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Men's Basketball
  
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UMass Heads To Fordham For ESPN2 Clash On Thursday Night
Feb. 12, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
UMASS (17-7, 7-3) at FORDHAM (13-10, 6-5) UMass Heads To Fordham For ESPN2 Clash, Thursday • UMass is led by a pair of senior bigmen in reining A-10 Co-Player of the Week Stephane Lasme and two-time A-10 First-Team selection Rashaun Freeman. Lasme became just the eighth player in the NCAA history to post three triple-doubles in the same season, when he accomplished the feat last Thursday after Rhode Island. In that 77-55 win, he had 18 points, 12 rebounds and 11 blocked shots. Only two players in NCAA history have posted four triple-doubles in the same season (Michael Anderson at Drexel in 1986) and Jason Kidd (at Cal in 1994). Lasme has the chance to be the first to it with blocked shots. Lasme is second in the nation in blocked shots (5.1 per game) and leads the A-10 in rebounding (9.5 per game). Freeman is UMass' leading scorer at 16.5 per game and ranks 14th in the nation in field goal percentage (62.5). He just moved to fifth in career scoring at UMass with 12 points at Temple as he now has 1,653, passing UTEP Coach Tony Barbee (1,643). Junior Gary Forbes has been the hottest Minuteman of late scoring a career-high 31 points at Temple to became the first UMass player with more than 30 points since Freeman back in 2004. Forbes also has double-doubles in two of the last three games with 14 rebounds at Temple along with 16 points and 16 rebounds against Richmond (2/3). With his 16 rebounds vs. Richmond, he became the first player in the nation this season to single-handedly outrebound the entire opposing team, as the Spiders had just 13 boards in the game. Forbes is UMass' top scorer in conference games at 17.0 per game and is averaging 23.0 points and 13.0 rebounds in his last three games.
UMass-Fordham Series • UMass holds a 21-10 record in the all-time series after UMass won at the Mullins Center last season, 74-61. Two years ago, each team won its home floor. UMass won 76-63 on Jan. 19, 2005 in Amherst. The Rams got the best of UMass at Rose Hill, 63-56 on Feb. 12, 2005. • UMass has not won at Rose Hill since Feb. 16, 2000, an 81-72 Minuteman win at Rose Hill. Overall, in games played at Rose Hill , Fordham leads, 8-6. The schools also met once at Madison Square Garden, with the Minutemen recording a 73-47 victory on Feb. 6, 1996. • The home team has won each of the last 10 meetings, but UMass had won 12 of 13 prior to that. • For games played in Amherst, the Minutemen lead the series 13-2, with a 10-1 mark at Mullins. The Minutemen have won 11 of the last 12 games in Amherst, dating to 1973. • The Rams have not won consecutive games in the series since taking three straight from 1970-72. • The teams first met on Dec. 13, 1967 at Fordham, with the Rams winning by a score of 77-66. • UMass coach Travis Ford is 1-0 against Fordham winning last season's game. Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg stands 2-3 all-time against UMass winning twice at home since he took over in 2003-04. New Yorkers Return Home • Four members of the staff, who are native New Yorkers, will have a chance to visit with their families while in New York City. Associate Head Coach Tim Maloney is a native of Floral Park and Long Beach. Assistant Coach Steve Middleton grew up in Brooklyn and played at Samuel J. Tilden High School. Assistant Coach Adam Ginsburg is a native of Baldwin on Long Island while Director of Basketball Operations James Altman grew up in Rockville Centre and played his high school basketball at South Side. • On the court, the UMass ticket request list will be very long, as several players are returning to their old stomping grounds. Junior swingman Gary Forbes was a star at Benjamin Banneker High School in Brooklyn, where he is school's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. Junior forward Danté Milligan is a native New Yorker who played his high school basketball at Trinity-Pawling. Sophomore point guard Chris Lowe is a native of Mount Vernon where he played basketball. Junior forward Etienne Brower is from Hempstead, Long Island where he played at West Hempstead. Freshman walk-on guard Michael Sinn is from Jericho, Long Island. • Senior Rashaun Freeman and freshman Tiki Mayben are from the Albany area, being natives of Schenectady and Troy, respectively, just a two-hour drive from the Bronx. • Additionally, senior guard James Life makes his home in Fort Myers, Fla., but was born in Jamaica, New York and lived their until seventh grade, when he moved to the Sunshine State. Senior forward Brandon Thomas spent two years living in Brooklyn as he played at Long Island University in 2002-04.
Head Coach Travis Ford In New York
Freeman Up For CLASS Award
Lasme's Continues To Gain National Attention • Stephane Lasme was named Dick Vitale's National Player of the Week, earned conference player of the week and was one of five candidates for ESPN's Big Man On Campus for the week ending Jan. 15. That came after averaging 22.0 points, 13.0 rebounds and 8.5 blocks which making 16-of-21 (76.2) from the floor in two wins over George Washington (91-84) on Jan. 10 and Temple (88-77) on Jan. 13 at the Mullins Center. Lasme became a part of NCAA history in the win over GW as he became just the 23rd player in D-I history to post multiple triple-doubles in the same season as he had 23 points, 15 rebounds and tied his own school and A-10 record with 11 blocked shots. The list of players with multiple triple-doubles includes the likes of all-time legends David Robinson, Shaquille O'Neal, Jason Kidd and Penny Hardaway.
VOTE UMASS!
Ultimate Road Warriors • It is huge improvement for UMass, which was just 3-13 away from home in 2005-06. UMass won eight of the 10 games away from home in the first two months. That included a stretch of five wins in a row away from Mullins. UMass' signature win of the year was a 72-68 win at Louisville on Dec. 13. For UMass coach Travis Ford the win was especially sweet as he defeated his former coach Rick Pitino, who coached Travis Ford at Kentucky. • With nine wins away from home, UMass has its most away from the Mullins Center since 1999-2000 when they had 11. • The Minutemen's only non-conference road losses came at then-No. 4 Pittsburgh on Nov. 18, an 85-68 loss at the Petersen Events Center and an 82-68 loss at Rupp Arena against Kentucky on Dec. 22. Following the road loss at Pitt, UMass ripped off six wins in a row away from home prior to falling at UK. In A-10 play, UMass has lost at Xavier, 83-77 on Jan. 18, at Rhode Island, 75-72 on Jan. 24 and at Temple, 98-89, on Feb. 11. • Last season, UMass won just two games in opponents' arenas as UMass went 2-11 on the road with wins at Duquesne and St. Bonaventure. They also won a neutral site game at Madison Square Garden.
Home Sweet Home, As Fans Come Back • UMass drew its largest crowd for a home A-10 game on Feb. 8 against Rhode Island with 8,328. The last time there was a bigger crowd for a home conference game was a sellout (9,493) against Temple on Feb. 17, 2001. The URI crowd included more than 3,500 students. • UMass is fourth in the league in average attendance at 5,748. It is the largest home crowd average since the 1999-2000 season when an average of 5,836 came out. • UMass has won 18 of its last 22 at home, spanning Travis Ford's two seasons in Amherst.
First-Place Minutemen • Earlier this season, UMass was alone in first place in the A-10 at 3-0 from Jan. 14-17, 2007. It was the first time since Feb. 24, 1998 that UMass was alone in first place in the league. At that time, the Minutemen were 12-2 in the A-10 East before losing the final two games of the season finish 12-4 in conference play.
Best Start Since 95-96/97-98 • The 7-3 start in league play is the best since 2000-01 when UMass started 8-2.
Century Minutemen
Fastest To 10 Wins Ever
Minutemen Among Leaders In A-10 Stats • UMass has five players leading in an individual category with Stephane Lasme topping in three. • Senior Stephane Lasme tops the league in blocks per game with 5.1 per game, which is second best in the nation. He also leads in total rebounding with 9.5 (17th in the nation) and first in defensive rebounding at 6.08 per game. Lasme is also fourth in offensive rebounds per game (3.46). • Senior Rashaun Freeman leads the league in field goal percentage (62.5) -- which ranks 14th nationally. He leads the A-10 in offensive rebounds per game (4.17 per game). His scoring mark of 16.5 is eighth in the A-10. He is also third in rebounding at 8.5. • Freshman Tiki Mayben is third in the A-10 in assists per game with 4.30 per game. He was first in the league until late in January. Remarkably, a UMass freshman led the league in assists last season, Chris Lowe handed out 4.9 per game. Lowe is now fourth in the league this season with 3.91 dishes per game. Lowe leads the A-10 in assists in conference games with 5.4 per league game. Lowe is also fifth in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.70-to-1. • Three-point gunner James Life is third in the league in 3-pointers made per game with 2.75, seventh in steals per game (1.45) and seventh in 3-point field goal percentage (41.0). What An Improvement! • From the floor, UMass is shooting better with a mark of 48.1 overall and 34.3 from 3-pointers. Last year, the Minutemen were 43.8 from the field and just over 30 percent from trifecta-land. • UMass is also rebounding better, handing assists and coming up with steals at a better rate than last season overall and through 24 games.
Big Blockers • UMass was third in the nation in blocked shots with 7.2 per game in 2005-06. Connecticut was first at 8.8 per game and Northeastern was second at 8.0 per contest. UMass was second most of the season until mid-February,
Shooting the Lights Out • The Minutemen shot 50.0 percent against Oakland after starting the game 10-of-11 from the field (90.9 percent) in the first 10 minutes. • UMass has shot better than 50 percent in seven games this season (through 24 games). In 28 games last season, UMass shot 50 percent in six games. UMass equalled that with six games over 50 percent in the first 17 games this season. They had two games in a row from Jan. 10-13: vs. Temple (1/13) with 52.6 and against George Washington (1/10) with 58.8 percent. • In both second halves, UMass was red hot, shooting 64.3 in the second half vs. Temple and 61.9 in the second half of the GW game. • The Minutemen are on fire in the second half in A-10 games, shooting 156-288 for 54.2 percent. • The only game UMass shot less than 40 percent all season, was at Kentucky, just 37.3. • UMass' top two bigmen are all shooting better than 62 percent: Rashaun Freeman (62.5), Stephane Lasme (62.9).
Free Throw Improvement • UMass has shooting before 60 percent for a good portion of the season, but has shown marked improvement since Jan. 21. • In their last six games, UMass is 71.4 percent, making 105-of-147. • UMass shot a season-best 85.7 at Temple (2/11), making 18-of-21. • Against Richmond (2/3), UMass made 33-of-43 from the foul line, which marked the most made free throws by a UMass team since they hit 40-of-50 against defending champion Arkansas on Nov, 25, 1994. • Junior Gary Forbes is front in center in terms of improvement. After shooting 54 percent in the first 13 games of the season. He is 76 percent in the last 11 contests. |
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