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Roe at home during wild UMass ride
By Wayne Coffey, New York Daily News, 3/24/1995

It was a harmless question by a home-state journalist, in the cement bowels of Meadowlands Arena. The guy wanted to know how Lou Roe, Massachusetts' All-America forward from Atlantic City, felt about playing in the NCAA round of 16 in New Jersey.

"It's kind of special to be back home as we go to the Final Four, and stopping in New Jersey," Roe said.

The words had scarcely left Roe's mouth when coach John Calipari's eyebrows danced upward. "What did he say? Is he nuts?" Calipari muttered at the other end of the dais.

So the first trash talk of the East Regional semifinals comes from UMass' decorated senior, its best player, its emotional firebrand.

So it was just one more little surprise from No. 2 UMass (28-4), which goes against No. 6 Tulsa (24-7) in tonight's regional semifinal.

For Calipari's Minutemen, the biggest constant this season, apart from winning, has been the steady specter of the unexpected. They began the year by blowing out defending champion Arkansas, 104-80.

They had their academic standards (or lack thereof) assailed by the Boston Globe.

They became the first New England team to be ranked No. 1.

They endured recurring discipline problems involving senior guard Mike Williams, late-game miracle worker, who ran so afoul of team rules last month that he finally was thrown off for good.

It was only fitting that it was UMass that was in town on the night of the Rutgers halftime sit-in.

"Everytime we had problems, we all grouped together and said, `Don't worry about it,' " Roe said. "If we're going to worry about problems, we're going to worry about them later. When we're on the basketball court, we worry about basketball."

Only four teams have stayed in the top 10 all season, and UMass is one of them (the others are UCLA, Kentucky and North Carolina). UMass became only the second NCAA team to win four straight regular-season titles and four conference championships. With victories over St. Peter's and Stanford, it has a victory total exceeded only by Arkansas' 29.

The winning has gone on unabated without Williams, who had six game-winning shots in his career. He was banished from the team 11 games and 10 victories ago.

"We have 13 quality players on the UMass team, and we had 14 when Mike was on the team," said Derek Kellogg, a co-captain and guard.

Kellogg was wearing his maroon and white warmups, with "Refuse to Lose" embroidered on the chest. "This is the best group of people I've been around," Kellogg said. "It's been able to block out (adversity) to a point where it's helped us."

Calipari downplayed the upheaval yesterday. He said it was mostly created by the media. "What problems have we had? We've had no problems. We've had normal things that normal teams go through," Calipari said.

He has stayed the winning course remarkably well. He is entitled to his spin, even if his own star, Lou Roe, wasn't quite buying it.

Roe spat in the proverbial face of the precious March dictum of playing them one game at a time by talking about the Final Four. Now he was saying, "We've been through enough problems through the course of the year. We're a very focused and confident basketball club."


Minutemen clock Tulsa
By Wayne Coffey, New York Daily News, 3/25/1995

The buzzer sounded and the rout had been concluded, but a cluster of UMass fans were not quite ready to head into the swampland night. They stayed in the building. They began to chant:

"We want UConn! We want UConn!" They roared in delight and then they shouted at John Calipari and a gazelle named Marcus Camby as they did TV interviews.

Calipari had said his UMass team was not excited about winning the Atlantic 10, or even two tournament games. Now the collective UMass pulse is beginning to quicken. It is impossible for it not to be after the Minutemen advanced to their first Final Eight last night with a 76-51 victory over Tulsa in the East Regional semifinals at Meadowlands Arena.

For No. 2 UMass (29-4), the sole obstacle in the path of a trip to Seattle and possible tilt with archrival UConn is No. 4 Oklahoma State, which edged top-seeded Wake Forest earlier yesterday.

Calipari had shown his players a tape of Tulsa's upset over UCLA last year, just in case they were inclined to think Tulsa (24-8) would be easy. Did it work? Something sure did, which was why the UMass defense did a game-long swarm, and why there were so many empty seats by the end you would've thought this was Nets vs. Clippers.

The principal reason for the rout was Camby, the 6-11 beanpole from Hartford. Camby had 20 points, nine boards and five blocks in 22 minutes.

"He's a tremendous player. He runs like a point guard," said Tulsa star Shea Seals (19 points, 6-of-16 FGs).

"His presence in the lane affected our shooting percentage immensely," Tulsa coach Tubby Smith said. Tulsa shot 27% (17-of-63), lowlighted by an 8-for-28 combined by Seals and point guard Pooh Williamson.

Camby's most spectacular points came on a breakaway reverse slam late in the first half. That came near the close of a 26-6 UMass explosion that rendered a 9-9 game into a 35-15 rout.

UMass got a lackluster effort from All-American Lou Roe (eight points, nine rebounds, five turnovers) of Atlantic City, but it scarcely mattered. Not with the contributions of point guard Derek Kellogg (12 points, four assists) and backup guard Carmelo Travieso (nine points, six boards).

"I had a subpar game, but I feel good because we have other guys who stepped up," Roe said.

Down 42-24 at the half, Tulsa actually had a shot at climbing back in early in the second half, when UMass was throwing the ball everywhere but onto the Turnpike. The only Minuteman basket in almost nine minutes after intermission was a three-pointer by Travieso that made it 48-31 with just under 141/2 to play.

But there was a problem for Tulsa. To catch up, you have to make baskets. This they did not do, partly because of shot selection that ranged from dubious to ridiculous.

A year ago, Tulsa was knocked out by eventual champion Arkansas. Smith was asked if he thought UMass was a championship-caliber team.

"Yes," he said.

Photo
Derek Kellogg brings it up-court under pressure.


Tulsa Golden Hurricane 51
Massachusetts Minutemen 76
NCAA Tournament East Regional Semi-final
at E. Rutherford NJ

TULSA (51) -- Ray Poindexter 1-3 2-4 4, Alvin Williamson 2-12 2-2 6, Cordell Love 0-6 0-0 0, Shea Seals 6-16 6-8 19, DeWayne Bonner 1-2 1-1 3, Kwanza Johnson 3-13 1-2 8, Kevin Grawer 1-3 0-0 3, Jamie Gillin 0-1 0-0 0, Craig Hernadi 0-0 1-2 1, J.R. Rollo 2-3 0-0 4, Rafael Maldonado 1-4 1-2 3. TOTALS: 17-63 (27.0%) 14-21 (66.7%) 51.

MASSACHUSETTS (76) -- Dana Dingle 1-1 1-4 3, Donta Bright 4-6 0-0 8, Jason Germain 0-0 0-0 0, Edgar Padilla 1-2 0-0 2, Derek Kellogg 4-7 2-2 12, Louis Roe 4-10 0-2 8, Marcus Camby 6-15 8-12 20, Carmelo Travieso 3-9 0-0 9, Jeff Meyer 1-1 0-0 2, Tyrone Weeks 2-4 2-2 6, Ted Cottrell 0-1 1-2 1, Rigoberto Nunez 0-1 0-0 0, Inus Norville 2-3 1-3 5. TOTALS: 28-60 (46.7%) 15-27 (55.6%) 76.

HALFTIME: Massachusetts 42, Tulsa 24. 3-POINTERS: Massachusetts 5-12 (Travieso 3-8, Kellogg 2-4), Tulsa 3-23 (Johnson 1-2, Grawer 1-2, Seals 1-5, Bonner 0-1, Love 0-5, Williamson 0-8). REBOUNDS: Massachusetts 51 (Roe, Camby 9), Tulsa 39 (Johnson 9). ASSISTS: Massachusetts 12 (Kellogg 4), Tulsa 6 (Williamson, Seals 2). FOULED OUT: Maldonado. TOTAL FOULS: Massachusetts 18, Tulsa 19. ATTENDANCE: 19,689. RECORDS: Massachusetts 29-4, Tulsa 24-8.

Tulsa                  24     27  --  51
Massachusetts          42     34  --  76

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