• Season: 1970-71
• Date: Tuesday, December 1, 1970
• Opponent: Saint Anselm
• Start Time: 8:00 PM ET
• Site: Curry Hicks Cage
• Special Event: Season opener

• Result: UMass 98, St. Anselm 63
• Attendance: ?

UMass Basketball Bounces Back As Redmen Host St. A’s Tonight
By John Sullivan, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian Sports Editor, December 1, 1970

Collegian cartoon

A very loyal UMass basketball fan best summed up tonight's home and season-opening tilt against St Anselm's College, slated to begin at 8 p.m. at the Cage, when he commented, “I've been waiting for this game ever since the end of the NIT game against Marquette last year.”

That's a long time - eight months, and now the big opening game is just hours away. A capacity crowd of 4200 is expected to be on hand tonight as the defending New England and Yankee Conference champions, the Redmen, embark on another campaign against a team they defeated last February, 94-63.

Except for one major entity, this will be the same Hawk squad that UMass won its 16th contest against last winter. That major entity is Dave Sturma, a 6’7 star center departed via graduation.

Sturma holds many St. Anselm’s hoop records and was in the top ten of the nation's shooters in field goal percentage. He won a selection to the all-New England College Division (Referred to “College Division” at the time, this would later evolve into the NCAA’s Division II) team last season as he led the Hawks in scoring and rebounding.

Tough shoes to fill, and the call has gone out to Miles Gerrish, a 6'9 sophomore who has neither high school nor college freshman basketball experience. However, he is highly rated, especially by St. A's head coach Al Grenert, who has said, “He's going to surprise a lot of people.”

Gerrish's basketball experience comes solely from playing hoop in C.Y.O. and Y.M.C.A. leagues. In his favor he has determination, a will to learn, good coordination, good size and weight and good instincts for the game.

Collegian cartoon

Outside of the center post, Grenert's 22nd Hawk contingent is in very good shape with five lettermen returning, four of whom started in '69-'70.

The guard positions will be shared by two seniors and one junior. One of the seniors is Tom Gentile, a real hustler at 5’11. He averaged 17.1 points per game last year. The other senior is Ray Moore, who plays more of a reserve role. He is a six-footer and his scoring average a year ago was 7.1. The probable starter alongside Gentile will be Gerry Ryle, the junior, who popped ‘em in at a 9.0 rate last season. At six feet, he will handle the play-making duties of this club.

In the forward slots, one appears taken while the other is up for grabs. Captain John Lukas, a 6'3 senior, has earned a starting assignment, but the other post is being contested for not by lettermen, but by two sophomores in the persons of Jeff Grenert, 6'4, and Steve Pope, 6'3.

That fifth letterman is senior Mike Mulligan, who will be a jack-of -all-trades this year, filling in as a backup center, and a backup forward, where he may also get an occasional starting nod. Mulligan is 6'5 and his point average was 8.7 last year.

Up from the St. A's freshman team to provide needed depth are a couple of sophs, Vincent Colapietro, a 5'10 guard, and Bill Walsh, a 6'2 guard.

Overall the Hawks are looking for improved rebounding and solid reserve play as keys to a successful campaign. Gerrish will be counted upon to develop quickly. St. Anselm's notched a berth in the N.C.A.A. College Division basketball tourney a year ago and would like to do the same this time around. It would like nothing better than to start fitting the pieces together against UMass tonight.

HOOP NOTES - UMass head coach Jack Leaman had a couple of things to say about St. A’s, “They have a veteran ballclub. I think we'll be in for a good ballgame” …In comparing the Hawks to other teams the Redmen must play this season, Leaman was less plauditory of them, cautioning, “If we can't beat a team the caliber of St. Anselm's, it's going to be a long year.”…After that long wait between the end of the Marquette NIT game and tonight's contest, it's hopeful that UMass will get a quick jump on what really doesn't shape up to be a long year.