UMass Basketball: How lineup issues are causing Minutemen to struggle

UMass Basketball is 2-4 in Atlantic 10 play and Coach Frank Martin is having constant lineup changes. What can be done to fix the issue?

The roller coaster of Frank Martin’s first season as the head coach of UMass is at a low point right now, with the Minutemen having lost three of their last four games, punctuated by a 28-point blowout loss to VCU that put them at 2-4 in A-10 play.  Ask a UMass fan what needs to be done differently and most will respond the same way, that four-star freshman forward Tafara Gapare needs to play more, and most likely do so at the expense of starting power forward Brandon Martin.

Gapare is a clear ceiling raiser on a UMass team that doesn’t have many bench players capable of a big performance, and his three best games (15 pts, 5 stls vs Albany, 13 pts vs Hofstra, and 8 pts, 6 rebs, 5 blks for a triple nickel vs Saint Louis) came in the three times he played more than 20 minutes, all big wins for the Minutemen.

While Gapare’s talent certainly warrants more minutes, especially on a struggling team, he’s not the player that UMass most needs on the court way more than he’s currently playing. That’s fellow backup forward Dyondre Dominguez, stuck at a far too-low 17.8 minutes per game.  Dominguez guards three positions well, is the team’s second-best defensive rebounder, and has found his scoring touch, with four straight double-digit games.

He’s the best on the team at making important little plays happen and was the clear MVP in last weekend’s win over Rhode Island.

(Yes, those were basically the same shot, but those are the kind of tough plays you get from Dyondre Dominguez.)

UMass has glut of tall, rangy forwards between Gapare, Martin, Dominguez, and Matt Cross, who has often been the team’s best player. It’s clear that the younger Martin is going to continue to play major minutes, as he serves as an energy guy and key rebounder (he’s top 20 in the A-10 in offensive rebounding rate), which is fine considering that he fits nicely into some the lineups that his father should try.

When oft-injured point guard Noah Fernandes is out (he’s missed seven games and is questionable Saturday vs St. Joe’s), UMass simply cannot continue to trot out traditional lineups with a point guard and a center for the full forty minutes.  The Minutemen’s replacement starter at the point, UConn transfer Rashool Diggins has struggled shooting the ball all season (28% from the field, 20% from 3) and his backup Keon Thompson has been better in certain games but is plagued with freshman inconsistency.  Combined, the two have 71 total assists despite handling the point guard duties for the full game over nearly half the season and amidst Fernandes’ absence, Matt Cross is the best at creating his own shot and keeping the defense moving.

It’s time for UMass to experiment with simply playing a bunch of the forwards together for four to eight minutes in each half, with a core of Cross/Dominguez/Gapare and sharpshooter TJ Weeks (40.8% from 3) leading the way. The fifth spot can even depend on the matchup, add in Martin for a five-man unit that switch across positions with tremendous length (6’4″ Weeks would be the shortest) capable of causing the same headaches that Dayton’s huge lineups have been causing the rest of the A-10.  Center Wildens Leveque wouldn’t allow for the same flexibility but he would turn the Minutemen (already 2nd in the A-10 in rebounding) into an absolute force on the glass.

But the most tantalizing possibility includes freshman guard RJ Luis, who is set to return from a two-game injury absence.

This unit could jumpstart UMass’ struggling offense, with the team’s best playmaker, Cross surrounded by its two best shooters, Weeks and Luis, and while Dominguez is probably best inside and on the pick and roll, he’s a capable 38.5% from deep. All that floor spacing leaves plenty of room for the best athlete, Gapare, to attack the rim.

It’s an aggressive proposal for an old-school coach like Martin but the simple fact is that without Fernandes, the best Minutemen are all mostly jammed into three positions and they need to find a way to play their best as often as possible. Cross’ playmaking gives all of these theoretical units a chance to succeed, despite the positional oddities.

And it just so happens to be the best time to try this out.  Their Saturday opponent St. Joe’s is a below-average rebounding team who is 15th to last nationally in points from inside the arc, lessening the need for a rim-protecting center. Meanwhile, the Hawks have been on an offensive heater over their last three games but it was only two weeks ago that they were held below 60 points in back-to-back games by Dayton and Fordham, a pair of defenses with a lot of length and switchability on the perimeter.

A promising season is beginning to slip away from a very talented UMass squad, but Frank Martin is too good of a coach to let it spiral out of control. Changes will be made, and hopefully trying some of these lineups will be a part of those alterations.