INSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Even at full strength the playing field wasn't really level. But with the lineup the University of Massachusetts was forced to use against Wake Forest on Saturday night, the playing field was almost vertical.

Charlton Clarke gets this one, but the ball didn't bounce the Minutemen's way the rest of the night.

And by game's end UMass had, rather predictably, dropped to the bottom of a 71-47 decision.

Playing on the homecourt of an undefeated, second-ranked team with payback on its mind, the Minutemen knew they were in trouble. Their problems grew when they found two of their senior tri-captains (Tyrone Weeks and Edgar Padilla) out with ankle injuries, and the third (Carmelo Travieso) in the locker room for the entire first half getting treatment for back spasms.

Hence, UMass took the court with two sophomores -- one in his first year of eligibility, the other injured for most of last year -- and three freshmen. That group had a cumulative total of 15 collegiate starts under its belt. Wake's starters in contrast, three seniors and two juniors, had had 276 starts. So it was a matchup of a powerful today against an uncertain tomorrow.

"I told my young guys, `No matter who's on the court, you have to go out there and play hard,'" said UMass head coach Bruiser Flint.

That they did. While the outcome was never really in question, and while the margin of defeat was the most in over three years, the Minutemen (3-5) played as hard and as well as they could under the circumstances. They fought particularly hard on the boards, outrebounding the biggest front line in the country. They did a decent job of containing National Player of the Year favorite Tim Duncan, holding him to 4 of 9 shooting (61.4 percent coming in), 17 points (17.5) and 12 rebounds (15.8) in a legitimate 32-minute stint. Most of all, they played fearlessly in a situation that could have been disastrous.

The freshmen bounded up the ladder. Winston Smith had 10 points and six rebounds. Ajmal Basit slipped past Duncan for a couple of impressive hoops, scoring nine points and grabbing five boards. And Mike Babul had by far his best outing with six points and nine rebounds.

"My young guys have developed a lot faster than I ever thought they would," said Flint.

In the second half, UMass raised the anxiety level among the 14,111 people at Lawrence Joel Coliseum by trimming a deficit that had been 19 points to 10. The Minutemen seemed to get a boost from Travieso, who fought through the pain to play much of the second half.

"I just wanted to show the young guys that this is the attitude you need," Travieso said. "I just don't know if my body will be thankful for that tomorrow."

The UMass surge, though, could not last. In time the 7-0 Demon Deacons began to wear down UMass by attrition, pounding the ball inside to Duncan and 7-1 freshman Loren Woods, forcing the Minutemen to foul. Before long, all three legitimate big men (Basit, Lari Ketner and Inus Norville) had fouled out.

While happy with the win, Wake Forest coach Dave Odom had some laments about not facing the full UMass team. "You always want to play teams at full speed and full strength," he said.

Odom, who has done a masterful job creating a powerhouse in the considerable shadows of North Carolina and Duke, said that he was particularly impressed with UMass' young big men. "I told Basit and I told Ketner, `You keep listening to what Coach Flint says, and you're going to be a great pair.'"

The Minutemen take a break for final exams until they play Friday night at the Meadowlands (a.k.a. Cal's House) against North Carolina.

UMass overwhelmed by Wake Forest
By Mark Blaudschun, The Boston Globe Staff, 12/15/96

INSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Can it get much worse for the University of Massachusetts, which is quickly turning into UMisery in the early stages of the college basketball season?

The Minutemen not only suffered their fifth loss in eight games last night at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum to No. 2 Wake Forest. They lost with three starters on the bench because of injury and a starting lineup that included four first-year players (three freshmen) and a sophomore, who were attempting to contain All-American center Tim Duncan and his talented teammates.

The result was almost predictable, a 71-47 Demon Deacon victory that was all but decided 45 minutes before the game when senior guard Carmelo Travieso came down with back spasms, forcing him to the trainer's table for the entire first half.

Travieso was joined on the bench by regular backcourt-mate Edgar Padilla and center Tyrone Weeks, who were both ruled out of last night's game with ankle sprains, a set of circumstances that forced first-year coach Bruiser Flint to improvise with a lineup of. youngsters.

"I was warming up and I felt my back stiffen up," said Travieso, who started the second half,. but lasted only 17 minutes. "I went up for a shot and my back didn't."

Flint, knowing he'd be undermanned anyway, could only shake his head in dismay when Travieso walked slowly into the UMass dressing room 30 minutes before the game. "He was in a serious crouch," said Flint, whose manpower was so stretched that seldom used walk-on Ross Burns had some quality minutes in the first half. "When it rains, it pours, I guess."

It poured gradually on the Minutemen as the Deacons led, 18-8, through the first nine minutes.

Duncan (17 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) and guard Tony Rutland (14 points, 4 of 6 3-point shots) slowly picked apart the Minutemen with a combination of size and shooting.

By the half, the Deacons had a 35-20 lead and seemed almost disinterested in playing a UMass team that was providing nowhere near the opposition they had expected.

"I'm sure it affected them," said Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, who watched his team sleepwalk through the first part of the second half as UMass cut the lead to 10 before Wake got back into its rhythm. "Obviously we were playing a UMass team depleted by injuries. It takes a lot of guts to play with that."

The problem that UMass had was simply one of cohesion. In the starting lineup, only sophomore guard Charlton Clarke had any NCAA experience before this season.

"You could see it in the eyes of some of the freshmen, they looked a little scared," said Clarke, who played a career-high 40 minutes and sounded like a grizzled veteran.

The Minutemen didn't play scared, but they didn't play smoothly either. Battling a front line of three 6-foot-10-inch players, including Duncan, and 7-1 freshman sensation Loren Woods, the Minutemen got into foul trouble early, which caused an immediate inequity on the foul line, where the Deacons made 28 of 36 foul shots, while the Minutemen made only 4 of 7.

But that was hardly the difference. UMass was simply outmanned, and while Travieso tried to inspire his teammates by coming out at the start of the second half, it was nothing more than a symbolic gesture. "I really couldn't do much," said Travieso, who scored 4 points and was 0 for 3 on 3-point attempts. "I couldn't bend over."

The Minutemen, who are now 3-5 and have a week of exams before facing North Carolina on Friday, can't bend much more before some of their resolve will break.

"We're playing hard," said Flint with a shrug. "Hopefully, we'll have some time to get healthy before we start the second part of the season."

Flint figures it has to be better than the first month of a season that already seems long.

MASSACHUSETTS (47)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Ketner          22   1-7   0-0   0-1  0  5    2
Babul           32   3-7   0-1   4-9  2  4    6
Basit           21   4-9   1-2   2-5  0  5    9
Clarke          40  2-10   2-2   2-2  3  1    7
Smith           23   5-8   0-0   2-6  0  1   10
Kirkland        14   1-3   0-0   2-4  0  2    2
Norville        23   3-6   0-0   1-2  0  5    6
Burns            6   0-2   1-2   0-0  0  0    1
Travieso        17   2-7   0-0   3-4  1  2    4
Maclay           2   0-1   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 21-60   4-7 16-34  6 25   47
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.350, FT-.571. 3-Point Goals:
1-8, .125 (Babul 0-1, Clarke 1-3, Burns 0-1,
Travieso 0-3). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 3
(Basit, Travieso, Norville). Turnovers: 18 (Basit
4, Ketner 4, Clarke 2, Kirkland 2, Travieso 2,
Babul, Burns, Maclay, Norville). Steals: 7
(Clarke 2, Kirkland 2, Babul, Norville, Travieso).


WAKE FOREST (71)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Allen           21   2-5   2-2   1-3  0  2    6
Peral           26   2-2   5-7   1-2  1  2   11
Duncan          32   4-9  9-11  4-12  1  3   17
Rutland         33   5-8   0-0   1-3  2  0   14
Braswell        27   2-5   4-4   0-1  3  3    9
Woods           21   2-2   6-8   2-3  0  0   10
Amonett         16   0-2   2-2   0-4  1  2    2
Goolsby         17   0-6   0-1   0-1  1  0    0
West             2   1-1   0-0   1-1  0  0    2
Scott            2   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Fuller           2   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Herbst           1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 18-42 28-35 10-30  9 12   71
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.429, FT-.800. 3-Point Goals:
7-17, .412 (Peral 2-2, Duncan 0-1, Rutland 4-6,
Braswell 1-4, Amonett 0-2, Goolsby 0-2). Team
rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 10 (Woods 5, Duncan
3, Peral 2). Turnovers: 12 (Duncan 3, Allen 2,
Braswell 2, Peral 2, Rutland 2, Woods). Steals: 7
(Rutland 4, Allen, Duncan, West).

__________________________________
Massachusetts      20   27  -   47
Wake Forest        35   36  -   71
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None.  A: 14,111. Officials:
Larry Rose, Duke Edsall, Stanley Rote.