2020-21 Season

2020-21 Season

The 2020-21 UMass Minutemen men's basketball team represented the University of Massachusetts, the flagship campus in Amherst. The Head Coach was Matt McCall. The team played its home games in the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

The 2020-21 season represented the 112th season of basketball in the school's history.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this season was mired in disruption. Games started more than a month later than normal, and numerous games were cancelled. The team also went on multiple pauses due to COVID protocols, as did several of their scheduled opponents.

UMass also lost a game due to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and resulting city lockdown.

All in all, UMass played less than half the typical total amount of games, and only three non-conference games, two of which game on an unusual back-to-back against the same team.

Final Record: 8-7
Final Conference Record: 6-4 (Tied for 4th place, 5th after tiebreaker, out of 14)
Final NET: 119¹⁾
Final BPI: 113²⁾

Record	Overall	A-10
All games	8-7	6-4
Home	4-3	3-2
Away	3-3	3-2
Neutral	1-1	–
Overtime	1-1	1-1

Previous Season	Next Season
2019-20	2021-22

Scoreboard

Game					Record		Rank		Notes
Date	Opponent	Game Results	High Scorer	High Rebounder	Overall	A10	UM	Opp	Notes
12/11	Northeastern	W 94-79	Tre Mitchell (31)	Tre Mitchell (11)	1-0	–	–	–	Tre dominates early and often, including 19 & 6 in the first half. Garcia impressive with 23 in his debut, including 9-13 FG. Pierre 14, Weeks 11. NU led by Walker's 29.
12/13	at Northeastern	L 78-75	Garcia (18)	Tre Mitchell (8)	1-1	–	–	–	At Cabot Center. NU goes on an 11-2 run in the second half, and holds a 10 point edge with 46 seconds to play. UM scrambles but the comeback attempt falls short. Husky defense limits Tre to 10 points and 3-10 shooting. Walker 20 for NU.
12/16	at La Salle	W 85-66	Tre Mitchell (37)	McCrory (9)	2-1	1-0	–	–	Tre shoots 13-17 overall and racks up 37 points for a new career high, shredding the Explorer defense. Pierre adds 14 points. Fernandes 11 pts, 9 assists, just 1 turnover.
12/21	Bryant	L 93-88	Pierre (23)	Fernandes, McCrory, Pierre (5 each)	2-2	–	–	–	Bryant's fast offense and hot shooting puts UM on their heels. Bulldogs' 22 turnovers lets UM hang around, but Bryant's zone neutralizes Tre (4 field goals, 3 rebounds), and UM settles for threes that won't fall (9-34 / .265).
12/30	George Mason	L 93-92 (2OT)	Tre Mitchell (23)	DeGray, Fernandes, Tre Mitchell (8 each)	2-3	1-1	–	–	Demoralizing loss as UM blows three late leads: up 8 with 1:08 left in regulation, up 7 with 3:00 left in OT1, up 6 with 1:30 left in OT2. Mason's zone defense frustrates UM, Tre stuck on 7 points until 4:30 left in regulation. Fernandes & Pierre with 19 pts each, Weeks 14.
1/9	La Salle	W 83-67	McCrory & Pierre (15 each)	Tre Mitchell (8)	3-3	2-1	–	–	Balanced attack with 4 M'men in double figures. Fernandes 13/7/7:1. Tre (11 points) relaxes a little with teammates carrying more load. DeGray 9/3/5, Garcia 8.
1/13	Rhode Island	W 80-78 (OT)	DeGray (21)	Fernandes (8)	4-3	3-1	–	–	UM uses a 17-3 second half run to go up 15, only to lose it and go into OT. Tre fights through 4 fouls and scores 4 critical points in OT, but star of the game was DeGray (7-9 FG, 6-8 FT, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals).
1/17	at Fordham	W 65-46	Tre Mitchell (24)	DeGray (10)	5-3	4-1	–	–	UM throttled Fordham in the first, 44-17, and built it to 52-17, then offensively stalled, but it was enough. Tre 24 & 8, Weeks 11 pts, Pierre 9, DeGray 8 & 10.
1/24	Davidson	L 69-60	Tre Mitchell & Weeks (16 each)	Tre Mitchell (9)	5-4	4-2	–	–	UM went ahead 38-31 with 17:33 to play, and Grady stuck on 2 points. Davidson went on a 38-16 run after that, with Grady scoring 20. Tre leaves game with a shoulder injury. Fernandes 15 pts, but rest of UM just 13 combined.
2/3	Fordham	W 60-54	Garcia (14)	Weeks (12)	6-4	5-2	–	–	Tre and Noah sit out with injuries. Gasperini (9 & 5) and Garcia (14/3/5) start in their spot. TJ tallies a double-double with 13 & 12. Fordham misses with 21% from 3, 50% from the line.
2/6	at Rhode Island	W 75-63	Pierre (19)	McCrory (11)	7-4	6-2	–	–	With Tre and Noah still out, UM shoves their 10-point underdog status down Rhody's throat. Pierre hits a season-high 5 threes. Gasperini gets his breakout game: 11 pts, 5 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, and his first UM three-pointer. McCrory 11 & 11 off the bench. DeGray 11 & 6, Garcia 8 points before leaving after an elbow to the eye. URI doesn't hit a three, first time since 2011.
2/23	at Richmond	L 79-65	Dominguez (15)	DeGray and Weeks (5 each)	7-5	6-3	–	–	New high for DD with 15, but rest of team looks rusty after the long layoff, and has trouble stopping the UR flow and back-door cuts. Weeks scores 11 early, but only 3 over the final 27+ minutes. Tre limited to 9 & 4 in 22 foul-plagued minutes, Noah 3 & 3 in 20 minutes, both off the bench.
3/1	at Saint Louis	L 78-57	Fernandes (16)	Tre Mitchell (5)	7-6	6-4	–	–	UM flubs their chance to get a double-bye, getting crushed on the boards (-13). Tre limited to 10 pts on 2-7 FG as SLU plays him tough. Pierre 12 pts. SLU gets 5 in double figures.
3/4	vs Saint Joseph's	W 100-66	DeGray (19)	Tre Mitchell (11)	8-6	–	–	–	A-10 Tournament, Second Round. Seeds: UM 5, SJU 13. UM absolutely on fire early, scoring 74 points with 17:33 left in the game. UM shot 66% in the first, including 60% from 3, 56% overall in the game. Six M'Men in double figures. UM holds SJU to 34% overall, 30% from 3, Daly just 2-10.
3/5	vs Saint Louis	L 86-72	Tre Mitchell (30)	Tre Mitchell (6)	8-7	–	–	–	A-10 Tournament Quarter-Final. SLU seeded 4. SLU imposes their physicality, dominating the glass 45-22. Great shooting from Tre (10-16 / 2-3 / 8-8), but not enough from rest of UM. Garcia 11, McCrory 9, Pierre 8. Perkins 25 pts for SLU (+8 over his average). UM leaves Collins open on double-teams and he ties his career high with 17 (+12 vs average). Goodwin 18 & 14, French 8 & 11.

Statistics

Category leaders highlighted. Clear leaders in yellow. Blue indicates leaders with differing minimum thresholds.

Player	G	GS	MP	MPG	FG	FGA	FG%	2P	2PA	2P%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	PTS	PPG	ORB	DRB	TRB	RPG	AST	TOV	STL	BLK	PF	FO
Tre Mitchell	13	12	419	32.2	83	160	.519	68	120	.567	15	40	.375	63	82	.768	244	18.8	18	75	93	7.2	29	28	16	20	35	0
Carl Pierre	15	15	507	33.8	62	171	.363	25	60	.417	37	111	.333	29	41	.707	190	12.7	7	50	57	3.8	24	12	13	1	27	0
Noah Fernandes	13	12	399	30.7	43	101	.426	19	40	.475	24	61	.393	34	42	.810	144	11.1	7	48	55	4.2	57	26	21	5	32	1
Javohn Garcia	15	10	388	25.9	53	120	.442	40	80	.500	13	40	.325	37	49	.755	156	10.4	5	32	37	2.5	39	33	23	10	37	1
TJ Weeks	15	3	306	20.4	51	138	.370	28	62	.452	23	76	.303	21	29	.724	146	9.7	13	39	52	3.5	17	17	13	4	17	0
Ronnie Degray	15	14	411	27.4	51	94	.543	41	67	.612	10	27	.370	19	31	.613	131	8.7	20	49	69	4.6	21	22	5	4	35	2
Cairo McCrory	11	0	186	16.9	21	39	.538	17	32	.531	4	7	.571	5	10	.500	51	4.6	19	30	49	4.5	9	13	6	7	26	1
Dyondre Dominguez	11	0	93	8.5	8	22	.364	5	9	.556	3	13	.231	8	11	.727	27	2.5	3	9	12	1.1	3	6	1	3	7	0
Dibaji Walker	12	5	143	11.9	8	33	.242	6	12	.500	2	21	.095	7	8	.875	25	2.1	9	12	21	1.8	10	8	4	4	16	0
Mark Gasperini	15	3	141	9.4	12	34	.353	11	28	.393	1	6	.167	5	6	.833	30	2.0	11	14	25	1.7	9	8	7	3	16	0
Kolton Mitchell	11	1	72	6.5	2	5	.400	2	5	.400	0	0	–	3	6	.500	7	0.6	5	5	10	0.9	6	4	1	0	11	0
Ryan Marcus	5	0	7	1.4	0	2	.000	0	0	–	0	2	.000	0	0	–	0	0.0	1	1	2	0.4	0	0	0	0	2	0
Brady Antonopoulos	3	0	3	1.0	0	1	.000	0	0	–	0	1	.000	0	0	–	0	0.0	0	0	0	–	0	1	0	0	0	0
UMass Totals	15		3075		394	920	.428	262	515	.509	132	405	.326	231	315	.733	1151	76.7	136	381	517	34.5	224	181	110	61	261	0
Opp Totals	15		3075		403	880	.458	313	614	.510	90	266	.338	199	294	.677	1095	73.0	131	424	555	37.0	230	221	105	53	280	?

Additional sources: UMass Athletics, Sports Reference, Real GM

A-10 Lists & Honors

Post-Season

Tre Mitchell was named to the First Team, and the Academic Team.³⁾

Player of the Week

Tre Mitchell, week ending 12/20⁴⁾

Rookie of the Week

Javohn Garcia, week ending 12/13⁵⁾
Ronnie DeGray, week ending 1/17⁶⁾

Pre-Season

In the Atlantic 10 Pre-Season poll, UMass was picked to finish 8th out of the 14 teams. Tre Mitchell was named to the First Team.⁷⁾

Roster

UM official roster, Coaching staff

#	Name	Height	Weight	Class	Pos.	Hometown / HS / Prep / College Transfer	Status
00	Antonopoulos, Brady	6-1	165	Sr.	G	West Brookfield, MA / Quaboag Regional HS	Active, walk-on⁸⁾
13	DeGray, Ronnie	6-7	220	Fr.	F	Parker, CO / Woodstock Academy	Active
4	Dominguez, Dyondre	6-8	195	Fr.	F	Providence, RI / Woodstock Academy	Active
11	Fernandes, Noah	5-11	172	So.	G	Mattapoisett, MA / Woodstock Academy / Wichita State	Active
1	Garcia, Javohn	6-2	175	Fr.	PG	Pickerington, OH / Brewster Academy	Active
10	Gasperini, Mark	6-10	245	Gr.	F/C	Moscow, Russia / Brimmer and May School / American Univ.	Active
20	Marcus, Ryan	6-3	175	Fr.	G	Wakefield, MA / Wakefield HS	Active, preferred walk-on⁹⁾¹⁰⁾
5	McCrory, Cairo	6-5	185	Fr.	SG	Hartford, CT / Masters/Northwest Catholic / Woodstock Academy	Active
3	Mitchell, Kolton	6-3	175	So.	G	Fort Myers, FL / Victory Rock Prep	Active
33	Mitchell, Tre	6-9	235	So.	F/C	Pittsburgh, PA / Woodstock Academy	Active
12	Pierre, Carl	6-4	190	Sr.	G	Boston, MA / Boston College HS	Active, team captain¹¹⁾
2	Santos, Preston	6-6	180	So.	G/F	Warwick, RI / Woodstock Academy	Inactive. Opted out of the season for personal reasons.
24	Walker, Dibaji	6-7	190	Jr.	F	Columbus, OH / Woodstock Academy / Cleveland State	Active
23	Weeks, TJ	6-4	185	Fr.*	G	Warwick, RI / Woodstock Academy	Active

* Eligibility difference.

TJ Weeks requested and received a medical redshirt for the 2019-20 season, having only played in the first 10 games before sitting out the rest of the season.¹²⁾¹³⁾

All student-athletes from the 2020-21 season have an option to play a fifth year, via a policy based on special circumstances coming from the COVID-19 pandemic.¹⁴⁾

2019-20 players lost:
Baptiste, Djery - Eligibility exhausted.
Buggs, John - Opted to transfer during the off-season.¹⁵⁾¹⁶⁾
Chatman, Sy - Transferred out after the Fall 2019 semester.¹⁷⁾¹⁸⁾ Ultimately chose Illinois State.¹⁹⁾
Clergeot, Keon - Expected to graduate in Spring 2020, and has opted to transfer and play elsewhere as a grad student.²⁰⁾ Ultimately chose Southeastern Louisiana.²¹⁾
Diallo, Samba - Opted to transfer after the end of the season, will continue to play at Manhattan College.²²⁾²³⁾
East, Sean - Opted to transfer after the end of the season, will continue to play at Bradley.²⁴⁾²⁵⁾
Higginbottom, Davonte - expected to graduate in Spring 2020, would have college athletics eligibility left, but not expected to return.
Jackson, CJ - Opted to transfer after the end of the season.²⁶⁾ Ultimately chose Florida Southwestern State (JuCo)²⁷⁾²⁸⁾
West, Randall - Eligibility exhausted.

Team photo

Back row (L to R): Ronnie DeGray (13), Dibaji Walker (24), Tre Mitchell (33), Mark Gasperini (10), Dyondre Dominguez (4), Cairo McCrory (5)
Front row (L to R): Brady Antonopoulos (00), Noah Fernandes (11), TJ Weeks (23), Carl Pierre (12), Kolton Mitchell (3), Javohn Garcia (1), Ryan Marcus (20)
Not available at time of photo: Preston Santos

General team news

1/7/21 Reaction to the UM/GW game getting postponed due to the events at the US Capitol: MassLive, The Athletic Boston, Collegian
12/10/20 DHG: UMass basketball keeps tabs on each other during 18-day quarantine
11/12/20 MDC: Minutemen are eager to get back on the court to start their 2020-2021 campaign
11/11/20 DHG: Motivated UMass out to prove preseason conference ranking wrong

Schedule

All times Eastern PM, unless otherwise noted. Boldface opponents indicates an Atlantic 10 Conference game.
Printable schedule
UMass master schedule

Date	Day	Time	Opponent	Site	Event	TV	Streaming Video
12/11	Fri	1:30	Northeastern	Mullins Center	–	NESN	NESN, ESPN+
12/13	Sun	Noon	at Northeastern	at Cabot Center, Boston MA	–	NESN	NESN
12/16²⁹⁾	Wed	Noon	at La Salle	at Tom Gola Arena, Philadelphia PA	–	none	ESPN+
12/21	Mon	4:00	Bryant	Mullins Center	–	NESN	NESN, ESPN+
12/30	Wed	6:00	George Mason	Mullins Center	–	NESN	NESN, ESPN+
1/9	Sat	4:00	La Salle	Mullins Center	–	NBC Sports	NBC Sports
1/13³⁰⁾	Wed	7:00	Rhode Island	Mullins Center	–	NESN	NESN, ESPN+
1/17	Sun	2:30³¹⁾	at Fordham	at Rose Hill Gym, Bronx NY	–	NBC Sports	NBC Sports
1/24	Sun	Noon	Davidson	Mullins Center	–	CBSSN	CBSSN
2/3	Wed	6:00	Fordham	Mullins Center	–	NESN	NESN, ESPN+
2/6	Sat	8:00	at Rhode Island	at the Ryan Center, Kingston RI	–	ESPN2	ESPN+
2/23	Tue	6:00	at Richmond	at the Robins Center, Richmond VA	–	NBC Sports Washington+	NBCSW, ESPN+
3/1³²⁾	Mon	6:00	at Saint Louis	at Chaifetz Arena, St. Louis MO	–	CBSSN	CBSSN
3/4	Thu	1:00	Saint Joseph's	at the Robins Center, Richmond VA	A-10 Tournament Second Round	NBC Sports	NBC Sports
3/5	Fri	1:00	Saint Louis	at the Robins Center, Richmond VA	A-10 Tournament Quarter-Final	NBC Sports	NBC Sports

COVID-19 Impacts

Everything this season was dependent on how the men's basketball program, the the University, the Atlantic 10 Conference, and the NCAA reacted to the threat of COVID-19 on health for all involved.

Season start: The NCAA had previously said teams could start play on November 10, that start date was pushed to November 25.³³⁾
November pause: UMass announced on November 17 that there was at least one positive COVID test within the program, and that they would go on pause. At the time, a return date was not specified.³⁴⁾ A subsequent report said UMass was aiming to return to practice on November 26,³⁵⁾ but that was not entirely clear as UMass said on 11/29 that some members of the program were still “in quarantine for the next 5-6 days.”³⁶⁾
Mohegan Sun games cancelled. Because of the positive COVID test(s) on 11/17, UMass said they “will not participate in the Multiple Team Event at Mohegan Sun.”³⁷⁾
January pause: We went back on pause on 1/26, postponed two games.³⁸⁾
February pause for minimum of two weeks.³⁹⁾
A-10 Tournament was revamped: pushed up one week, except for the Final, moved from Brooklyn to Richmond/Dayton, and seeding procedure was changed to account for teams with few games played.⁴⁰⁾

Cancelled / Postponed games

Nov 26 - Siena. Siena went on COVID pause on 11/13, they were unlikely to be able to meet the 11/26 date.⁴¹⁾⁴²⁾ Irrelevant now due to the UMass pause/cancellation (11/17).
Nov 27 - Delaware. Delaware and UMass both went on COVID pause on 11/17, and both said they would not do Mohegan Sun games.⁴³⁾
Nov 29 - Iona. Iona went on COVID pause on 11/12, and coach Rick Pitino indicated that the team wouldn't be ready to play until after our planned 11/29 date.⁴⁴⁾ Irrelevant now due to the UMass pause/cancellation (11/17).
Nov 30 - Liberty. On 11/16, Liberty said they would be playing us, but irrelevant now due to the UMass pause/cancellation (11/17).
Dec 1 - South Florida. This game was reported on 11/9,⁴⁵⁾ but irrelevant now due to the UMass pause/cancellation (11/17).
Dec 11 - Maine. There was an unconfirmed report that we would host Maine on this date, but a WMUA report from McCall suggested this will not happen.⁴⁶⁾
Dec 13 - at Northeastern. This game was originally slated for 12/12⁴⁷⁾, pushed to 12/13⁴⁸⁾, expected to be cancelled,⁴⁹⁾ but on 12/1 was announced to be back on the schedule.⁵⁰⁾
Dec 23 - There was an unconfirmed report on December 2 that we might play UMass-Lowell on 12/23, but on 12/8 the America East moved UML's games versus Vermont to 12/21 and 12/22, so they may not want to play a third straight day. As it turned out, this ended up not happening.
Jan 6 - at George Washington, due to the D.C. emergency curfew.⁵¹⁾
Jan 20 - Saint Louis, due to their COVID pause.⁵²⁾
Jan 27 / Feb 12 - at VCU, due to our COVID pauses.⁵³⁾⁵⁴⁾
Jan 30 - at George Mason, due to our COVID pause.⁵⁵⁾
Feb 9 - Dayton, due to our COVID pause.⁵⁶⁾
Feb 14 - St. Bonaventure, due to our COVID pause.⁵⁷⁾
Feb 20 - at Duquesne, due to our COVID pause.⁵⁸⁾
Feb 24 - at Saint Joseph's. The A-10, on 2/18, announced that they would move the conference tournament up one week, and reschedule teams' remaining games.⁵⁹⁾ The planned UM/SJU game was cancelled as part of this.

Appendix

Keeping some notes here as details come together.

Schedule planning with COVID

UMass has agreed to participate in bubbled pod games at the Mohegan Sun Arena (Uncasville CT). UM has been placed in a pod with Delaware and Siena, between Nov 25 and Dec 2, and may get more games beyond that.⁶⁰⁾ Full details are to be announced.⁶¹⁾⁶²⁾ Fans will not be allowed to attend.⁶³⁾
Iona (at Mohegan Sun), November 29.⁶⁴⁾ Unsure if this is a one-off or the start of a series, but all norms are off in this season of COVID. Fans will not be allowed to attend.⁶⁵⁾
South Florida (at Mohegan Sun), December 1.⁶⁶⁾ Unsure if this is a one-off or the start of a series, but all norms are off in this season of COVID. Fans will not be allowed to attend.⁶⁷⁾
Northeastern (Away), December 12.⁶⁸⁾ This season's game will conclude a series.⁶⁹⁾
The Atlantic 10 Tournament will be at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn NY, March 10-14.⁷⁰⁾ Whether or not this will still happen, and if fans can attend in person, is all pending.
The A-10 / Mountain West Challenge Series, due to start this season, has been pushed a year.⁷¹⁾ UMass was not one of the teams slated to participate in 2020-21, regardless.⁷²⁾⁷³⁾

Pre-COVID disruption

All of these possibilities were set before COVID hit. These matchups may no longer happen, or delayed into future season.

The Jamaica Classic has been fully cancelled for 2020, per a note on their website. UM was slated to participate.⁷⁴⁾⁷⁵⁾⁷⁶⁾⁷⁷⁾ Organizers say they will try to resume the event in 2021, but not sure if any of the expected 2020 teams will participate.
Akron (Home): A return game from Akron is expected, but not confirmed.⁷⁸⁾ We played at Akron in the 2019-20 season. A home-and-home basketball series may have been tied in with the UMass/Akron football games contract.⁷⁹⁾⁸⁰⁾
Bryant (Home): This will likely be a one-off game, but not certain.⁸¹⁾
Central Florida (Away): This season's game starts a home-and-home series. UMass will host UCF in the 2021-22 season.⁸²⁾ The 2020 game was expected to take place in late November, as the team traveled back north from the Jamaica event.⁸³⁾
Fairfield (Home): A return game from Fairfield was expected, given we travelled to them in 2019, but a return game was never confirmed.⁸⁴⁾ Fairfield's 2020-21 non-conference schedule does not include us.⁸⁵⁾
Harvard (Home): This season's game was supposed to conclude a series.⁸⁶⁾ However, the Ivy League has decided to cancel all winter sports for 2020-21.⁸⁷⁾ Whether or not this game gets pushed to 2021-22 remains to be seen.
Rutgers (Home): This season's game will conclude a series.⁸⁸⁾⁸⁹⁾
Sacred Heart (Home): This will likely be a one-off game, but not certain.⁹⁰⁾
UMass-Lowell (Home): We have hosted UML for our season opener for the past four seasons. Assuming this will continue, but not confirmed.
Athletic Director Ryan Bamford has stated that he will continue to explore opportunities in conjunction with football and men's basketball scheduling, like what we've done with Akron, Rutgers, South Carolina and Georgia.⁹¹⁾⁹²⁾