The Minutemen could finish anywhere from fourth to ninth in the A-10.
Massachusett senior center' Sean Carter will play his final home regular season game Saturday against Rhode Island.
AMHERST - Derek Kellogg wonders where the time has gone.
"It's already March, but I feel like we just played Elon (in the season opener),'' said the University of Massachusetts men's basketball coach, whose team wraps up its regular season at home against Rhode Island Saturday.
After 29 games, UMass does not yet know if it will be playing Tuesday's Atlantic 10 Conference first-round game at home, on the road or at all.
The Minutemen can finish anywhere from fourth to ninth. A No. 4 finish would provide a first-round bye, but will only happen with a victory by UMass (19-10, 8-7 A-10) and losses by Xavier, Dayton and La Salle.
That would leave UMass, Xavier and Saint Joseph's in a three-tie for fourth at 9-7. Any other tiebreaker scenarios drop UMass out of a top-4 finish.
UMass currently sits in a three-way tie for sixth place, and would get the No. 8 seed based on tiebreakers. In all likelihood, the Minutemen will wind up somewhere between fifth and eighth place.
Any of those spots would carry a first-round home game.
Finishing ninth would mean a road game the Minutemen want to avoid. That will happen if UMass loses to Rhode Island (7-23, 4-11), and allows Duquesne to finish in a tie for eighth place at 8-8.
The Dukes would win the tiebreaker by virtue of beating UMass this season. That would send the Minutemen to Pittsburgh Tuesday.
Rhode Island has played well in only two stretches this season, but both have been timed to converge with their games against UMass.
The Rams are in 13th place and will not qualify for the 12-team A-10 tournament. They have won two straight, however, with wins over second-place Saint Louis and also Fordham.
They also edged UMass 81-78 in overtime last month. Losses in OT to Rhode Island and Temple, and a one-point home defeat to La Salle, are the difference between a good UMass season and a spectactular turnaround.
Seniors Sean Carter and Matt Hill will play their final regular season games. Hill has been rarely used this season, but he saw action in Wednesday's 90-88 overtime loss to Temple.
Hill's playing time came in a game Kellogg chose not to use junior guard Javorn Farrell, who was healthy but left out of the playing rotation for the first time.
The loss at Temple was crushing because UMass led by six in the overtime. The Minutemen chose to sustain a quick tempo rather than chew up the clock, an approach Kellogg defended because he thinks his team plays much better basketball when it maintains its natural fast-paced style.
The Minutemen figure to press the tempo again Saturday in hopes of landing a better A-10 seeding - and with an extraordinary amount of help, possibly a bye.