1988-89 Season

The 1988-89 UMass Minutemen men's basketball team represents the University of Massachusetts. The Head Coach was John Calipari. The team played its home games primarily in the Curry Hicks Cage in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

The season represented the 80th season of basketball in the school's history.

Current Record: 10-18 Overall
Conference Record: 5-13 (Eighth Place)
A-10 Tournament: 0-1, Lost in First Round
Postseason: none

Record	Overall	A-10
All games	10-18	5-13
Home	8-5	5-4
Away	1-11	0-9
Neutral	1-2	0-0

Previous Season	Next Season
1987-88	1989-90

Scoreboard

Game			Record		Notes
Date	Opponent	Game Results	Overall	Atlantic 10	Notes
11/26	So. Connecticut	W 84-61	1-0	–	SCSU was D-II. The Cage scoreboard catches fire in the second half, temporarily delaying the game.
11/30	Boston Univ.	L 78-76	1-1	–
12/3	at Rutgers	L 78-61	1-2	0-1
12/7	at New Hampshire	W 73-72	2-2	–
12/10	Northeastern	W 79-69	3-2	–
12/14	Lowell	W 84-60	4-2	–	Lowell was D-II.
12/29	vs Florida Tech	L 106-87	4-3	–	Florida Today Classic, at Melbourne FL. FIT was D-II. This was effectively a home tournament for FIT, based in Melbourne. UM's record book attributes it as a neutral site game.
12/30	vs Coastal Carolina	W 90-73	5-3	–	Florida Today Classic, at Melbourne FL
1/3	West Virginia	L 89-73	5-4	0-2
1/5	at Penn State	L 107-79	5-5	0-3
1/8	at St. Bonaventure	L 74-70	5-6	0-4
1/12	Temple	L 89-68	5-7	0-5	“Springfield Classic”, at the Springfield Civic Center
1/14	Duquesne	L 88-84	5-8	0-6
1/16	St. Bonaventure	W 92-84	6-8	1-6
1/19	Rhode Island	W 76-71	7-8	2-6
1/21	at George Washington	L 103-77	7-9	2-7	This was GW's only win of a 1-27 season.
1/24	at Temple	L 93-66	7-10	2-8
1/28	Rutgers	W 105-89	8-10	3-8
1/30	at Connecticut	L 104-75	8-11	–
2/6	at Holy Cross	L 98-85	8-12	–
2/9	at Rhode Island	L 100-76	8-13	3-9
2/13	St. Joseph's	W 72-68	9-13	4-9
2/16	at West Virginia	L 88-55	9-14	4-10
2/18	at Duquesne	L 105-74	9-15	4-11
2/23	Penn State	L 90-71	9-16	4-12
2/25	George Washington	W 87-67	10-16	5-12
3/1	at St. Joseph's	L 83-81	10-17	5-13
3/4	vs St. Joseph's	L 87-83	10-18		A-10 Tournament, First Round, at The Palestra, Philadelphia PA

Statistics

UMass played up-tempo, scoring 78.1 points per game (tied for second-most among Atlantic 10 teams), but was atrocious on defense, giving up 84.8 ppg, 3.3 points more than the next-worst, George Washington, who went 1-27 on the season.¹⁾
On the glass, UM was averaging -3.1 per game versus their opponents.²⁾
UM blocked just 74 shots on the season. Jim McCoy and John Milum led the team with 11 each, and a 0.4 per game average.

Roster

UMass master roster.

This table is sortable. Click on any column header to sort.

#	Name	Height	Weight	Class	Pos.	Hometown / HS / Prep / College Transfer
30	Matt Anderson	So.	F	6-8	195	Brewster, N.Y./Brewster
12	Chris Bailey	Jr.	G	5-11	165	Springfield, Mass./Springfield Tech
11	Anton Brown	Fr.	G	6-2	175	Columbia, S.C./A.C Flora
23	David Brown	Sr.	F/G	6-5	213	Baltimore, Md./Cardinal Gibbons
5	Ishmael Butler	So.	G	5-11	165	Seattle, Wash./Garfield Seattle
33	Michael Byrnes	Jr.	F	6-7	215	Canton, Mass./Canton
34	Duane Chase	Sr.	F	6-6	212	Baltimore, Md./Southwestern
10	Rafer Giles	So.	G	6-2	165	Richmond, Va./Henrico
40	Ben Grodski	So.	C	6-9	230	Riverhead, N.Y./Longwood
14	Cary Herer	Jr.	G	6-2	185	Fairfield, Conn./Andrew Warde
20	Jim McCoy	Fr.	G	6-3	175	Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic
22	John Milum	Sr.	C	6-9	230	Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand
21	Sean Nelen	Jr.	G	6-3	185	South Hadley, Mass./Wilb. & Monson
44	John Tate	So.	F	6-8	245	Penn Hills, Pa./Penn Hills

No player was named captain for the full season. Captains were used game-by-game.

1988-89 Season, John Calipari, Work in Progress

¹⁾

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/conferences/atlantic-10/1989.html

²⁾

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/massachusetts/1989.html

UMassHoops.com Wiki

Table of Contents

1988-89 Season

Scoreboard

Statistics

Roster