An abrupt ending

Men's Basketball
Rob Greenfield

One reporter at the Atlantic 10 Tournament said it best last night. "It feels like UMass' season is over. But it's not over." That's true, even though it sure felt like the end of all ends when the Minutemen dropped a 74-71 shocker to the Saint Louis Billikens in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament last night in Atlantic City. UMass is a lock for the NIT and most likely will not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. But the Minutemen will be one of the higher seeds in the NIT so they could see another few games at the Mullins Center this season. Not many people thought that UMass would lose in the quarterfinals of the A-10 Tournament. It just seemed extremely unlikely that a team that had won six straight games and had an outside shot for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament would go down in the quarterfinals. Brandon Thomas, Gary Forbes, Stephane Lasme, Luke Bonner, all were extremely down after the game. Forbes said that he "still can't believe it."

I feel bad for Rashaun Freeman in particular. Forbes has another year, Thomas has only been with UMass for the last two seasons, Lasme has a possible NBA career ahead of him, but Freeman is UMass basketball. It will be strange to go to a game and not see No. 1 on the block pulling down rebounds. Freeman devoted four years of hard work and dedication to UMass basketball and he never made it past the quarterfinals of the A-10 Tournament. He came down with a harsh illness during the week and didn't practice in the four days leading up to the game. He looked out of sorts and he finished with just six points. He was in foul trouble most of the night and fouled out with about six minutes to go in the game. It's a sad semi-ending to his career, and in the locker room after the game he looked devastated. He didn't speak to the media after the game and we didn't ask him to. He's probably taking this the hardest of anyone.

Here's some food for thought. Travis Ford talked about the selection committee taking into consideration the illness that his team had earlier in the week and how UMass wasn't able to practice in the four days leading up to the game. That definitely had a significant impact on game preparation and probably had something to do with the UMass loss and Freeman's absence on the offensive end. But how detailed can the selection committee get with these evaluations? Yes, the illness that struck this team was detrimental to their cause, but should the committee really take something like that into consideration when making the decisions for an at-large bid in the most prestigious college basketball tournament on the planet? Here's a hypothetical: let's say that George Washington had a legitimate shot at an at-large bid this season (this is just a hypothetical situation to illustrate my point). Maureece Rice, one of GW's top scorers, has had a tough week. He attended his grandmother's funeral yesterday morning (that is true) and played against Saint Joseph's last night. For the sake of the argument, let's say that Rice had a terrible game (he played great last night) and GW lost, when it needed to get to the conference championship to have a legit shot at an at-large. Should the committee take into consideration Maureece Rice's personal situation in that scenario? His grandmother's funeral that morning had his mind on other things and he wasn't the same player, and it clearly impacted the team's loss against St. Joe's, a team that, let's say, GW should have beaten. Should that really be taken into consideration for an at-large bid? Ford knows that the committee takes injuries into consideration, and Ford said in the press conference after the game that the selection committee should take his team's illness into consideration when it evaluates the Minutemen's loss in the quarterfinals. But should the committee get that detailed with its evaluations? And if it does, where does it draw the line of what to consider and what not to consider? Just some passing thoughts as I sit in my Holiday Inn hotel room watching Bubble Watch on ESPN.

By the way, Duke, UCLA and Maryland lost last night. I couldn't be happier about the Duke loss, because I think that team is overrated anyway, but the UCLA loss just confuses me. It just paints the whole bracket gray. Now, UCLA, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Florida - all possibilities for a No. 1 seed in the tournament - have had their struggles this season. All are vulnerable. Not that it's a bad thing for college basketball, but it makes filling out the bracket harder. A lot harder. There might be no No. 1 seeds in the Final Four this year.

Some notes from the UMass game tonight:

• Luke Bonner played 15 minutes in the game, by far the most he's played in a meaningful game this season, and he knocked down two free throws to give UMass a 65-63 lead with a few minutes remaining in the game.
• The Minutemen went with a man-to-man full court press for the majority of last night's game to try and speed up the pace of play. The Billikens like to slow things down, run clock with their offensive sets and dump it down to Ian Vouyoukas on the interior, who can help with the inside-outside game to open things up for Tommie Liddell. For all intents and purposes, the press worked. The final score, 74-71, indicates that the game was played more to UMass' pace, unlike the game at the Mullins Center on Feb. 24, when both teams finished with point totals in the low 50's.
  
• Liddell finished the game with 24 points and he is one of the best offensive players in the conference. He can shoot from 3-point land, he can put it on the floor, and he can use his body in order to get his shot off among the trees in the paint. He took on Lasme last night several times and succeeded in using his body to shield the ball from Lasme's reach.
  
• UMass had two airballs in the overtime period. One by Bonner, one by Ricky Harris.
  
• Saint Louis coach Brad Soderberg made sure that Lasme and Freeman weren't going to get to the basket easily last night. He took at least one guard and planted him in the paint, essentially playing a one-man zone. If the ball was passed to his man, he would close-out and prevent dribble penetration, forcing UMass to shoot over the top of the defense. Soderberg admitted that he was a little worried when Thomas hit a couple of threes, but other than that, the plan worked well. Most of the time, Soderberg took the man who was guarding Chris Lowe - who isn't a good shooter - and sagged him way off, so the defender was there for the double teams on Lasme and Freeman as soon as they touched the ball. Lowe burnt SLU a couple of times and finished with 11 points, but Lasme and Freeman were limited to 14 points combined.