A year ago, the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team was never better than in its three-game stretch in the Tip-Off Classic at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.

The Minutemen will try to continue their success in coach Derek Kellogg's hometown tonight when they play Siena at 7 in the Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase.

"We've always enjoyed going down there playing in front of the hometown. I'm hoping our guys play well and show the people of Springfield how we're playing and how hard we can play and compete," Kellogg said. "It's been a good venue for us. The last couple of year's we've actually played well down there. Hopefully we can continue that trend."

UMass is 42-24 all-time in the MassMutual Center.

The Minutemen's game will be the third in the Holiday Showcase's quadrupleheader. American International plays Philadelphia University at 3 p.m. Springfield College plays Trinity at 5 p.m. Fairfield and Old Dominion follow the Minutemen and Saints.

Siena arrives in Springfield at 3-5. Its win over Albany on Monday snapped a five-game losing streak that included losses to St. Bonaventure, Georgia Tech, Vermont, St. Peter's and Loyola-Maryland.

The game features a pair of big scorers with small statures. Saints freshman Evan Hymes is their leading scorer at 14.9 points per game despite being just 5-foot-8. He'll matchup with UMass' 5-foot-9 point guard Chaz Williams.

Junior big man O.D. Anosike figures to be a handful. He's averaging 11.4 points and 11.9 rebounds per game. He had 21 points and 18 rebounds against Albany.

"He's very, very good. The one thing that scares me is that he really rebounds the ball," Kellogg said. "We have to be really conscious of him and make sure we play help defense on him."

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.