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Minutemen roll, Bonnies routed
By Matt Vautour, The Daily Hampshire Gazette Staff Writer, 2/11/1999

AMHERST - In its best effort since upsetting Kansas, the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team got ahead early and never looked back as the Minutemen cruised past St. Bonaventure, 64-46, in front of 5,473 last night at the William D. Mullins Center.

In the first minute of the game senior center Lari Ketner dove on the floor to try to save possession of a loose ball going out of bounds. He was unsuccessful, but the effort sent a message.

"He hasn't done that all year. That set the tone for what we were looking for," Flint said. "We played great defensively and we knocked down some shots and we took care of the ball. We came out and played hard tonight. We have to feel good about ourselves."

Photo
Chris Kirkland contributed with 8 points & 8 rebounds.
Junior forward Chris Kirkland agreed.

"Guys came out and they played with heart and they dived on the floor (for loose balls)," Kirkland said. "Guys were just ready. This is the way we have to play for the rest of the season."

The Minutemen won without reserve forward Ajmal Basit, who was dismissed from the team on Tuesday, for an unresolvable personality conflict with coach Bruiser Flint.

Just over a month ago, the Bonnies overcame a double digit lead to upend the Minutemen, 53-50 in Olean, N.Y. Last night they tried to do the same thing, using a 7-0 run to knife the UMass lead from 12 points to five at 35-30 with 15:10 remaining in the game.

Flint called timeout to regroup his team and whatever he said in the huddle worked. The Minutemen tore of a 14-2 run to widen their lead to 49-32 with 7:51 remaining. The Bonnies never got closer than a dozen the rest of the way. The 18-point margin of victory was UMass largest in league play this year.

"UMass started hitting their shots and did a good job of defending us," said St. Bonaventure coach Jim Baron.

The win allowed UMass (11-12) to keep pace with Rhode Island in the Atlantic 10 race. The two teams have matching 7-4 conference records and are tied for second in the conference's East Division. The Rams and Minutemen will meet at noon on Saturday in the Providence Civic Center.

Photo
Mike Babul snatches a rebound over J.R. Bremer.
Tim Winn led the Bonnies with 16 points, but he wasn't nearly the defensive disruption to the Minutemen that he was in the teams' first meeting. To keep the ball away from Winn's steal-prone hands, UMass had Mike Babul and Kirkland bring the ball up the court on occasion.

"Tonight, we let the forwards bring it up a few times to mix it up," Flint said. "Up there Winn just took it from us and went down and laid it in. We did a good job on him in the halfcourt defensively. We didn't let him get any easy opportunities."

Without Basit, the UMass frontcourt players needed to stay out of foul trouble and they were able to do so. The Minutemen only committed two fouls the entire first half, both of which came on guards. Seldom-used junior center Anthony Oates saw action in the first half and grabbed one rebound.

Ketner is confident he can help fill the void.

"Anthony has been great in practice all year," Ketner said. "It'll be nice to see him get a chance."

Mack had a pair of 3-pointers, including one that bounced off the rim four times, while and Kirkland caught an alley-oop pass from Charlton Clarke as UMass ran of eight consecutive points to open a 20-9 lead with 7:02 left before intermission. The Bonnies picked up their play and narrowed the margin to 29-21 at halftime.

This marked the fourth time UMass has held an opponent under 50 points. The Minutemen have won all four of those games.


UMass romps on the court
By Ron Chimelis, The Springfield Union-News Staff Writer, 2/11/1999

AMHERST - It was an eventful 24 hours to say the least. Ajmal Basit got thrown off the team. Mike Babul swished a 3-pointer. Anthony Oates played and Winston Smith scored.

And in its last-ditch effort to stitch together its season, the University Of Massachusetts men's basketball team rapped St. Bonaventure 64-46 before 5,473 at Mullins Center. The night began with Lari Ketner diving for a loose ball, and it ended with Bruiser Flint saying the Minutemen's best effort of the season -- in his opinion -- was not necessarily linked to one of his most enigmatic players.

"The first play of the game, Lari dove out of bounds for a loose ball, and that set the tone - he hadn't done that in a game or in practice all year," Flint said after UMass (11-12 overall, 7-4 Atlantic 10) had won its second straight. The Minutemen remained tied with Rhode Island (which beat Virginia Tech 76-67 last night) for second place in the Atlantic 10 East Division.

But Flint wouldn't go along with the notion that throwing Basit off the team Tuesday night lit a fire under a team that has been searching for motivation as often as not this season.

"If you can't play with a sense of urgency, you shouldn't be out there," Flint said. "That (Basit's Punishment) had nothing to do with our playing. It just happened Tuesday, and it's only one game.

St. Bonaventure (11-12, 5-6), which took a three-game winning streak (all at home) into last night's action, fell two games out in the race for second place, which carries a first round bye in next month's conference tournament. UMass plays Rhode Island Saturday at Providence Civic Center.

Photo
Monty Mack had his usual unstoppable game.
Monty Mack led UMass with 24 points. Ketner had 12 points with 8 rebounds, and Chris Krkland had eight rebounds.

"We (players) really don't know the situation," Ketner said of the Basit development. "He was my friend. We've just got to keep our heads up, so it isn't a total loss."

St. Bonaventure was led by point guard Tim Winn -- whose 3.75 steals per game would have ranked him among the nation's leaders if he'd played enough games -- had no steals, two assists and five turnovers. And St. Bonaventure shot 30 percent, a far cry from its season high53.6 percent in Saturday's 77-67 win over Dayton.

Babul's 3-point shot in the first half helped UMass take a 29-21 lead at the break. Mack led a 14-2 second-half surge that made ot 49-32 with 7:50 left.

"Even Babul stepped up and made a big shot," St. Bonaventure coach Jim Baron said after Babul had upped his career 3-point record to 4 for 23.

Oates played two first-half minutes, which may not seem like much but constituted his first game appearance in seven games and only his fourth in the last 17. Smith, a 6-5 forward who is beginning to see a bit more action, scored four second-half points -- his first visit to the scoring column since Dec. 12 against Boston College.

"Winston has been waiting for his chance, and Anthony has been great all year in practice," Ketner said. "It was great to see them do well."

Winn has 13 points and four steals against UMass last month, but was held to 6-for-16 shooting.

"We just wanted to contest and contain," Mack said. "If he was going to shoot, we wanted to make sure they were contested shots."


UMass notebook
Mack makes his points
By Ron Chimelis, The Springfield Union-News Staff Writer, 2/11/1999

AMHERST - Bruiser Flint said the University of Massachusetts men's basketball coaching staff originally saw Monty Mack as a potential college point guard.

"It didn't take long, though, for us to see that Monty was a shooting guard," Flint said.

Mack's shooting has placed him in contention for All-Atlantic 10 Conference recognition, but he faces tough competition for first-team honors because the league is filled with good guards. The leading candidate is Shawnta Rogers of George Washington, a 5-foot-4 senior who leads the league in scoring, assists and steals and is being touted by his school as an All-American.

Flint said he believes Rogers has already wrapped up the A-10 player-of-the-year award. Guards Pepe Sanchez (Temple), Lenny Brown (Xavier), Bevon Robin (Fordham) and Donnie Carr (La Salle) also figure to be strong candidates when the coaches select their all-conference first team.

The first team has consisted of six players in the past. The league's top five scorers are guards, and while Sanchez is not in that group, he figures to attract consideration as a key player for the team that now has the best record.

The highest-scoring frontcourt player is Rhode Island's Lamar Odom (17.4 points per game), who ranks sixth overall. Odom may be hurt by his first-year status and the fact that coaches are not restricted by position in the voting, and could therefore fill the first team with guards if they wished.

Mack entered last night's game against St. Bonaventure averaging 17.6 ppg., fourth in the league. But his first-team chances, like Carr's and possibly Robin's, may be affected by how his team finishes in the standings.

HEAD GAMES: On Flint's radio show this week, one phone-in caller from South Hadley suggested that video games were contributing to a dulling of the brain waves, perhaps explaining some questionable play.

Flint laughed, then said whatever the effect on the senses, video games may take away from players practicing on their own.

"We've got some kings of the play stations," said Flint, a 1987 St. Joseph's graduate. "We didn't have those games when I played. When we were looking to do something, we played sports."

MOST IMPROVED: Flint said forward Chris Kirkland should be named the most improved player in the A-10, and that Fordham center Alejandro Olivares might be Kirkland's closest competition.

Kirkland averaged 3.6 points and 2.4 rebounds last year but entered last night at 7.8 and 5.7 levels. Olivares (3.1 and 2.2 last year) is at 14.6 and 5.8.

DOUBLE TROUBLE: Flint said center Lari Ketner has been invited to an NBA pre-draft tryout camp in Arizona this spring. He also warns that Ketner, who has been frustrated by double and triple coverage, won't automatically escape it in the pros.

"If he thinks they won't double him in the NBA, he's crazy," Flint said. "If you show you can score, they'll double you in the post at any level. It's for money up there, and they go for the jugular."

A WINNER: St. Bonaventure guard Tim Winn, who sat out the first six games for a school-imposed suspension following an altercation unrelated to basketball, will become eligible for A-10 statistical listing Sunday against Duquesne. A player must appear in 75 percent of his team's games to qualify.

Were he now eligible, Winn's 3.75 steals per game would tie him with Rogers, who ranks second nationally, for the A-10 lead. He had four swipes against UMass Jan. 9.


UMass gives its best
Minutemen roll by St. Bonaventure
By Joe Burris, The Boston Globe Staff, 2/11/1999

AMHERST - So what can be made of this? On the first play of last night's game, University of Massachusetts center Lari Ketner dived on the court for a loose ball, surprising his teammates, coaches, and many in the partisan Mullins Center crowd.

''He hasn't done that since he got here,'' said forward Chris Kirkland.

Or this? The Minutemen shot 60 percent in the second half, ran off a 14-2 spurt after St. Bonaventure cut a 12-point deficit to 5, then coasted to their most lopsided Atlantic 10 victory of the season, a 64-46 decision before a crowd of 5,473 who saluted the home team's effort with several ovations.

UMass (11-12, 7-4) often saves such efforts for college basketball's elite and struggles against lesser opponents. But last night they resembled the Minutemen teams of old, deploying pressure defense and occasional precision offense while playing through their lapses.

Monty Mack scored 24 points and Ketner added 12 points, 8 boards, and 4 blocks for UMass, which outscored St. Bonaventure on fast-break points, 14-0.

''I think it was the best overall effort of the year by far,'' said coach Bruiser Flint, who dismissed junior forward Ajmal Basit Tuesday night, citing strained relations between the two, but declined to say whether the move affected team chemistry.

''We came out and on that first play of the game, Lari dived and saved the ball from going out of bounds. That pretty much set the tone. We played well defensively. We knocked down some shots. That was the whole thing.''

Does it mean that the Minutemen, arguably one of the biggest disappointments in college basketball, are ready to turn the corner and salvage their beleaguered campaign with five regular-season games to play?

''Like I've been telling them the last few weeks, if we come out and play hard, we'll get good results,'' said Flint. ''That's the bottom line.''

UMass, which lost at St. Bonaventure, 53-50, Jan. 9, led, 29-21, at halftime last night and increased the margin to 35-23 with 17:26 left. St. Bonaventure, which shot 31 percent from the floor in the first half, scored 7 straight points, cutting the lead to 35-30.

Then the Minutemen staged one of their best runs of the season. Ketner had a block and a 3-point play and Mack added 5 points in a 14-2 surge that gave the Minutemen a 49-32 lead with 7:47 left.

St. Bonaventure (11-12, 5-6), which was led by Tim Winn's 16 points, cut the lead to 53-41 with 4:08 left but could come no closer.

The Minutemen will need such efforts to close out the regular season strongly. On the horizon: Rhode Island in Providence Saturday, at George Washington Wednesday, then home against Xavier the following Saturday. Flint said there's no telling whether last night's effort is something to build on, since UMass has followed solid efforts with sorry ones several times this season.

But the coach added that it should at least boost the team's confidence going into the critical three-game stretch. ''We played hard tonight,'' said Flint. ''We played well. Guys have to feel good about themselves after doing this.''


Minutemen ax Bonnies
By Mark Murphy, The Boston Herald, 2/11/1999

AMHERST - On a day when Ajmal Basit, one of the most veteran members of the team, was dismissed for personal differences with the coach, UMass played as if spring had suddenly arrived.

The Minutemen dispatched St. Bonaventure, 64-46, a score that stands as their widest margin of victory in Atlantic 10 competition this season.

The Minutemen (11-12, 7-4 A-10) head into Saturday's game against rival Rhode Island tied with the Rams for second place in the A-10's Eastern Division.

But far be it from anyone to admit that the dismissal of Basit over an ongoing clash with coach Bruiser Flint played even a slight role in the bounce in this team's step last night.

``I just went out there and played - I really didn't think about that,'' said Lari Ketner, who finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.

Monty Mack, who turned in a wonderful two-way performance - scoring 24 points in addition to limiting Bonnies point guard Tim Winn to two assists and 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting - shook his head.

``I haven't really thought about it, either,'' he said.

Flint, pleased that his players were sticking with the plan, concurred.

``(Basit's dismissal) had nothing to do with this game,'' he said. ``That just had to do with the relationship between me and Ajmal.''

In this case, the Minutemen obviously decided to let their game do the talking. St. Bonaventure came in to the game off its most impressive streak of the season - a three-win string at home that included Temple, Dayton and LaSalle as victims.

``I don't know if this was our best game, but the guys played with heart,'' said UMass' Chris Kirkland.

``The guys were just ready tonight, right from warmups.''


UMass posts solid win
Mack sparks victory over Bonnies, 62-46
From The Berkshire Eagle, 2/11/1999

AMHERST -- At 7:30 p.m., Ajmal Basit was all anyone was talking about at the Mullins Center. Two hours later, the now former University of Massachusetts forward was almost an afterthought.

Basit, the junior forward from Brooklyn, was dismissed from the team after Monday's practice. Two days later, the Minutemen took center stage, behind 24 points from Monty Mack, as they beat St. Bonaventure 62-46, before 5,473 fans.

A pre-game release cited "conduct detrimental to the team" for Basit's dismissal. UMass coach Bruiser Flint, in essence, said it was a case of irreconcilable differences.

"It had to do with the relationship between myself and Ajmal, and that's the bottom line," Flint said.

"He was my friend, I'm sorry to see him go," added UMass center Lari Ketner, who wouldn't comment on the circumstances.

With the win, UMass improves to 11-12 overall and 7-6 in the Atlantic 10. St. Bonaventure is also 11-12, 5-6 in the A-10.

Best game since Kansas

On the court, meanwhile, the Minutemen played maybe their best game since beating Kansas Jan. 16.

"I don't know if it's the best game," UMass forward Chris Kirkland said. "Guys played with heart, dove on the floor. That's the way we have to play the rest of the season."

Flint, however, called it the best overall effort of the year.

Ketner (12 points, 8 rebounds) got things going by diving for a loose ball in the game's first minute.

"He hadn't done that all year, in practice or games. I thought that set the tone," said Flint.

UMass led for most of the first half, was up 29-21 at halftime, and outscored the Bonnies by eight points in the second half. The key was an eight-minute, 14-2 run that upped a five-point UMass lead to 17 points at 49-32.

Mack scored six of the 14 points, capping off the run by going coast-to-coast after a great defensive play.

"We had beaten them two of the last three times," sighed Bonnie head coach Jim Baron. "They came out with intensity. You have to give them credit."

The Bonnies had come into the game on a three-game winning streak overall and a two-game win streak against UMass. Tim Winn led Bonaventure with 16 points.

Photo
Kit Rhymer will see more time now that Ajmal Basit is gone.
With Basit off the roster, Flint had to make some adjustments to his player rotation. Anthony Oates, who had seen time in just two of UMass' last 10 games, came off the bench to spell Ketner early in the half. Kitwana Rhymer, who had been Ketner's backup, replaced Basit as the first forward off the bench.

UMass came out with a lot of energy, moved the ball well, played good defense but shot abysmally. Ketner hit a short jump hook out of the gate, but the Minutemen went 0-for-5 in three minutes before Chris Kirkland's backdoor layup made it 4-3 with 16:39 left.

That gave UMass a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the half. The Minutemen, despite shooting 37.9 percent from the floor in the first half, led by as many as 12 points before going into the locker room with a 29-21 lead. Mack had 12 points at halftime to lead UMass.

Bonaventure was no better, making only 9-of-29 (31 percent) from the floor in the half.


Minutemen trounce Bonnies in men's hoops by 18
Mack overshadows St. Bonaventure's Winn by pouring in 24 points
By Seth Koenig, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian Staff, 2/11/1999

With a little under three and a half minutes remaining in the Massachusetts men's basketball team's 64-46 victory against St. Bonaventure last night at the William D. Mullins Center, Minuteman guard Monty Mack finally got a chance to sit down... for a second.

Mack, aggressively pursuing a juggled loose ball on the defensive end of the court, vaulted out of bounds and, as a result, momentarily found himself seated atop the press table. UMass was awarded possession due to its leading scorer's effort. Mack then completed the job by taking a crisp jump shot on the offensive end to push his point-total on the night to 24. He complimented that with seven boards.

Mack's teammates also came out to play on this night; often times in ways that they hadn't in weeks past.

With 5:49 to go in the first half, forward Mike Babul, often overlooked as an offensive threat because of his defensive prowess, stood with the ball at the top left corner behind the arc. Babul glanced down to the blocks where center Lari Ketner was insistently calling for a pass, but decided not to go underneath. Instead, the forward seemed to give the UMass fans a subliminal "Aw, what the hell" before knocking down an impromptu three-pointer.

The Minutemen almost made things look easy against the Bonnies.

Right off the bat, Ketner, who has been sporadic during the course of the year, set the tempo of the game. The NBA prospect capitalized on a turnaround hook from the right baseline on the Minutemen's first offensive possession, and followed that with an encouragingly physical defensive stint.

"I think it was the best overall effort of the year by far,"UMass Coach Bruiser Flint said. "We came out and the first play of the game Lari tried to dive to save the ball out of bounds so that pretty much set the tone."

Ketner even successfully hit both of his free throw attempts in what has been a disappointing season from the charity stripe for the entire squad.

The team shot 11 of 15 from the line in the second half, and .714 for the game in an uplifting performance.

"We just took our time and followed through... I just stepped to the foul line and wasn't worried about anything," Ketner said. "I just shot well."

The team also had to deal with four Bonnies who entered the game averaging in the double digits, while playing without the support of junior forward Ajmal Basit, who was abruptly dismissed from the program because of his relationship with Flint.

"I think he's a good person, but this was not a good fit between him and me," Flint said.

Even without Basit, the team contained the well-rounded offensive unit of SBU. Only point guard Tim Winn could manage to peak past 10 points, with 16 on the night. No St. Bonaventure bench players got on the scoreboard, and Winn, who at times was exiting with a handful of acrobatic lay-ins against dense Minuteman traffic in the paint, turned the ball over five times.

All throughout the game, UMass continued to hit key shots that kept the momentum on their side.

A Mack trifecta with just under seven minutes left in the opening half pushed the early Minuteman lead to 20-9, but Flint could not afford to breathe easy quite yet.

Against the Bonnies earlier this season in Olean, N.Y., UMass had secured a 40-30 advantage with roughly a quarter of the contest left to play before the hosting team rattled off 11 unanswered points en route to a 53-50 victory.

This time, Massachusetts would not let up. With an even more convincing second half than first, the Minutemen outscored their Atlantic 10 opponent 35-25 in the final period. This conference win keeps UMass in a second place tie in the A-10 East with this Saturday's opponent, Rhode Island, who defeated Virginia Tech last night 76-67. Both the Rams and the Minutemen are 7-4 in conference play.

Photo
The Mullins Center fans give Bruiser some back up.


St. Bonaventure Bonnies 46
Massachusetts Minutemen 64
at the Mullins Center

ST BONAVENTURE (46)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
King            28  3-10   0-0   4-8  0  3    7
Van Paassen     25   3-7   2-4   3-5  0  1    8
Cyrus           26  3-11   1-2   0-1  0  1    7
Capers          28   3-8   1-2   0-3  3  4    8
Winn            40  6-16   2-4   4-7  2  2   16
Massiah         17   0-2   0-0   1-1  1  2    0
Bremer          26   0-6   0-0   0-1  1  4    0
Durham          10   0-0   0-0   3-3  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 18-60  6-12 15-29  7 17   46
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.300, FT-.500. 3-Point Goals:
4-15, .267 (King 1-4, Capers 1-3, Winn 2-5,
Bremer 0-3). Team rebounds: 8. Blocked shots: 2
(Van Paassen, Capers). Turnovers: 13 (Winn 5,
Capers 3, Bremer, Durham, King, Van Paassen).
Steals: 6 (Bremer 2, Van Paassen 2, Capers, King).

MASSACHUSETTS (64)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Kirkland        37   4-8   0-1   2-8  3  3    8
Babul           32   3-3   0-0   1-3  1  0    7
Ketner          34  5-14   2-2   3-8  1  4   12
Clarke          32   2-5   3-4   0-3  2  2    7
M Mack          40  8-17  6-10   2-7  3  1   24
Oates            2   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Depina           7   0-0   2-2   0-0  0  2    2
Smith            9   1-2   2-2   1-3  0  1    4
Rhymer           7   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 23-49 15-21  9-34 10 13   64
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.469, FT-.714. 3-Point Goals:
3-8, .375 (Babul 1-1, Clarke 0-1, M Mack 2-6).
Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 6 (Ketner 4,
Smith, Rhymer). Turnovers: 13 (Kirkland 4, M Mack
4, Clarke 2, Babul, Smith). Steals: 8 (Kirkland
3, Clarke 2, M Mack 2, Babul).
__________________________________
St Bonaventure     21   25  -   46
Massachusetts      29   35  -   64
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None.  A: 5,473. Officials: Merv
Shapiro, Donnie Gray, Glenn Mayborg.

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