UMass vs. Davidson: 2020-21 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

TV schedule: Sunday, January 24, 12:00 ET, CBSS

Arena: Mullins Center, Amherst MA

After a rocky start to the season, the UMass Minutemen are off to their best opening to A10 play since the days of Chaz Williams and the 2014 NCAA Tournament team. At second place in the conference standings (4-1), the Minutemen have looked extremely promising over the course of their current three-game winning streak, but outside of Rhode Island, they haven’t yet played any at-least-somewhat-serious top 4 contenders.

Sunday’s game against Davidson (5-2) will be an important test for a talented UMass squad that’s just the 336th most experienced (averaging 1.75 years per player) in the nation, and whose confidence and knowledge of how to close out tough games is still very much a work in progress.

The Wildcats, as is the case in most seasons, are fueled by their skilled guard play, and they love to take their time in half-court offensive sets, frustrating opponents with layups off of back-cuts or kick-out three-pointers towards the end of the shot clock.

According to Kenpom, Davidson plays at the 348th fastest (bottom 10) tempo in the nation, making them the complete antithesis of a UMass team that is 25th in that category and has thus far tried to race teams to 90 points.

It will be nice for UMass that they won’t have to deal with former conference player of the year (and truly one of the best players in recent A10 memory) Jon Axel Gudmundsson quarterbacking the Davidson offense, but the Cats still have plenty of capable ball handlers that could carve the Minutemen up if they aren’t focused and decisive in their defensive rotations.

UMass has had a tough time, for example, guarding corner threes off of swing passes all season long, and there are few coaches in the country that could take more advantage of those types of lapses than Bob McKillop.

Last season, Coach McCall and his staff tried to speed up the Cats’ pace and keep them off of their rhythm by pressing aggressively, but they failed dramatically in the attempt and left Belk Arena with a 35-point loss. This current iteration of the UMass press, though, largely due to improved depth and athleticism across the board, is much further along now than it was for that meeting.

It will be interesting to see if the Minutemen will take the same approach, or if they will allow Davidson to slow things down a little bit for the sake of getting their feet beneath them on defense.

As far as players to watch out for in this contest, Kellan Grady is the most purely talented player that McKillop has in his rotation, but Javohn Garcia, UMass’ most tenacious perimeter defender, should be able to do an at-least-serviceable job of containing him.

Another player that UMass fans should be very familiar with by now and worried about heading into this game is the versatile Sophomore Forward Hyungjung Lee. The Minutemen had no answer for Lee last year, as he connected on 4/5 three-pointers en route to 16 points in the blowout.

Davidson needed someone to step up and produce big numbers in the wake of Axel Gudmundsson’s departure, and Lee has been that player so far this year, putting up 14.1 points per game on 45% shooting from beyond the arc.

6’9” UMass Forward Dibaji Walker has found new life on the defensive end of the floor this season, and with his speed and wingspan he’ll likely be UMass’ best bet to contain Lee, but the Minutemen are going to need alert help defenders all over the floor (more so than they have in any game yet) if they truly hope to keep Lee and the other Wildcat shooters from finding their range.

As far as who Davidson will have to prepare for, sophomore big man Tre Mitchell will be a load to contain as always, but a few other players that weren’t around last season could end up having enormous impacts as well.

Rookie Forward Ronnie DeGray III has been one of the most efficient players in the A10 and an absolute revelation on both ends of the floor thus far for the Minutemen, and Cairo McCrory (missed the last two games — unknown if he’ll be available for this one), Noah Fernandes, and Javohn Garcia all provide an element of toughness and disdain for losing that the team has been lacking for the past several seasons.

Out of all of the aforementioned, Garcia is a strong candidate to be UMass’ most important player in this contest. Davidson is fast enough on the perimeter to keep hands in the faces of UMass’ shooters, but Garcia is the best weapon the Minutemen have when it comes to driving through the lane and either getting a tough basket or a trip to the line (or both).

In last year’s Davidson contest, and in many other matchups throughout last season, UMass was forced into some ugly possessions as players that couldn’t create their own shots were forced to try when the passing lanes to Mitchell down low were severed. They should have more of an answer for that this time around with players like Garcia reliably attacking the basket.

Noah Fernandes is also a threat in that regard, so keep an eye out for him as well, but it’s Garcia’s physicality and unparalleled willingness to get clobbered if it means two free ones that could be a real difference-maker on Sunday.

Right now, KenPom predicts that the Wildcats will escape the Mullins Center with a 75-73 W, and by no means would a loss be unacceptable for the Minutemen, but this is a game that both teams desperately want to win. Both are riding the waves of three-game winning streaks (though just as with UMass, those three for Davidson haven’t included any top-notch opponents) and both would like to remain well-positioned for a double-bye in the conference tournament.

Right now, those doubting the Minutemen are able to point to their soft strength of schedule and losses to George Mason, Bryant, and Northeastern (though the latter two are currently on pace for NCAA Tournament bids) as proof that the 4-1 conference record is meaningless. A win here would do a lot to quiet that kind of talk.