UMass Basketball: Takeaways from Minutemen’s 5-0 start in 2019-20

Areas for Improvement

Despite the 5-0 start and all of the positives that can be taken from it, there are plenty of areas in which the Minutemen need to improve if they want to crack the top half of the A10. Rebounding and free-throw shooting are major concerns surrounding this team’s season-long outlook. It’s tough to not get out-rebounded with Sy Chatman and Dibaji Walker unavailable, but giving up 19 offensive rebounds as they did against Rider is inexcusable no matter what the active roster looks like.

That type of performance simply won’t fly against the bigger, more athletic teams coming up on the schedule (Virginia, ASU/St. John’s, Rutgers, etc.) and it won’t fly in a physical A10 either. The same can be said about free-throw shooting. Most of the teams on the schedule so far haven’t been good enough to take advantage of UMass’ struggles from the stripe, but against teams that can play them evenly or even outplay them in other facets, the Minutemen will need to capitalize on every chance at free points that they can get, or else they’ll be in for some frustrating losses.

As far as other concerns, a lack of depth and experience aren’t things that can be controlled, but they will both probably rear their ugly heads at some point in the near future. The Minutemen desperately need frontcourt depth, so news about the availability of one or both of Dibaji Walker and Sy Chatman would make a world of difference. Without them, it’s easy to see foul trouble for Tre Mitchell having serious negative effects on the offensive end, and foul trouble for Djery Baptiste leading to easy baskets and second chances on the other end.

The Bottom Line

This team is much further along than where even the optimists projected they would be at this point. East is one of the better point guards in the league; Pierre, Mitchell, and Weeks have all been fantastic scoring the ball; and the positive energy around the entire program has been contagious and something that fans haven’t seen in a very long time. It’s still too early in the rebuilding process to think of the Minutemen as a title contender in a tough and experienced A10, but they should no longer be thought of as a bottom-tier squad either.

I see them finishing somewhere between 7th and 10th in the A10 standings if they can avoid major injuries, and that’s extremely encouraging when one looks at how they were projected to perform all offseason.