UMass hockey, men's basketball undefeated at Mullins Center
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AMHERST - Moments after the University of Massachusetts hockey team finished off its 4-0 win over No. 4-ranked Boston College on Friday night, the Mullins Center crew began to transform the arena from an ice rink to basketball gym.
But whether it's ice or floorboards, the success remains for the Minutemen. Neither of the two UMass men's teams who play their home games at 200 Commonwealth Ave. have dropped a game there during the 2011-12 season.
Less than 24 hours after the hockey team mobbed goalie Steve Mastalerz to celebrate his shutout, the basketball team raised its arms in celebration following a 71-62 win over Saint Joseph's.
After going 8-8 at Mullins in 2010-11, the men's basketball team is 9-0 there this season (in addition to having a win each year at Curry Hicks Cage). It's the best start at home since 1992-93 when UMass won all 11 home games and didn't lose at Mullins until 1996.
The hockey team's turnaround is even more pronounced. Last year the Minutemen were 4-8-4 at the Mullins Center. This season, without a single win at the rink of an opponent, UMass is 6-0-3 at Mullins with two upsets of Boston College and another one over Yale.
Those turnarounds could serve as inspiration for the women's basketball team, which hasn't enjoyed the same comfort in familiar surroundings. The Minutemen are 2-3 in Mullins so far this season.
How rare is the men's hoop and hockey undefeated double at home? There are six other men's basketball programs at schools with Division I hockey teams that are undefeated at home - Connecticut, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Harvard, Yale and Western Michigan. But all of their hockey teams have at least one loss at home.
In fact no other Division I college hockey program is undefeated at home.
The men's basketball team will be on the road for the next week before hosting Saint Louis at 2 p.m. Jan. 28, its first of five more home games.
The hockey team has seven more homes games, including Vermont at 7 p.m. Friday.
FARRELL PLAYS - After missing Friday's practice and Saturday's shoot-around with an ankle injury, junior forward Javorn Farrell played 16 minutes and give the Minutemen some help with three steals and two assists against the Hawks. Kellogg said he wasn't sure if Farrell would play until shortly before the game.
"I asked him, 'How do you feel?' and he said, 'I'd like to try to play,'" Kellogg related. "So I said, 'OK, if he goes through warm-ups and it looks like he can play, he'll play. If he can't, then we're going to sit him.'
"The team trainer said it looks like he's good enough to play," Kellogg added. "I thought he helped us, too. When we were down early, he came up with two or three loose balls, and dove for the ball, and kind of got the team excited and the crowd into it a little bit."
Chaz Williams said seeing Farrell fight through the injury gave his teammates a lift.
"That was huge. Javorn's been battling that ankle for a couple days now," Williams said. "But Javorn showed a lot of heart and toughness, going out there, playing on that bad wheel like that, and giving us good minutes the way he did."
HOFSTRA vs. HOFSTRA - Williams and Halil Kanacevic, who were freshman teammates for Hofstra in 2009-10, were on opposite sides Saturday after both transferred following coach Tom Pecora's departure to Fordham.
Kanacevic had 11 points and six rebounds for Saint Joseph's, while Williams led UMass with 22 points and seven assists.
NEXT UP - UMass (14-4, 3-1 Atlantic 10) is on the road for its next two as it will play Duquesne at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Pittsburgh and Richmond at 5 p.m. Saturday in Virginia. Duquesne (11-7, 2-2 A-10) beat Rhode Island 78-71 on Saturday in Kingston, R.I.
MISCELLANEOUS - Former Minutemen Carmelo Travieso, Tyrone Weeks and Chris Kirkland were all among the 4,616 fans in the stands Saturday.
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.
