MHERST - Another victory over a formidable adversary. A triumph that closed out the regular season on a high note. Normally, that would mean momentum for a team heading into
its conference's postseason tournament. Whether that is the case for the University of
Massachusetts, a 57-49 winner over Atlantic 10 rival Temple yesterday, remains to be seen.
Mind you, these are the We-Beat-Kansas-But-Lost-to-Iona Minutemen. This is the team whose final three contests include a dramatic win over defending A-10 tourament champ Xavier and the school's first loss to La Salle since 1971.
 Chris Kirkland gets assaulted by Rasheed Brokenborough and Pepe Sanchez. |
The Minutemen finished third in the A-10 East Division and will meet Duquesne (5-22, 1-15), which finished sixth in the West Division, Wednesday at 2 in the first round of the conference tournament at Philadelphia. The winner meets Xavier, the West runner-up, Thursday.
UMass beat both teams this season, routing Duquesne, 69-55, in Amherst for its third-most lopsided conference victory. But coach Bruiser Flint said he is not anticipating anything with this group.
''There are no gray areas with us,'' said Flint. ''Any time we think we can play just well enough to win we lose. Look at last Thursday against La Salle. We just have to go out there and understand this is do-or-die. If we lose we come home.''
Temple (19-9, 13-3) will have to adjust offensively to the loss of reserve guard Quincy Wadley, who left the game with 6:14 left in the first half with a broken ring finger on his left hand. With 6:55 left, Wadley sank a trey to tie the game at 18. Without him, the Owls had no outside threat.
Other than a trey by Mark Karcher with 1:28 left in the half, Temple's points came from the inside. But in the second half, Ketner stepped up an already aggressive interior defense.
Starting guards Pepe Sanchez and Rasheed Brokenborough combined for 2-of-19 shooting from the floor, including 1 for 16 from 3-point range. Despite the horrid shooting, the Owls trailed only 50-46 with 1:17 left, but the Minutemen made 7 of 10 free throws down the stretch.
''I just wanted to be physical with the big guys and play tough defense,'' said Ketner, a senior whose last game at the Mullins Center was one of his best.
The Minutemen said after the contest they had a players-only meeting to discuss how they can prevent an early exit in the tournament. ''We just said that the coaches don't have anything to do with it and the other team doesn't have anything to do with it,'' said Ketner. ''If we play like this we'll do well down there.''
To hear Temple coach John Chaney tell it, all the Minutemen need is continued strong play from Ketner to be the team most everyone thought they would be. Yesterday, the mentor analyzed the overall play of the much-maligned Ketner with colorful, vintage-Chaney verbiage.
''There's not that many centers in the country better, but he's got to play with his head and not his ass all the time,'' said Chaney. ''I'm serious. That's his problem.
''You can't play with emotion. When you look straight ahead and you can only see what's in front of you, you forget your ass has eyes in it looking at what you just left. That's what happens to kids. And Ketner's not that kind of guy. Someone has to take a baseball bat and hit him across the [expletive] head.
''They need him to play basketball if they expect to win games. You cannot have a guy scoring 6 or 7 points and sit on the bench. He sits on the bench and helps Bruiser coach all the time. I'm quite sure he doesn't need any more coaches, especially one that's 7 feet tall.''
Asked about those comments, Flint, who played for Chaney in summer leagues while growing up in Philadelphia, said, ''I've heard that kind of stuff from him all my life.''
MHERST - When Bruiser Flint needs reassurance - some informational
tidbit that lets the UMass coach know he is not out of his mind - he
can turn to games like the one yesterday.
The Minutemen beat Temple, the best team in the Atlantic 10 Conference, 57-49. They now have beaten the Owls, Xavier and Kansas, and have come within biting distance of doing the same to UConn and George Washington.
They are also a 13-15 team that is very capable of losing to the sort of group they will play Wednesday in the first round of the A-10 tournament - Duquesne, a 5-22 team that has replaced Fordham at the bottom of the pool.
So Flint is well within his rights if he keeps saying, ``I'm only a coach, I'm only a coach. . . .''
That said, his schizophrenic Minutemen now face the most numbing task of all. They have to run the proverbial table in this week's A-10 tournament, starting with Duquesne, if they have any hope of reaching the NCAA tournament.
They can also qualify for the NIT with a .500 record by reaching the championship game of the A-10 tournament.
``This game is just nice for momentum,'' said Flint. ``The Atlantic 10 tournament is about focus. You win, and the next game is less than 24 hours away. That should help you to stay focused.''
Now let's apply this theory to the 1998-99 Minutemen.
``You wonder, from game to game, if you're going to get the same guy who you got last night,'' Flint said of his fluctuating crew.
He had better hope for yesterday's group on a number of fronts.
Chris Kirkland continued his raging bid to become the A-10's most improved player with 17 points and seven rebounds. Monty Mack only attempted four shots from inside the circle all afternoon, and won the gratitude of his coach because of it. Mack shot 5-of-7 from downtown as the bulk of his 18 points.
Senior center Lari Ketner, who no longer goes into these games looking to shoot, instead focused on Temple big men Lamont Barnes and Kevin Lyde and finished with eight points, 13 boards and four blocks.
``He was a presence out there,'' said Flint. ``And if he's a presence, we can win games.''
Ketner's effectiveness in the defensive end, coupled with Kirkland's ability to guard Mark Karcher after the Temple sophomore started out hot with a 10-point first half, made all the difference down the stretch.
Karcher didn't score in the last 20 minutes and overall the Owls shot 3-of-29 (10 percent) in the second half.
Even at that, UMass only won by eight points. Every possession is vital - too vital - for this team.
But for a change, it was Temple coach John Chaney's turn to lament what he saw.
``It's something that you can do nothing about, when your team is missing shots from point blank range,'' said Chaney.
``Lamont was missing layups. I can't do anything about Pepe Sanchez shooting 1-for-10, or Rasheed Brokenborough shooting 1-for-9. It's like your own child. What are you going to do, put him back if you don't like his face?
``When the wheels come off the car you can't drive it, and the wheels are off.''
MHERST, Mass. -- Open jumpers, contested jumpers, lay-ins, follow-ups, runners, leaners. It didn't matter. Temple missed them all.
 Chris Kirkland gets the pass by Temple's Pepe Sanchez. |
The only miracle was that Temple was still within sight of UMass, which went on to win this ugly regular-season finale, 57-49.
"When the wheels are off a car, it's pretty difficult to drive," coach John Chaney said after Temple shot 10.3 percent from the field in the second half, and 7.1 percent from three-point range.
The last time Temple scored only 20 points in a half, as the 24th-ranked Owls did yesterday, was the first half of last season's NCAA tournament debacle against West Virginia.
Worse news for the Owls (19-9 overall, 13-3 conference) as they headed into the Atlantic Ten tournament as the top seed was that their top reserve, Quincy Wadley, apparently broke his left hand in the first half.
He tried to warm up after halftime but immediately stopped and waited for Temple's coaches to come out. He shook his head and slammed his right hand against a cushioned seat on Temple's bench.
"When I grabbed the ball, I couldn't put it down to dribble," Wadley said after the game as his hand was being put in a cast. "I didn't have any strength."
Wadley was injured after grabbing an offensive rebound. A UMass player came down and slapped the back of Wadley's hand. The injury occurred in the bone right below the ring finger. X-rays were planned for last night, and the usual recovery time for such an injury is three weeks.
Wadley's absence was felt immediately when Mark Karcher, who had hit four of five shots in the first half, got in second-half foul trouble. The Owls had to go with a bigger lineup that had Keaton Sanders, a natural inside player, playing outside.
"We only had Rasheed to shoot threes," point guard Pepe Sanchez said, referring to Rasheed Brokenborough. "It made it easy for them to cover."
The Owls weren't trying to use the injury as an alibi, though. They talked about how the Minutemen's zone gave them problems. Neither of Temple's starting guards had a point until 6 minutes, 45 seconds was left in the game.
Sanchez, who shot 1 for 10, said zones were almost all the Owls would see from now on. The only shot Brokenborough made in nine attempts was a three-pointer with 20.9 seconds left, when UMass had a 54-46 lead.
"It's like having your own child," Chaney said. "What are you going to do, put him back when you don't like his face?"
Chaney said he'd had teams play this badly this late in the regular season. That happens with a lot of teams, he said. He brought up how Rollie Massimino pulled his starters out of a blowout loss to Pittsburgh the year Villanova won the national title.
What doesn't bode well for Temple, Chaney said, is how this team seems to "place too much emphasis on when you have money in your pocket, on when you're making baskets. . . . I've had teams that played well when they didn't score.
"The proudest moment of my life is to get kids to go out and play hard game in and game out, and show they are winners and maybe not winning. That's what I'm hoping to get these kids feeling before the end of our tournament."
The best bet for Temple's NCAA seeding before yesterday was a fifth seed if they won the conference tournament, and a place or two lower if they lost in the tournament. Now, lower those expectations a notch or two more.
The win meant that the Minutemen (13-15, 9-7), who had been expected to go to the NCAA tournament this year, can get to the NIT if they reach the final of the conference tournament. Of course, the team that wins the tournament gets an automatic NCAA bid.
For UMass, Monty Mack hit five of seven three-pointers and finished with 18 points, and Chris Kirkland continued to show why he's one of the most improved players in the conference, finishing with 17 points. Lari Ketner still wasn't a big part of the offense, but he had 13 rebounds and four blocks.
The Minutemen had problems holding on to the ball and putting Temple away, even though Temple's offense was primarily getting to the foul line and usually making one of two free throws.
After UMass took a 45-38 lead with 9:30 left, Temple cut it to 50-46 while making only one field goal. UMass was up by four points when Charlton Clarke was fouled with 1:11 left and saw his free throw drop through after hitting hard against the rim.
Clarke missed his second shot, but Temple was called for a lane violation. He missed another one, but Kitwana Rhymer got the rebound for UMass, which put the game away at the foul line.
MHERST, Mass. - John Chaney said he's had basketball teams that shot 25 percent and won.
Yesterday, Temple shot 10 percent in the second half, which isn't enough to beat most CYO teams. Or Massachusetts.
Yet amazingly, with 1 minute, 17 seconds left in a forgettable season-ending scrum at the Mullins Center, the Owls were still within four. Even though their best play in the final 20 minutes was the 1-for-2 at the foul line, which they pulled off seven times. In one sequence, they missed four shots, which included two tips, from within a couple of feet of the rim. They didn't hit a three-pointer after intermission until there were 20 seconds left. Too late. And even that came off an offensive rebound.
So this is the top seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament?
"We've had this happen before, this late," said Chaney, after his Owls lost, 57-49. "It's not uncommon. It's just a shame, not to make baskets when the other team's only scoring 50-some points. It's something you can't do nothing about. I can't ask the kids to play any better defense. If you make one basket, you kick our [butt]. It just puts an extra strain on you.
"If we're not executing the offense well, what can I do? I can't take anybody out. No way. This is all we've got. It's like your own child. You can't put him back if you don't like his face."
Chaney lost his best perimeter threat, Lynn Greer, six games into the season with a broken bone under his left eye. With 6:14 left in the first half, he lost sixth man Quincy Wadley, who suffered what appears to be a broken bone below his left ring finger shortly after the 6-4 junior made a trey to tie the game at 18-18. While nothing will be official until X-rays are taken, it looks as though that will be the last shot Wadley makes this season.
The good news is, at least the starting five remains intact. Of course, it means forward Keaton Sanders is the first backcourt sub.
"We've been in this situation before," said starting guard Rasheed Brokenborough, the lone senior. "Two years ago, we played 40 minutes every game. I don't think [stamina is] a problem. Quincy's a big part of this team. He scores, he plays defense, he gives us an extra ballhandler. Now, it's important that Pepe [Sanchez] and I don't get in foul trouble."
Temple (19-9, 13-3), the A-10 East champion, plays the winner of Wednesday's Fordham-Virginia Tech game in Thursday's opening quarterfinal. Chaney has made it into the semifinals 16 consecutive years.
"We've had days like this," Brokenborough said. "We've shot bad all year. So we have to do the little things. It's tough when you're playing a team that has nothing to lose. We just have to rebound from this. We don't want anyone in the conference thinking they can beat us."
How about anyone in the NCAA Tournament field?
The Owls, who actually made 13 of their first 28 attempts, led at the break, 29-27. By the time they scored their next bucket, a putback by Kevin Lyde at 14:09, they were down five. When they made their next one, at 6:46, the spread was still the same. Which might say more about the Minutemen (13-15, 9-7) - only three years removed from the Final Four - than anything else.
It was 50-46 with 1:11 showing, when Charlton Clarke, a 67 percent foul shooter, went to the line for a one-and-one. The first hit the back iron, went straight up in the air and fell through. The second missed, but there was a lane violation on Lamont Barnes. Clarke then clanked another, but eighth man Kitwana Rhymer came down with the loose ball. Temple had to foul, and Chris Kirkland made two. Sort of sums it all up.
"We still had a chance to win, even with us missing so many shots," Sanchez said. "We always felt like we were going to hit a couple, but we didn't. It's hard. You just have to keep playing defense and hope that in the long run, you get a few to drop. I don't know what else we can do."
On Jan. 23, the Owls beat UMass by eight at the Apollo. They held the Minutemen to 57 points. Sometimes it's enough.
"For me to expect it to change. . ." Chaney said. "When the wheels are off the car, it's pretty difficult to drive. We're just a bad shooting team. It doesn't bode well for us, as far as I'm concerned."
Barnes had 14 points (4-for-14 from the field, 6-for-10 from the line), including his 1,000th, and a team-high eight rebounds. Mark Karcher scored 10, none after halftime. He also finished with four turnovers and no assists. Sanchez and Brokenborough were a combined 1-for-19 from the field, 1-for-16 from three-point range. And the Owls are now 1-9 in the house that John Calipari built.
Look at the bright side. At least Chaney didn't threaten to go after anybody who wasn't in his own locker room.
UMass, the third seed from the East, will open with 5-22 Duquesne on Wednesday. The winner then gets Xavier, the No. 2 seed from the West. UMass beat Xavier here by one in double overtime last weekend.
Monty Mack was 5-for-7 on treys for UMass yesterday, all from the left side. Kirkland, the A-10 Player of the Week, was 5-for-7 from the field and finished with 17 points. And Roman Catholic's Lari Ketner, in his last home game, provided 13 rebounds and four blocks.
"Kids put too much emphasis on making baskets," Chaney said. "It's a good-time thing. The hardest thing to do is play well when you're not scoring. You have to overcome that. Isn't that the kind of thing sports are supposed to do?"
MHERST -- University of Massachusetts coach Bruiser Flint said he knows what it feels like to
lose on senior day. The Minutemen didn't want their four seniors to experience that feeling.
Monty Mack scored 18 points, Chris Kirkland scored 17 and the Temple guards made three of 21 shots from the floor in the game as the Minutemen dumped 24th-ranked Temple 57-49 yesterday at the Mullins Center.
Get them a win
"We were in the locker room and everybody was talking about sending them off on a good note. In order for us to do that, we had to play hard," said Mack.
The four seniors, Lari Ketner, Charlton Clarke and walk-ons Ross Burns of Greenfield and Andy Maclay started and finished the game. Burns and Maclay got about a minute of time each.
"I lost on my senior night. It hurts," said Flint, a former guard at A-10 rival St. Joseph's. "It's a bad feeling. I've never been involved with a losing senior night here."
It proved to be a pretty big win for the Minutemen, who earned the third seed from the East in the Atlantic 10 Conference post-season tournament. They'll open Wednesday afternoon against Duquesne, the West Division's sixth seed. A win by UMass would have them face Xavier, the West's No. 2 seed, on Thursday at 2.
UMass is now 13-15, while Temple is 19-9.
Twenty-four seconds into the game, Burns launched a three-point shot that hit nothing but air. It went out of bounds off a Temple player.
" was happy the ball went out of bounds off them," laughed Burns.
"If you're open, shoot the ball. He shoots an airball. He was wide open," Flint added. "In practice, he's hitting those and talking to me as he runs down the sideline, 'Tell 'em to guard me.' He shot an airball -- on national television, too."
Sign of things to come
That airball proved to be somewhat prophetic, because after leading 29-27 at halftime, the Owls missed the basket early and often in the second half. They shot only 3-of-29 from the floor in the second half, and missed 13 of 14 shots from three-point range.
"What we basically tried to do was just stay in their faces," said Clarke. "Coach told us if we stayed in their faces, and let them take contested shots, half their shots wouldn't fall -- not let them do what they usually do, which is get wide-open looks and drain threes."
Temple's Rasheed Brokenborough missed eight shots before hitting a three pointer in the final minute. Pepe Sanchez missed all eight of his three-point attempts. The Owls' only consistent outside shooter, Quincy Wadley, had three points in seven minutes before breaking a finger late in the first half.
There were six lead changes and three ties in the first half, but the Minutemen took the lead for keeps early in the second half. They opened the half with a 9-0 run. Ketner started it off with a jump hook in the lane, Mack drained one of his five treys, Mike Babul tipped in a Ketner miss and Kirkland rebounded a Clarke miss. All the while, Temple was missing five straight shots.
The Owls made their first basket of the half with 14:16 left on a rebound hoop by Kevin Lyde. The closest Temple got in the second half was four points, the last time at 50-46 with 1:17 left. But the Minutemen hit five of their next six foul shots to put the game away.
Lamont Barnes led Temple with 14 points and Mark Karcher added 10.
"This is just a nice momentum thing for going into the A-10 tournament," said Flint.
TIP INS: Yesterday's game marked the first time CBS had broadcast a game from the Mullins Center, and it was also the network's first regular-season Atlantic 10 game.
Mike Babul may have set an NCAA record yesterday, wearing the most jerseys in one game. The Minuteman forward started with his regular 23, but bled on it and changed to 34. But before Babul could take the floor, he bled on the new jersey and came on the floor wearing No. 35. NCAA rules require players to change uniforms if they have blood on them.
Seniors Burns, Maclay, Clarke and Ketner were honored in pre-game ceremonies. It's been quite a four years for Maclay, who had one trip to the Final Four as a member of the UMass hoop team and was the punter on the UMass football Division 1-AA national champions this past fall.
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MHERST - Trailing No. 24 Temple 29-27 at halftime, the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team vowed to send its seniors and the regular season off on a high note.
The Minutemen reeled off a 12-2 run to start the second half and led the rest of the way to upset the Owls, 57-49, in the final game of the regular season.
 Monty Mack gets the shot off past Lamont Barnes. |
The win, coupled with St. Bonaventure's surprising home loss to St. Joseph's Saturday, locked up the third seed in the Atlantic 10 East for the Minutemen in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. UMass (13-15, 9-7 A-10) will take on No. 6 Duquesne of the A-10 West Wednesday at 2 p.m.
"This is a nice momentum thing going into the A-10 Tournament," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said. "The tournament is about focus and courage. If you come out focused every night, you have a chance to win basketball games."
Senior guard Charlton Clarke is optimistic about the team's chances in the tournament.
"If we play like we did tonight, we should have no problem playing four games in Philadelphia," he said. "We still have a lot of basketball left."
While the Owls are nationally known for their defense, it was the Minutemen who put on a clinic on dismantling an offense. With UMass employing more zone than usual, the Owls shot an abysmal 10 percent from the field after intermission and didn't score from the field until more than 5:30 had elapsed in the half.
"We just wanted to stay in their face and not (give them) any open looks and just rebound the ball on the defensive end," said junior Chris Kirkland. "I think we did a good job of it."
"You try to contest and make them work for every shot and rebound," Flint said. "If you leave them open, they'll kill you."
Mark Karcher, who led all scorers with 10 points in the first half and torched the Minutemen for 21 in the teams' first meeting, was invisible Sunday, missing all six shots he took.
"It is just a shame that we couldn't make baskets," said Owl coach John Chaney. "Within a minute or something we were still within two possessions. It's something you can do nothing about. When the wheels come off of a car, it's pretty difficult to drive the car."
Temple's ability to get to the free-throw line kept the Owls alive. They made 13-of-20 attempts from the stripe.
Lari Ketner tied the game at 29-29, 49 seconds into the second half and Mack buried a 3-pointer less than a minute later to give UMass a 32-29 advantage. Back-to-back put-backs by Mike Babul and Kirkland gave UMass its biggest lead to that point, 36-29.
Two free throws by Lamont Barnes slowed the run, but Mack drained another three, putting the hosts ahead 39-31 with 14:41 left.
Temple (19-9. 13-3 A-10) pulled within four twice, but UMass had answers and pulled away at the end. Comfortably ahead (57-49) with 3.9 seconds left, Flint took out seniors Clarke and Ketner and, to the delight of the crowd, replaced them with senior walk-ons Andy Maclay and Ross Burns.
Mack led all scorers with 18 points, while Kirkland chipped in 17 points and seven rebounds while doing a stellar job on Karcher. Ketner scored only eight points in his last game at the Mullins Center, but he grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked four shots.
"Lari was a presence out there," Flint said. "He blocked shots and got balls when we needed them."
"I just wanted to play physical with the big guys and just play D," Ketner said. "I just wanted to beat them. I don't like Temple."
Barnes led Temple with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Maclay and Burns got their first collegiate starts along with Ketner, Clarke and Mack as part of senior day. Clarke got the ball to Burns for an open 3-point attempt on the wing, but the Greenfield native airballed it 24 seconds into the game. The ball went out of bounds off Temple, allowing Flint to insert Kirkland and Babul.
"I think he was happy that it went out of bounds off of them," Burns said of Flint. "It was an emotional thing for the seniors to go out there together for our last game in the Mullins."
"I said to Ross before the game, 'Don't be afraid. If you're open, shoot the ball and he shoots and air ball," said Flint with a chuckle. "He shot an air ball and on national television, too."
The two teams exchanged the lead several times before Temple finished the half on a 9-3 run to hold a 29-27 advantage.
MHERST - After a long season of disappointment and under-achievement on the court, the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team took a step toward reversing its fortunes with its 57-49 victory over Temple in the final game of the regular season Sunday.
Following St. Bonaventure's 64-60 loss to St. Joseph's Saturday, the Minutemen needed the mild upset over the Owls to lock up a No. 3 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, which begins Wednesday in Philadelphia.
That's a generous reward for the Minutemen, who were expecting the No. 4 seed and a much tougher road to the A-10 tournament finals.
That's where UMass has to go - and win - in order to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. As it stands, the Minutemen would miss out on the NCAAs for the first time in seven seasons after finishing their regular-season campaign at a mediocre 13-15.
Even to qualify for the National Invitational Tournament, the Minutemen would need to reach the finals, at least.
History, however, is not on the Minutemen's side this time. No school has ever won the A-10 tourney by winning four games in a row - which is what UMass is forced to do after failing to earn a bye.
That's why seeding is so critical. Because of UMass' win over Temple, it will open the tournament against No. 6 Duquesne - undoubtedly the worst team in the league. And the Minutemen haven't lost to the Dukes in 12 meetings.
A win over Duquesne (Wednesday, 2 p.m.) gives UMass No. 2 Xavier. The Minutemen have taken three of the last four games from the Musketeers, including a 78-77 double-overtime thriller on Feb. 20.
UMass coach Bruiser Flint has proven he can draw up a game plan that can shut down, or at least limit, an explosive Xavier team.
As a No. 4 seed, the Minutemen would have opened up against the A-10 West's No. 5 seed Dayton - a tough outing - and moved on to West No. 1 George Washington, which has eliminated UMass the past two seasons. The Colonials also beat the Minutemen this season, 78-72, on Feb. 17.
If the Minutemen are able to win two games on their side of the bracket, they will face East No. 1 Temple in the semifinals. But the Owls are the weaker top-seed, having lost guard Quincy Wadley with a broken finger Sunday and having already lost guard Lynn Greer.
While the team's chances appear to be looking up, Flint is saying the right things and not taking anything for granted.
"Duquesne is going to be ready to play. Let's beat Duquesne first before we start talking about other games," Flint said.
Flint said he believes the seeding will have little effect when game time comes, citing an example from the two past tournaments.
"Last year we beat GW in the regular season and we lost to them in the playoffs," Flint said. "The year before that, we did the same thing. We've got to take it game to game. We got Duquesne first and that's all I'm really worried about."
After Sunday's game, Temple coach John Chaney was optimistic about UMass' chances.
"I think they have the pieces. They have the parts. Naturally, they don't have the point guard they once had," Chaney said.
"The other kids are falling in nicely. You've got a better effort out of (Chris Kirkland). Now, you're getting some real team work out of that kid. ...Maybe this game will help them play like they should play, because they got the elements. I mean, there's not that many better centers in the country."
UMass has proven of late it can play toe-to-toe with the best teams in its conference. That has guard Charlton Clarke feeling more confident these days.
"We've still got a lot of basketball left," Clarke said. "If we come and play like we did tonight, we shouldn't have a problem playing four games down in Philadelphia."
MHERST - There has been no lack of people trying to analyze the play of unpredictable University of Massachusetts center Lari Ketner. Sunday, in his own unique fashion, Temple coach John Chaney took a crack at it.
"There's not that many better centers than Ketner in the country, but he has to play with his head instead of his ass all the time. That's his problem," Chaney said. "You can't play with emotion all the time. When you look straight ahead and you can only see what's in front of you, you forget that your ass has eyes in it looking at what you just left. That's what happens to kids and Ketner's that kind of kid. Somebody has to take a baseball bat and hit him across the head to turn a light on in his head.
"He has great talent and (UMass) is going to need him to play basketball if you expect to win games in the tournament," Chaney said. "You cannot have a kid that scores six or seven points and ends up sitting on the bench. We went at him and he stayed out of foul trouble today. Normally, he's in foul trouble and he sits on the bench and helps Bruiser coach all the time. They don't need any more coaches, especially ones that are 7 feet tall. They need him to play."
Ketner had eight points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots yesterday, a performance that Chaney believes could serve has a springboard.
"This may have helped him. He may look at this tape and say, 'Why am I able to stay on the floor and play so well, rebound so well, do the little things?' He got two rebounds there that took them off the snide," Chaney said. "I watched all the tapes and he looked absolutely horrible. It will help everybody if he just gets out and plays."
* * *
 The mysterious number 35 makes its Mullins Center debut. |
Under NCAA rules, players aren't allowed to participate with blood on their uniforms. The UMass managers pulled out a No. 24 jersey to replace it. Carmelo Travieso, the last Minuteman to wear No. 24, was sitting behind the UMass bench, where he joking yelled, "Hey, that's mine." But the long-range shooting alum needn't have worried because Babul wasn't done bleeding yet.
He had to go to the locker room to get his nose attended to and on the way some blood landed on the No. 24 jersey, knocking it out of the rotation.
When he finally returned, he wore No. 35, giving Flint an idea.
"He should play the lottery or keno with the numbers," Flint said.
* * *
Travieso wasn't the only alum in attendance; in fact, four members of the 1995-96 Final Four team were on hand. Dana Dingle came with St. Raymond's coach Gary Deceasare to see St. Raymond's alum Charlton Clarke honored as part of senior day. Tyrone Weeks and Rigoberto Nunez were also in the crowd.
* * *
The Minutemen finished the regular season 2-1 against ranked opponents... Monty Mack needs just three points to get 500 for the season and 60 to reach his 1,000th point. Mack has started all 60 games in his UMass career. The record is 112 straight by Carl Smith...
UMass has now won eight straight senior days... The Minutemen are undefeated this year in day games at home... The Minutemen have never been four games under .500 in Flint's tenure, and are 12-0 when playing three games under.
MHERST - The juniors provided the offense on Senior Day, leaving the University of Massachusetts with a feeling that there may be at least a few more days of basketball left.
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UMass finished its regular season with a 13-15 record, and 9-7 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Coupled with St. Bonaventure's overtime home loss to St. Joseph's Saturday, the Minutemen snagged third place in the East Division, which means they will open conference tournament play Wednesday afternoon at 2 against Duquesne (5-22, 1-15).
No team that has had to play four games in the tournament has ever won it, and that's the challenge facing UMass at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. But the Minutemen, who beat Duquesne 69-55 and were also 2-1 against ranked teams this year, continue to defy logic.
Yesterday they did it with stifling defense that held East Division champion Temple (19-9, 13-3) to paltry 10.3 percent shooting (3 for 29) in the second half. It was a special win for UMass seniors Lari Ketner, Charlton Clarke, Ross Burns and Andy Maclay, who played at home for the final time and were all in the starting lineup.
"When you don't shoot well, you can always attribute that to the other team," said Temple coach John Chaney, who felt his team was its own worst enemy.
"When the wheels start coming off, it's hard to drive the car, and the wheels are off for us now," Chaney said.
On the other hand, UMass showed it is still capable of playing solid basketball. Now the question is whether the Minutemen can do it four days in a row.
"If we play like we did here, we should have no problem playing four games in Philadelphia," Clarke said after scoring 10 points (despite 3-for-15 shooting) with five assists. "We've got a lot of basketball left."
Mack (6 for 11) bounced back from Tuesday's 1-for-13 shooting at La Salle, hitting 5 of 7 3-pointers. Ketner scored eight points, and was a defensive presence with 13 rebounds and four blocks.
Lamont Barnes (14 points) led Temple. Mark Karcher, who riddled UMass with 21 points in January at Temple, had 10 but didn't score in the second half.
And Temple's guard play was disastrous. Pepe Sanchez shot 1 for 10 and Rasheed Brokenborough 1 for 9, while Quincy Wadley sat out the second half after breaking a finger in the first half, which ended with Temple leading 29-27.
"We just wanted to stay in their faces and not give them any open looks," said Kirkland, who helped put the clamps on Karcher. UMass also played some zone defense, and UMass coach Bruiser Flint agreed that the key to stopping Temple was not giving the Owls any open looks.
"Karcher can take you off the dribble, and Rasheed and Pepe can kill you with open shots," Flint said. "The key against Temple is to contest and rebound, and not turn the ball over, but it's not as simple as it sounds."
UMass committed 18 turnovers, but only seven in the second half. The game turned on a 12-0 Minutemen run that began late in the first half, when Clarke hit a 3-pointer, and a 9-0 burst to open the second half that pushed the lead to 36-27.
Temple went 7:19 without a field goal during a 15-2 UMass spree that gave the Minutemen a 39-31 lead with 14:43 left. The Owls kept battling with 14 second-half offensive rebounds, but that also reflected how poorly they were shooting.
"I thought Lari did a great job defensively against both Barnes and Kevin Lyde (seven points in 22 minutes)," Flint said. "Now comes the A-10 tournament, and that will be about focus and courage. The team that can fight through the nicks and fatigue will be the one that wins it."
MHERST - It could lose to Duquesne, which is nearly impossible to do, or it could go down to Philadelphia and win the whole darned thing.
In its last-ditch bid to shed its label as one of America's most disappointing men's basketball teams, the University of Massachusetts has inherited a new title as America's most baffling. All this season's hand-wringing has caused us to overlook the pure madcap fun this team offers every time it takes the floor and makes the phrase "anything is possible" seem like dry understatement.
For UMass to win the Atlantic 10 tournament would be, in its own bizarre way, a more remarkable accomplishment than even making the 1996 Final Four. All the Final Four team had to overcome was Nolan Richardson, Allen Iverson and whatever other obstacles America's basketball elite could throw in its way.
This year's team is trying to overcome itself, a far more monstrous challenge. The message of yesterday's 57-49 home win over Temple is that even at this late date, maybe it can.
"Our new name," Charlton Clarke declared, "is Cinderella."
If so, what was the old name? Cinderella's wicked stepsisters? No, there are probably several wicked stepsisters out there who could shoot better than this team, and probably take it to school in the low post, too.
But suddenly, it's Temple that seems worried about the Atlantic 10 tournament, and UMass that roars confidently into Wednesday's Duquesne game, armed with a winning streak of one and hoping the basketball gods have decided they've tortured the Minutemen long enough.
"It doesn't seem like we have the attitude to win games like this," Temple coach John Chaney said. "And you can run as many offensive sets as you can, but it doesn't matter if you're missing close, point-blank shots."
Now hold on, John. Were you talking about how your team played yesterday, or how UMass plays on alternating days?
Yesterday's game began with UMass walk-on Ross Burns, starting because it was Senior Day, throwing up an airball. Using that moment as a training film, Temple shot 3 for 29 in the second half.
Even the fates seem to be smiling on UMass again. They willed St. Bonaventure to defeat Saturday at home, where the Bonnies don't lose often, and that left the door open for UMass to finish third in the Atlantic 10 East.
The prize was a first-round date against Duquesne, which has lost 19 of its last 20, and 22 of its last 24. Of course, this is just the type of nothing-to-it game that gives UMass fits, but Chaney thinks the Minutemen are coming together.
"They're feeding off each other now, instead of eating at each other," said Chaney, reminding us that during those occasional moments when he is not swearing his head off, he remains the league's best quote.
UMass is playing with confidence and pride. But UMass also remains a losing team. It began yesterday with a worse Ratings Percentage Index than Lafayette, and has not won more than three straight all year.
Now it must win four to make Selection Sunday what it has been every year since 1991: a reward for what went right, rather than punishment for what went wrong.
Unlikely? Absolutely. But impossible? Not for these zany characters who can beat Xavier, lose to La Salle and beat Temple, all within eight days' time.
So enjoy it while you can, UMass fans. Good and bad teams come and go, but you'll be able to tell your grandchildren you had a front-row seat to one of the weirdest teams of all time.
To think the Minutemen can win the A-10 tournament defies all logic. For some reason, though, that suddenly seems like the best reason to think they may.
MHERST - For senior guards Ross Burns and Andy Maclay, starting yesterday's University of Massachusetts men's basketball home finale rewarded four years of dedication to a team that rarely called upon them in games.
"I knew Andy wouldn't shoot, and I knew Ross would," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said after the 57-49 win over Temple at Mullins Center. "Our plan was that if Temple got the ball first, we'd foul them on the floor (in a non-shooting situation) and substitute for them."
Instead, Burns shot a 3-point airball that went out of bounds off a Temple player's hands, and both walk-ons came out after 24 seconds. One fan who held up a sign reading "Ross Burns Career Point-O-Meter" didn't have to change the number 13 on the total. "Getting to start was great, but I think Bruiser was happy when the ball went out of bounds (to stop the clock)," Burns said.
Burns and Maclay returned with 3.9 seconds left, replacing fellow seniors Lari Ketner and Charlton Clarke as all four played their final home game.
"I'm just glad those two guys (Ketner and Clarke) were able to go out at home on a winning note, and against Temple, of all teams," Maclay said.
Flint said he always knew he'd start Burns and Maclay in the home finale, even though it was on national TV and came as UMass was trying to build momentum for this week's Atlantic 10 tournament. Until yesterday, Maclay (who missed part of the season while punting for UMass' Division I-AA national football champions) had not entered a game, and Burns had played only one minute at George Washington.
"We ran a play for Ross at GW, he got fouled, and then he missed two foul shots," Flint said with a laugh. But Flint thinks enough of Burns to say the Greenfield High graduate has coaching potential.
The only non-senior starter was junior guard Monty Mack, who has started 60 straight games. Mack, who has two years of eligibility remaining (assuming he graduates on time in 2000) has a chance to break the UMass record of 112 straight starts by Carl Smith (1983-87).
That was why Flint chose him to start instead of Chris Kirkland or Mike Babul, even though it meant UMass started the game with four guards.
"Sometimes when I'm not going well, I practice with the second team so I'm used to those guys," Mack said of starting a game with Burns and Maclay on the floor.
TOURNEY CHANCE:
UMass can qualify for the National Invitation Tournament by finishing .500, which would mean winning three Atlantic 10 tournament games and reaching the conference final. Making an eighth straight NCAA tournament will require winning the A-10 tourney and earning the automatic berth.
Winning yesterday means UMass, as the East Division's third-place team, will play West cellar-dweller Duquesne (5-22, 1-15) in Wednesday's first round. A loss would have pitted the Minutemen against Dayton (10-16, 5-11), the West's No. 5 team.
The UMass-Duquesne winner will play Xavier (20-9, 12-4), which UMass edged 78-77 in double overtime, in Thursday's 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal.
COACH TALK:
Ketner has sometimes been accused of playing without enough emotion, but Temple coach John Chaney said the UMass center falters when he shows too much.
"He's got to play with his head," Chaney said after watching Ketner grab 13 rebounds. "I've seen all the film on UMass, and he's looked absolutely horrible. But this may have helped because he stayed out of foul trouble, and that helps Kirkland, Mack . . . everybody."
Asked if playing his final home game fired him up, Ketner said, "Nah, I just wanted to beat them."
ET CETERA:
UMass finished 9-5 at home, and has still never fallen four games under .500 with Flint as coach. In three years, the Minutemen are 12-0 when they enter a game three games under .500 . . . Mack has 940 career points, third behind Julius Erving (1,370) and Jim McCoy (1,195) for players in their first two UMass seasons . . . UMass is 5-0 when holding foes under 50 points.
| Temple Owls (#24) | 49 |
| Massachusetts Minutemen | 57 |
| at the Mullins Center | |
TEMPLE (49)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Barnes 40 4-14 6-10 4-8 1 2 14
Karcher 34 4-11 0-0 1-2 0 5 10
Lyde 22 2-7 3-4 5-6 1 3 7
Brokenborough 38 1-9 2-2 3-5 0 1 5
Sanchez 40 1-10 1-2 0-4 5 4 3
Sanders 14 1-1 1-2 1-3 0 3 3
Rollerson 5 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 4
Wadley 7 1-2 0-0 1-1 0 0 3
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TOTALS 200 16-57 13-20 15-29 7 18 49
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Percentages: FG-.281, FT-.650. 3-Point Goals:
4-22, .182 (Karcher 2-5, Brokenborough 1-8,
Sanchez 0-8, Wadley 1-1). Team rebounds: 6.
Blocked shots: 5 (Lyde 3, Barnes, Brokenborough).
Turnovers: 12 (Karcher 4, Barnes 3, Brokenborough
2, Sanchez, Sanders, Wadley). Steals: 12 (Sanchez
4, Barnes 3, Wadley 2, Brokenborough, Rollerson,
Sanders).
MASSACHUSETTS (57)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Clarke 39 3-15 3-4 1-4 5 1 10
A Maclay 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ketner 38 3-6 2-2 1-13 0 3 8
M Mack 40 6-11 1-2 1-5 2 0 18
Burns 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Cruz 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Smith 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Kirkland 38 5-7 7-8 3-7 2 3 17
Babul 27 1-3 0-2 3-5 4 4 2
Rhymer 14 1-2 0-1 3-3 0 2 2
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TOTALS 200 19-45 13-19 12-37 13 13 57
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Percentages: FG-.422, FT-.684. 3-Point Goals:
6-16, .375 (Clarke 1-7, M Mack 5-7, Burns 0-1,
Babul 0-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 5
(Ketner 4, Rhymer). Turnovers: 18 (M Mack 6,
Clarke 4, Ketner 3, Kirkland 3, Babul, Cruz).
Steals: 5 (Kirkland 2, M Mack 2, Clarke).
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Temple 29 20 - 49
Massachusetts 27 30 - 57
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Technical fouls: None. A: 7,782. Officials: Jim
Burr, Reggie Greenwood, Joe Demayo.
