CORAL GABLES, Fla. - When Derek Kellogg was coaching under Jim Larranaga at George Mason in 1997, Larranaga's wife asked her husband what he thought of the young assistant.

"I said 'He reminds me of me.' My wife told Derek that was the greatest compliment I had ever paid anyone," Larranaga said.

That fondness still exists 14 years later between Larranaga, now the coach at Miami, and Kellogg at the University of Massachusetts.

"He's a class young man," Larranaga said of his counterpart after the Hurricanes beat the Minutemen 83-75 on Saturday. He's passionate about the game. He loves coaching. He loves working with the players,

"The players love him," Larranaga added. "He's doing a great job. He's finally got the type of team he wanted ... I think he's going to compete for the Atlantic 10 title."

Kellogg returned the praise.

"I have the utmost respect for Coach Larranaga and his program. Some of the things we're doing I can attribute to when I worked with him at George Mason. He's been a mentor to me," Kellogg said. "He's going to have this program where everyone's looking for it to go. He's a great coach and a great mentor."

Larranaga believes Kellogg will improve even more as a coach.

"He's going to learn an awful lot about this style of play. Now he has the players to play the style he wants," Larranaga said. "Now he's got to figure out the nuances."

FREE THROWS - Fouls continue to plague UMass. In addition to giving their foes an opportunity for points, the fouls have prevented the Minutemen from creating their desired pace and flow of the game.

UMass committeed 27 fouls Saturday and Miami made 27 of 36 free throws.

Their opponents have attempted more three throws than the Minutemen in eight of the nine games, and taken at least 20 in eight games as well.

"We have to stop fouling. It's killing us," said UMass senior big man Sean Carter who had four fouls Saturday. "If the whistle keeps blowing, we can never get the game moving at the pace we want it to go."

STARTERS/FINISHERS - Kellogg went back to his starting lineup of Sean Carter, Terrell Vinson, Javorn Farrell, Freddie Riley and Chaz Williams. But down the stretch, sophomore Raphiael Putney and Jesse Morgan replaced Riley and Farrell for much of the comeback by the Minutemen.

FIRST BASKET - Carter's dunk 12 seconds into the game marked the third straight game that he scored the first basket for UMass. He finished with 12 points, his second time in double figures during the last three games and the ninth time in his career.

NEXT UP - The Minutemen (6-3) will travel to East Carolina for a game at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Pirates are 4-2 with two wins against non-Division I opponents. Their losses are to Campbell and Old Dominion.

UMASS vs. ACC, BCS - UMass is now 1-2 against Atlantic Coast Conference teams and 2-2 against teams from BCS conferences.

MISCELLANEOUS - Garrius Adams missed the game with an illness for the Hurricanes.

Minuteman freshman big man Cady Lalanne is from Orlando and several of his friends and relatives were among the 3,653 fans in the stands.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.