PJJack

UMass fan here. I visited this board back in November during the Charleston Classic when UMass played Nebraska. After that many UMass fans followed Nebraska. It's not unusul to follow a team somewhat after you play them, the better they look the better you look but more than usual attention was paid to Nebraska by UMass fans. You had a lot of fans rooting for Nebraska all season and tonight during the selcetion show a bunch of UMass fans were at a bar watching it, when Nebraska showed up in the dance everyone clapped. Good luck!

Good luck Nebraska going forward. The refs certainly didn't do you any favors today. It's been nice chatting with you the past few days. Happy holidays!

Chaz Williams is known for having monster 2nd half's. Don't be surprised to see a 15 point half out of him esp with so many players on Nebraska with 2 fouls. he will be driving to the basket a great deal. It would behoove Nebraska to try to get Chaz to pick up his 3rd foul soon.

That's Seth Berger a true freshman from Washington. he was recruited by Gonzaga but choose Umass. He was highly rated 3/4 player. He is the future of Umass up front . He has played very little this season so far. But with 3 games in 4 days they have to extend the bench. I wondered. The little he has played this season he has looked like a deer in headlights and has fouled often. He was a star in his HS region and won all sorts of Washington state awards but he is still adapting to the college game and being in the Northeast. He'll be real good soon just not today or this season. But he is prob Umass' best FT shooter sadly enogh

That's Seth Berger a true freshman from Washington. he was recruited by Gonzaga but choose Umass. He was highly rated 3/4 player. He is the future of Umass up front . He has played very little this season so far. But with 3 games in 4 days they have to extend the bench.

Recruiting and donors.! Same reason the ACC took on Boston College. College's in big (TV) markets that have alumns with deep pockets. Recruiting and donor$.

Their coach is Derrek Kellogg who played for Umass in the early-mid 90's when they were starting to become a top program and dancing in the field of 64. He later was Calapri's assistant for several years at Memphis so he knows what he is doing. They played last year in a Puerto Rico tournament and struggled in the first game in an empty arena vs. Providence but they did win on a buzzer beater. The feeling is the early start time in SC in an almost certain sparse crowd would favor Nebraska. UMass feeds of energy so without a crowd factor it might take them a while to get going.

Funny or not I don't think anyone mentioned anything about the Big10 having 12 teams. I failed to mention in my prior post foolishly that the A10 also has St. Louis who won the A10 last season. Just reading fan boards and local newspapers from the Amherst area UMass is really looking forward to this game, it is their 3rd game out of 4 against a power conference team (SEC, ACC, Big 10) and a win Thursday would mean a (likely) game vs. #19 New Mexico and win or lose that game it would mean a 3rd game vs. another power confrence team. UMass was a bubble team last season, they were in the "next four out" category. A big reason was their RPI wasn't great so playing these teams from big conferences has energized the team and their fans. The Big 10 is a loaded confrence so Nebraska will play so many great teams this season in confrence but Umass has so few games vs. big power schools so this game is huge for them. This is probably the best Umass team since the Calapri and Camby days so the fans are really locked in. They played LSU last Tuesday on a non-holiday at a 11am start time and had about 6K fans at the game.

I watch a lot of east coast basketball so here are 10 things on UMass 1) You are not going to frustrate and contain Chaz Willimas, he is too good. He does play out of control in spurts. But he has games when he only has 2 points at the half then finishes with 25 for the game. 2) Try to get Umass into foul trouble, they’re very aggressive on defense and take a lot of really dumb chances away from the basket. 3) They at times get caught up in being a run and shoot team and are prone to turnovers. 4) They lost their best three point shooters from last season so they struggle from long range. 5) They have struggled esp early in the game (1st half) shooting free throws. 6) The two players everyone will talk about are Chaz and Cady LaLanne who are both a double/double each per-game machine but Sampson Carter should be a name you all start to remember. He is healthy and been their most consistent player this season. 7) Speaking of Chaz and Cady, the former was the A10 player of the week this week, the latter was A10 player of the week last week. 8) They beat LSU 92-90 but the game wasn't as close as the final score indicates. Umass trailed 3-0 and never trailed again. They had lead by as many as 15 in the second half. LSU gout a few garbage time steals and a 3 pointer at the buzzer to make the score closer than what it was. 9) Umass has struggled vs. the zone and vs. Youngstown State they got beat by the pick and roll often. 10) They like to full court press but not the whole game. They get a lot of steals and make teams turn the ball over with their press. Conversely they struggle when team press them. Esp their backup PG Trey Davis who gets that deer in the headlights look. They have a great deal of experience, 5 of their 7 players in their rotation have played together for the past 3 seasons. Derrek Gorden transfered from W. Kentucky where he lead the team in scoring as a freshman, due to NCAA transfer rules he sat out last season and has had an up and down year so far this season while he gets his timing back. He is a very good player, a slasher to the basket and gets a ton of rebounds. He isn't much of an outside shooter though but he is very good on D. The A10 isn't a weak confrence, VCU and La Salle both made the tourney last season and up until this season Butler, Temple, and Xavier were part of the A10 so Umass has played some very good teams the past few season in-confrence. Their team is very athletic as evidence of this play in their last game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3uorwKh_qw. They have won big games on the road the past few seasons inc at Mississippi State, LaSalle, Xavier, Seton Hall, and neutral site wins vs. Temple twice so they are not a just play well at home team. They are well coached and they are close to being ranked in the top 25. They received votes in both polls this season.