The Minutemen face the Friars at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
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Chaz Williams and the UMass Minutemen hope to continue their winning ways Thursday against Providence College.BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico — University of Massachusetts point guard Chaz Williams isn’t worried about anyone's focus wandering onto the beach on the eve of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
“I’m not really a beach guy,” Williams said Wednesday after the team’s practice. “I’m more of a stay in my room kind of guy.”
Coach Derek Kellogg is hoping that Williams will be a fill up the scoresheet kind of guy when the Minutemen (1-0) take on a depleted Providence (2-0) squad at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in a game that could have some stealthy NCAA tournament implications come March.
The Minutemen struggled at the Battle 4 Atlantis last season — going 1-2 with the lone win against a Utah team that finished 6-25 — but Kellogg said that wasn’t because of the exotic location.
“I thought taking them to Bahamas last year was similar - while we might not have won every game, it was similar, and we at least focused and played hard,” Kellogg said.
That said, Kellogg said there are plenty of other possible distractions, if that’s the route he wanted to go.
“There’s a lot of things we worry about - a long day, a foreign place, a gym we’ve never played in before,” Kellogg said. “But the program supersedes the worry. The things that are good for our program, like playing in this tournament on national television, are more important than the worry.”
One thing UMass won’t have to worry about is Providence point guard Vincent Council, who hurt his leg five minutes into the team’s Nov. 10 game against New Jersey Institute of Technology. Council was widely viewed as being the Friar’s best player, and combined with the fact that Providence started the season with just seven scholarship players, the injury could be a death blow to the team until Council returns.
“Whoever’s put on the floor, that’s who we’ll go against,” Kellogg said. “I feel bad for Vincent Council because he’s a good player and a nice kid.”
Council grew up playing with Williams in their hometown of Brooklyn, but the two will have to wait to play against each other on the collegiate level.
The game, though, carries extra importance for the Minutemen from an NCAA tournament standpoint not so much because of its own result, but because of what it could mean for the rest of this Puerto Rican sojourn.
A win would likely mean two more games with high RPI teams like North Carolina State, Oklahoma State and Tennessee. A loss could mean two games with the likes of Big Ten bottom feeder Penn State or lower conference foes like Akron and North Carolina-Asheville.
Kellogg said he hasn’t addressed that part of things with his team.
“I don’t want to put any extra stuff on these guys,” Kellogg said. “It’s just the next game on the schedule. They can gauge how important it is.”
SIGNING DAY?
UMass can’t make it official, but what's been known for a while happened Wednesday: Forwards Seth Berger (Seattle, Wash.) and Zach Coleman (Dallas, Texas) signed letters of intent to play at UMass beginning next season.
The school will take at least a few days to process the paperwork before announcing the additions, but you can watch a YouTube video of Berger signing if you’re curious.