UMass freshmen answer coach's challenge
1
AMHERST - At the end of Wednesday's shoot-around, University of Massachusetts men's basketball coach Derek Kellogg pulled his five freshmen aside and challenged them.
"I told them it's time to step their game up, to be more vocal and become leaders," Kellogg said. "It's time. I told them #You're no longer a freshman. Stop using that as an excuse as a player. This is what I expected out of you when we recruited you so now go do it.' "
While Raphiael Putney is expected to redshirt, the four rookies that played against Xavier heeded his message and were part of the reason the Minutemen put a scare into the Musketeers before falling 87-79.
"I thought they fought and battled tonight. They played tough and played physical," Kellogg said. "I thought tonight was the best our freshmen played as a whole and you're going to continue to see good things out of those guys."
Freddie Riley said, "Coach told us it's late in the season and we need to stop playing scared and stop playing like freshmen. We need to assert ourselves more."
Riley took over starting spot vacated by injured sophomore guard David Gibbs. Riley took advantage of his opportunity with 10 points and five rebounds.
Javorn Farrell looked for his offense more in this game than he had in any since the exhibition against Dowling on Nov. 7. He had a career-high 12 points and four assists.
Despite having his minutes limited by foul trouble, Terrell Vinson added 11 points.
Ricky Harris praised his rookie teammates.
"I'm not happy that we lost, but guys showed toughness down the stretch. That's the exciting thing about this young team," Harris said. "If they're starting to do this now, when they become sophomores, juniors and seniors, it will all come together and they'll be a good team."
NEXT UP - The Minutemen return to action at 2 p.m. Saturday when they travel to Kingston, R.I., to play Rhode Island. The Rams are 18-3 (6-2 Atlantic 10) after beating La Salle 90-83 on Tuesday.
HEAD CELTIC AT MULLINS - Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge was among the 3,538 in the building, likely to scout Xavier senior big man Jason Love.
SUPER BOWL BOUND - Referee Gene Steratore, who was one of the three officials calling Wednesday's game will have a slightly higher profile assignment on Sunday. The veteran ref will go from Amherst to Miami, where he will be an alternate official for the Super Bowl.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. For more UMass coverage, including a UMass sports blog, go to http://www.gazettenet.com/blog/umass-sports.
