from bit conferences with winning records.

^^ 20 regular season wins will certainly help!

No game preview today in the Gazette that I could find. Has the MAC news torpedoed interest in this season? Not for me. Game preview or not, I'll be locked in to watch the fellas.

I know we're past the point of watching the computer rankings since we're not in the at-large bid conversation, but I checked KenPom and NET and was surprised to see that Davidson is at 103 and 106. I'm not sure how they're that high with a 5-10 conference record, but a win against them on the road could give us a nice bump. We're currently at 87 KenPom, 86 NET.

Anyone know what the point spread is?