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AMHERST — It can be a difficult task for college basketball fans to learn the players on the teams they root for year in and year out. Every season, programs across the country are gutted and rebuilt. UMass men’s hoops fans got quite the introduction to the Minutemen’s newcomers during Monday’s season opener against New Hampshire at the Mullins Center.
Transfer Akil Watson put up 14 points and three rebounds, Malek Abdelgowad (12 points, 12 rebounds) posted a double-double, Shahid Muhammad blocked a game-high five shots and grabbed five rebounds while Daniel Rivera tallied six points. The steady veteran Rahsool Diggins set the tone early on, ripping off four 3-pointers in the first four minutes en route to a career-high 26 points as everybody played a role in UMass’ 103-74 dismantling of UNH in front of an announced crowd of 3,147. “Honestly, I love shooting in Mullins,” Diggins said.
“[Jaylen] Curry kept finding me, and I was just playing with confidence today and that was what the team needed me to do.” After the Wildcats took a quick 2-0 lead, the Minutemen exploded for 18 straight points – 12 of them coming from Diggins. Rivera threw down an emphatic alley-oop dunk off a slick find from Jaylen Curry, prompting UNH head coach Nathan Davis to call a timeout with the score 15-2 before Diggins punctuated the scoring spurt with one last 3.
Curry’s pass to Rivera was only the precursor to the second-year guard’s night, as he dished out a career-high 12 assists and added nine points and six boards. As a freshman a season ago, Curry played out of control at times trying to adjust to the speed of college basketball. Article continues after.
.. Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess On Monday however, he looked as comfortable as ever running the show.
Curry had zero turnovers in his 30 minutes of action. “Everything is slowing down for me,” Curry said. “And to know I got one of the best shooters in the [Atlantic 10] to knock down 3s like he did tonight, it made everything so much better for me.
So that’s how that turned out.” Outside of Curry and Diggins’ confident command of the backcourt, UMass also saw head coach Frank Martin’s preseason vision of his team come to fruition in the opener. He may not be particularly pleased giving up 74 points – Sami Pissis causing UMass’ defense trouble with 20 points – but the length and athleticism of the Minutemen is something Martin knew was an advantage his team had – and it was on full display against UNH.
Whether Muhammad rose up to block a shot, Curry (four steals) jumped a passing lane for a steal or Watson (four steals) or any of UMass’ athletic wings caused deflections and rotated well defensively, the Wildcats struggled to penetrate the Minutemen’s defense aside from a handful of breakdowns. UMass forced 15 turnovers (33 points off) and blocked a total of eight shots, which led to 27 fastbreak points. Still, Martin came away with plenty to improve on on that side of the floor – specifically defending ball screens, the Minutemen’s kryptonite a year ago.
“We made some mistakes defensively, [but] that's part of the deal. That's how we defend,” Martin said. “So we will give up a back cut here or there.
Ball screen defense wasn't good. That's something that has to get really, really cleaned up and that's not on them. That's on me.
I changed our coverages this year from what I've always done. I thought it'd fit our team. So I'm going to take advantage of the day off tomorrow to spend some time with the guys on my staff and reevaluate the thought process as to how to defend ball screens.
” The Minutemen bullied their way to 60 points in the paint. Interior scoring was a question mark coming into th e year with leading scorers Josh Cohen and Matt Cross departing from the frontcourt, but UMass certainly had no issue finding space in the key. Daniel Hankins-Sanford netted 10 points, Tarique Foster chipped in eight points off the bench, Nate Guerengomba (nine points) knocked down a pair of deep balls and Jayden Ndjigue put forth an all-around effort with three points, five rebounds and three assists.
Freshman Luka Damjanac scored a pair and freshman Amadou Doumbia earned some playing time as well. “We proud of them guys, especially a guy like Tarique,” Curry said. “He’s in the gym working every day, night-in and night-out.
To come out today and do what he did, it’s amazing. For Nate, Luka..
. Amadou got in there, they came in and got us points, so we’re proud of them guys. They come in and practice every day, ready to learn and go against us older guys.
Today, we’re proud of them, for sure.” Diggins capped off his 3-point barrage with a fadeaway prayer from the corner as the shot clock expired. He hoisted it up right in front of the Minutemen bench, and as it swished home, he turned around and shook his head with a grin on his face.
The reigning Atlantic 10 Co-Most Improved Player started off his senior season with a bang. “I'm excited, because he's had a great, great summer, a great preseason [and he] had his best practice of the year two days ago,” Martin said of Diggins. “And it translated to the game today.
We're still trying to figure out our spacing offensively to be able to get more separation for him, because if he sees the rim and his feet are down, that thing going in nine times out of 10.” UMass (1-0, 0-0 Atlantic 10) returns to action on Friday night, as it travels to West Virginia for one of its most anticipated non-conference matchups of the year. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.
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