Minutemen Head To Rochester, N.Y. For Midweek Matchup With St. Bonaventure

University of Massachusetts Men's Basketball Game Notes & Information
Game 17	Massachusetts (7-9, 1-2) vs. St. Bonaventure (11-5, 3-0)
Date \| Time	Wednesday, January 15, 2020 \| 7:00 p.m.
Location	Rochester, N.Y. \| Blue Cross Arena
Watch	ESPN+
Listen	WEEI (105.5 FM) \| WCRN (830 AM) \| Tune-In App
Live Statistics	Live Statistics
Game Notes	Massachusetts Notes \| 2019-20 Prospectus
Twitter	@UMassAthletics \| @UMassBasketball
Instagram	UMass Basketball
Facebook	UMass Basketball
UMass Home Tickets	Get Your 2019-20 Tickets Now! \| 2019-20 Promotional Calendar

AMHERST, Mass. – The UMass men's basketball team will look to get back in the win column and move to 2-2 in league play on Wednesday night when the Minutemen take on St. Bonaventure at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcasted on ESPN+ as Massachusetts looks for its first win against the Bonnies since 2015.

The series with St. Bonaventure
Wednesday will be the 72nd all-time meeting between the two teams with the Minutemen holding a 41-30 record in the series. The Bonnies have won the last seven meetings with UMass' last win coming on Feb. 11, 2015 in Olean.

Last season, the Minutemen led by as many as nine points midway through the first half before St. Bonaventure turned it on in a 65-51 win over UMass at the Mullins Center.

UMass will be tasked with containing St. Bonaventure's Kyle Lofton and Osun Osunniyi. Lofton is 14th in the NCAA in assists/game (6.6) and averaging 38.4 minutes/game, while Osunniyi is averaging nearly a double-double per game (10.3 ppg, 9.8 rpg), and is fifth in the country with 3.25 blocks/game.

Stiff competition
UMass has gone up against some of the nation's top teams, including eight currently ranked in the top-100 of the NCAA NET Rankings: Dayton (8), Rutgers (30), Akron (39), Yale (58), Saint Louis (47), Virginia (73), St. John's (65) and Harvard (87).

Pierre climbing the ranks
On Jan. 8 against La Salle, captain Carl Pierre became the 52nd player in team history to reach 1000 career points. His 12 points last weekend at No. 15 Dayton moved him into sole possession of 49th on UMass' all-time scoring list, passing T.J. Weeks' father Tyrone Weeks.

Double 'em up
Samba Diallo's 11 point - 14 rebound performance on Jan. 5 at Saint Louis marked the first career double-double for the sophomore. He's the third Minuteman this season to record his first-ever double-double, joining Carl Pierre (23 points, 10 rebounds at Akron) and Tre Mitchell (14 points, 12 rebounds vs. St. John's).

Diallo followed it up with a 12 point - 12 rebound night vs. La Salle on Jan. 8 for his second straight.

Dibaji Walker receives waiver from NCAA
UMass announced on Dec. 30 that Dibaji Walker has received a waiver from the NCAA and is immediately eligible for competition. Walker transferred to UMass this fall after a season at Cleveland State, and made his Minuteman debut on Dec. 30 at Akron.

Walker played a year of prep hoops at Woodstock Academy under current UMass assistant coach Tony Bergeron, where he helped guide the Centaurs to a 35-5 record and a No. 3 national ranking. The 14th-ranked recruit in the 2018 class of Conn. averaged 11 points per contest and added five boards, three assists and two steals at Woodstock.

Guess who's back, back again
Jan. 5 at Saint Louis marked the return of freshman guard Kolton Mitchell, who had missed the previous 12 games with a hand injury. Since returning, Mitchell is averaging 14 minutes per game off the bench.

Between Mitchell, John Buggs III and T.J. Weeks, the Minutemen have missed a combined 30 games due to injury this season. At the time of his injury, Weeks was leading the team in scoring (14.7 ppg) and was 10th in the NCAA, and first among rookies, in three-point shooting percentage (32-of-66; 48.5%).

We'll be taking that
The Minutemen are averaging 7.9 steals per game, good for 70th in the NCAA, including a season-high 13 against Maine, the fourth time this season and fifth time in the Matt McCall era that a UMass team had at least 10 steals in a game.

The Minutemen are also 59th in the country in forced turnovers (15.81), and have forced their opponents into 20+ turnovers three times (CCSU, Maine, Saint Louis).

From deep
UMass is shooting better than 36% beyond the arc (140-of-383), and its 140 made threes are fourth in the Atlantic 10 this season and 85th in the nation. The Minutemen are 62nd in the NCAA with 8.8 three-pointers per game, while Carl Pierre is 37th in the country and sixth in the A-10 from deep (47-of-115; 40.9%).

Youth movement
It's a new look roster for the Minutemen in 2019-20 with nine newcomers, including seven freshmen. The seven rookies are the most for UMass since the 2007-08 season.

All seven freshmen (John Buggs III, Sean East II, C.J. Jackson, Kolton Mitchell, Tre Mitchell, Preston Santos, T.J. Weeks) have made their collegiate debuts, with Tre Mitchell and East II starting all 16 games.

The rookies have combined for 55.5% (635-of-1143) of the Minutemen's scoring so far this season.

Weeks and East II started the season with back-to-back Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week accolades, marking the first time since the 2003-04 that UMass collected consecutive conference rookie of the week honors.

East Mode
Sean East II averaged 22 points and 5.5 assists at Akron and Saint Louis en route to his second Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week nod of the season last week.

It marked the first time since the 2003-04 season that Massachusetts has collected four conference rookie of the week nods in the same season, and makes East II the first Minuteman since Chris Lowe in 2005-06 to earn the honor twice in a season.

East II is tied for fifth in the nation among freshmen, and t-63rd overall, in total assists with 79 through 16 games, including a season-high nine against Yale on Dec. 11. His 4.9 assists per game are tied for 62nd in the NCAA and tied for fifth among rookies.

Scoreboard

Minutemen Head To Rochester, N.Y. For Midweek Matchup With St. Bonaventure

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Players Mentioned

John Buggs III

Samba Diallo

Sean East II

C.J. Jackson

Kolton Mitchell

Tre Mitchell

Carl Pierre

Preston Santos

Dibaji Walker

T.J. Weeks Jr.

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics