Minutemen Travel To Davidson For Saturday Night Matchup On CBSSN

University of Massachusetts Men's Basketball Game Notes & Information
Game 22	Massachusetts (9-12, 3-5) at Davidson (10-10, 4-4)
Date \| Time	Saturday, February 1, 2020 \| 8:00 p.m.
Location	Davidson, N.C. \| Belk Arena
Watch	CBSSN
Listen	WEEI (105.5 FM) \| WCRN (830 AM) \| Tune-In App
Live Statistics	Live Statistics
Game Notes	Massachusetts Notes \| 2019-20 Prospectus
Feature	This Is My Story: Samba Diallo
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, winners of two straight, will look to make it three in a row on Saturday night when the Minutemen travel to Belk Arena to take on Davidson. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. on CBSSN.

The series with Davidson
Overall, Davidson leads the series against the Minutemen 8-5 since first playing in 1982. UMass snapped a four-game losing skid to the Wildcats with a 54-51 win last season at the Mullins Center thanks to a game-high 23 points from Carl Pierre and a game-winning three from Keon Clergeot with less than five seconds left.

The Minutemen are in search of their first win at Davidson since Jan. 22, 1998.

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 (18 ), Yale (48), Virginia (55), Saint Louis (70), St. John's (73), Akron (83), South Carolina (75), Harvard (90), Duquesne (95). UMass' next opponent, Rhode Island, is currently 46th in the NET.

Tre ball
Tre Mitchell had a career-high 28 points on Jan. 15 vs. St. Bonaventure, and is sixth in the Atlantic 10 and first among rookies averaging 15.6 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 Jan. 25 against Duquesne, including 17 in the first half alone.

New look lineup
Freshmen Kolton Mitchell and Preston Santos have started each of the last two games, including their first collegiate starts 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.

Boarding school
The Minutemen picked up a +18 rebound differential in last Saturday's win against Duquesne., just the fourth time UMass outrebounded its opponent this season. It was the most rebounds (52) in a game for Massachusetts since pulling down Dec. 11, 2009 against Grambling State.

Dishin'
The Minutemen had a season-high 26 assists on 38 made field goals on Wednesday against Saint Joseph's, the most assists in a game since Jan. 26, 2014 against Fordham.

The 38 made field goals were also the most in a game since Nov. 19, 2017 against Niagara.

Sean East II and Carl Pierre had seven dimes each, a new career-high for Pierre. East II is fourth in the nation among freshmen, and t-60th overall, with 4.9 assists per game, and is also 59th in the NCAA with 103 assists in 21 games.

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, good for a tie for 13th in the A-10.

'baji's back
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 UMass 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.

Walker had a career-high 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting off the bench on Wednesday vs. Saint Joseph's. He's shooting 44% (20-of-45) in 15.6 minutes of action in conference play.

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 12.6 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 40 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 7.1 steals per game, good for 109th 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 102nd in the country and fifth in the conference in forced turnovers (14.62), and have forced their opponents into 20+ turnovers three times (CCSU, Maine, Saint Louis).

Scoreboard

Minutemen Travel To Davidson For Saturday Night Matchup On CBSSN

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Players Mentioned

John Buggs III

Keon Clergeot

Samba Diallo

Sean East II

Kolton Mitchell

Tre Mitchell

Carl Pierre

Preston Santos

Dibaji Walker

T.J. Weeks Jr.

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics