Saint Joseph’s Up Next For Men’s Hoops Wednesday At Mullins

University of Massachusetts Men's Basketball Game Notes & Information
Game 21	Massachusetts (8-12, 2-5 Atlantic 10) vs. Saint Joseph's (4-16, 0-7 Atlantic 10)
Date \| Time	Wednesday, January 29, 2020 \| 7 p.m.
Location	Amherst, Mass. \| Mullins Center
Watch	NESN \| ESPN+
Listen	WEEI (105.5 FM) \| WCRN (830 AM) \| Tune-In App
Live Statistics	SIDEARM Live Stats
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. – Coming off a 73-64 win over Duquesne last weekend, the UMass men's basketball team will look to make it two in a row when the Minutemen host Saint Joseph's on Wednesday night at the Mullins Center. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. on NESN and ESPN+.

The series with Saint Joseph's
Overall, UMass leads the series against the Hawks 38-36 since first playing in 2002. The Minutemen have won four of the last six meetings in the series, and are 22-12 all-time against the Hawks in Amherst.

Stiff competition
UMass has gone up against some of the nation's top teams, including 10 currently ranked in the top-100 of the NCAA NET Rankings: Dayton (5), Rutgers (23), Yale (53), Virginia (58), Akron (65), St. John's (67), Saint Louis (68), South Carolina (89), Duquesne (92) and Harvard (94). Davidson and Rhode Island, UMass' next two opponents are currently 99th and 47th in the NET, respectively.

Tre ball
Tre Mitchell had a career-high 28 points on Jan. 15 vs. St. Bonaventure, and is fifth in the Atlantic 10 and first among rookies averaging 15.8 points per game this season.

Mitchell's 28-point night against the Bonnies were the most for a UMass freshman since Rashaun Freeman scored 31 on Feb. 28, 2004. He followed it up with a 14 point - 12 rebound night at George Mason on Jan. 22 for his second double-double of the season and 25 points on Saturday against Duquesne, including 17 in the first half alone.

New look lineup
The Minutemen have gone with a different starting five in each of the last three games, including the first collegiate starts for Kolton Mitchell and Preston Santos last Saturday against Duquesne. Them, along with Tre Mitchell, marked the first time the Minutemen had three freshmen start since Jan. 28, 2017 against George Mason.

Home sweet home
The Minutemen are back at the Mullins Center for four of their next six games, where they are 7-3 this season. UMass is shooting 46.2% from the floor and 39% from three (94-of-241) at home. Tre Mitchell (16.6) and Carl Pierre (15.2) are both averaging better than 15 points per game at home, while the defense is forcing opponents into an average of 15.8 turnovers per game.

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 fourth Minuteman this season to record his first-ever double-double, joining Carl Pierre (23 points, 10 rebounds at Akron), Tre Mitchell (14 points, 12 rebounds vs. St. John's) and Preston Santos (15 points, 12 rebounds vs. Duquesne).

Since then, Diallo has added two more double-doubles to bring his total to a team-high three this season.

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 23 points on Jan. 22 at George Mason moved him into sole possession of 41st on UMass' all-time scoring list

From deep
UMass is shooting better than 34% beyond the arc (166-of-480), and its 166 made threes are fifth in the Atlantic 10 this season and 95th in the nation. UMass is 85th in the NCAA with 8.3 three-pointers per game, while Carl Pierre is 38th in the country and second in the A-10 with 58 made threes.

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 12 minutes/game, and earned his first career start last weekend vs. Duquesne.

Between Mitchell, John Buggs III and T.J. Weeks, the Minutemen have missed a combined 38 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 3-point shooting percentage (32-of-66; 48.5%).

We'll be taking that
The Minutemen are averaging 7.2 steals per game, good for 106th 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 108th in the country and sixth in the conference in forced turnovers (14.55), and have forced their opponents into 20+ turnovers three times (CCSU, Maine, Saint Louis).

Scoreboard

Saint Joseph’s Up Next For Men’s Hoops Wednesday At Mullins

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Players Mentioned

John Buggs III

Samba Diallo

Kolton Mitchell

Tre Mitchell

Carl Pierre

Preston Santos

T.J. Weeks Jr.

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics