The Minutemen were down to just nine players during Wednesday's practice.
UMass coach Derek Kellogg, pictured here during the team's Jan. 10 loss to Saint Louis, is essentially down to nine players.
AMHERST — Before practice Wednesday, University of Massachusetts basketball coach Derek Kellogg looked at assistant Shyrone Chatman and asked him an odd question.
“Shy, you ready to practice today?”
Jesse Morgan and Javorn Farrell are sidelined with injuries for the foreseeable future, freshman center Izzy Freeman was in study hall and transfer Derrick Gordon, who while sitting out the season, can still practice with the team, is still on break until next week.
That left nine Minutemen dressed and ready participate Wednesday, meaning Chatman had to be ready to practice, not for practice — a subtle change in prepositions that meant the former guard, who played 91 games over three seasons at Memphis, was a full participant in any sort of five-on-five simulations the Minutemen ran.
Unfortunately for UMass, the depth situation isn’t going to improve in games. Gordon has to sit out the year. Morgan is done for the season. Farrell’s status is still uncertain, but he won’t even be re-evaluated until next month. Freeman is allowed to play, but is unlikely to contribute much at this point.
So nine is the number, both now and in the future, and it’s a number that will be tested right away Thursday when a Duquesne team that isn’t afraid to push the tempo visits Mullins Center for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
“They get up and down and score the ball and play a lot of guys that can handle the ball on the perimeter,” Kellogg said. “That part of it is a concern, especially when we’re thin back there.”
Kellogg’s lack of depth has him scaling back the team’s signature press-heavy, fast-paced tempo, but not so much that people forget it says "UMass" on its jerseys.
“You tend to tire a little bit more when you’re running and pressing for 40 minutes. We’ve curtailed it a little bit, but we’re trying to keep the UMass brand and identity together,” Kellogg said. “The reality is that we’ve practiced a little bit less. We’re probably not as good in a few areas that I’d like to be, but at the same token, I’d rather the guys have energy and be fresh for the game than maybe get in two more side out-of-bounds plays or something against a thing you might see once a year.”
Despite a new coach in Jim Ferry, the Dukes’ style doesn’t wholly differ from that of the team that UMass defeated in a run-and-gun 92-83 win in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals at Mullins Center last season.
“They’re kind of similar, actually very similar,” Kellogg said. “They’re playing four perimeter guys, they’re kind of playing a similar style of getting up and down the floor, mixing defenses up, and (Ferry) is doing a pretty good job with them for the personnel that he has.”
Ferry is doing his best to mix what older players like Sean Johnson, who scored 20 in the Dukes’ 80-69 win over UMass in Pittsburgh last season, with the new, such as freshman point guard Derrick Colter, who is tied for the team lead with Johnson, averaging 13.3 points per game thus far this season.
“We want to play fast, we want to play aggressively, but we have to play smarter and truly understand who each other is and who we are as a team,” Ferry said. "We’re starting to get there, we’re starting to figure it out."
Duquesne enters Thursday’s matchup having lost four straight games dating back to a Dec. 22 loss to Penn State, and although Ferry said his team looked markedly better in its most recent game, an 74-66 loss at home to Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 12., he was also realistic in his expectations.
“I think that if we can continue to play like we did on Saturday, we’ll continue to see improvement and give ourselves a chance,” Ferry said. “But coming into conference play that this was going to be difficult with such a young team.”