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Season three of Derek Kellogg's mission to return the UMass Minutemen basketball team to glory is upon us. For the second straight season the Minutemen will be looking to replace a key member of their starting five. Last season it was center Luke Bonner, forward Tony Gaffney and point guard Chris Lowe. This year the issue will be replacing leading scorer Ricky Harris who graduated after last season and is now playing in Lithuania.
Last season Harris moved into third place on the all-time scorers list at UMass with 1,960 points, trailing only Monty Mack (2,183) and Jim McCoy (2,374). His 19.8 points per game was also the ninth highest season average for a Minuteman and lead a team that only scored 70.7 points per game. Finding someone to fill that void will be key for Coach Kellogg.
UMass Basketball Season Preview
Season three of Derek Kellogg's mission to return the UMass Minutemen basketball team to glory is upon us. For the second straight season the Minutemen will be looking to replace a key member of their starting five. Last season it was center Luke Bonner, forward Tony Gaffney and point guard Chris Lowe. This year the issue will be replacing leading scorer Ricky Harris who graduated after last season and is now playing in Lithuania.
Last season Harris moved into third place on the all-time scorers list at UMass with 1,960 points, trailing only Monty Mack (2,183) and Jim McCoy (2,374). His 19.8 points per game was also the ninth highest season average for a Minuteman and lead a team that only scored 70.7 points per game. Finding someone to fill that void will be key for Coach Kellogg.
The most likely candidates to step in to the scorer's role will be sophomores Terrell Vinson and Freddie Riley. Vinson was the gem of last season's freshman recruiting class and started all 32 games for the Minutemen. Vinson averaged only 9.6 points per game, but played much bigger than that in some pretty big spots during the season including making the game winning basket in the Minutemen's 73-72 upset of Memphis. In that game Vinson scored 21 points, but none were more important than his put back with 0.3 seconds left on the clock. Vinson did appear to tire as the season wore on but a full off-season of conditioning can only help improve that.
Riley will be expected to slide into Harris' starting spot after playing the sixth man role for most of last season. In 28 games, including 11 starts, Riley was fourth on the team with 9.3 points per game while averaging less than 20 minutes of court time. Riley is a shooting guard out of the same mold as Boston Celtics shooting guard Ray Allen. The skinny 6'5" sophomore from Ocala, Fla. can be a deadly option coming off a screen or on a jump shot from the corner. Like Vinson, Riley experienced some injury issues and wore down as the season moved along so how he will react to the added playing time will be a concern for Coach Kellogg.
One area in which the Minutemen did not improve this recruiting season, and could come back to haunt them, is finding a big man to put in the front court. On offense Coach Kellogg's dribble drive offense is less reliant on the idea of having a big man clogging up the middle, instead it relies on constant motion of the ball so that the sharp shooters such as Vinson, Riley and senior Anthony Gurley can take open jump shots. On defense though, it is another story.
Red shirt junior center Sean Carter did a very admirable job in his first season on the court for the Minutemen. After sitting out a season as required by the NCAA after transferring to UMass from Oregon State. Carter averaged just over five points and seven rebounds per game, but looked over matched at times against some of the larger centers that were on the UMass schedule last year such as LaSalle's Aaric Murray who averaged 15.5 points in two games against the Minutemen. Backing Carter up will be fellow transfer Hashim "Big City" Bailey who followed Coach Kellogg to UMass from Memphis. A fan favorite for the energy he brought into the game, Bailey averaged 2.5 points in only 12 minutes per game off the bench, but also committed 71 fouls in his limited playing time. If he can limit the number of fouls he commits, an increase in playing time could be in order, particularly against the bigger centers like Murray.
Expectations around Amherst are high this year as the fab five freshman (Vinson, Riley, Sampson Carter, and Javorn Farrell plus Raphiael Putney who red shirted last season) have now got a year on campus under their belts, but outside of Amherst the Minutemen are getting little respect. When the preseason poll and awards were announced Thursday, the Minutemen were picked to finish 11th in the 14 team league and were the only team not to have any players selected to any of the league's three preseason all-conference, all-defensive or all-rookie teams. The Minutemen will be playing 21 of their scheduled games within 90 miles of their home campus, so travel fatigue should not be an issue this season, but another year of replacing a major player could mean that the Minutemen are still a year away from making the jump back into the A-10 elite that they had been when Coach Kellogg was playing along side Marcus Camby and Lou Roe at the Mullins Center.
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