No one knows better than Rich Kelly exactly what he and a handful of other transfers are supposed to provide a revamped Massachusetts roster this season.
“I’m just trying to bring leadership, perspective and wins, hopefully,” said Kelly, who began his career at Quinnipiac and spent last season at Boston College.
The Minutemen will gladly take all three after taking a step forward last season, only to see its top two scorers enter the transfer portal.
While Massachusetts has holdovers it will count on, like wily point guard Noah Fernandes and wings Javohn Garcia and T.J. Weeks, newcomers who already have a sense of the Division I level will be crucial.
In addition to Kelly, coach Matt McCall picked up former Albany guard C.J. Kelly, ex-Penn State forward Trent Buttrick and 6-10 rim protector Michael Steadman, who has made stops at Montana and San Jose State. Also in the mix is forward Greg Jones, who began his career at James Madison before moving on to Division II Southern Connecticut State.”
“I think the biggest thing for us when we were looking at the transfer portal is we wanted to bring in a level of maturity and we felt like we really did that with the guys we brought in,” McCall said.
They’ll have to blend together quickly. The Minutemen play seven times in the first 16 days of the season, including a three-games-in-four-days neutral site event in St. Petersburg, Fla., against Weber State, UNC Greensboro and Ball State.
Massachusetts is coming off its first winning season, both overall and in the A-10, since 2014-15. With an older group and a crammed schedule, it should have a better idea by Thanksgiving about its chances of landing the program’s first NCAA tournament berth since 2014.
“When you bring in transfers sometimes, especially guys on their last stop, the focus turns to ‘I have to get my numbers, I want to be a pro, I want to play overseas,’” McCall said. “We don’t have that with our guys. They’re focused on winning and trying to do something at UMass that quite honestly hasn’t been done in a really long time.”
A look at the Minutemen:
Coach: Matt McCall, fifth season at Massachusetts, 46-65 with the Minutemen and 94-83 overall in seven seasons
Last year: On three occasions during league play, the Minutemen went more than a week between games. That led to more than a little unevenness, including an 8-7 overall record and a 6-4 mark in the Atlantic 10. The No. 5 seed in the conference tournament, Massachusetts hung 100 points on Saint Joseph’s before succumbing 86-72 to Saint Louis in the quarterfinals.
They’ll miss: In one of the biggest hits for any A-10 team, center Tre Mitchell (18.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg) transferred to Texas. Guard Carl Pierre (12.7 ppg) also departed, leaving the Minutemen without their top two scorers from last season.
Impact returners: Fernandes made a fine debut for the Minutemen after transferring in from Wichita State, averaging 11.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists. At times, McCall wondered why he wasn’t asked more about the 5-11 Fernandes.
“The things he was doing out there on the floor was impressive on a nightly basis in the Atlantic 10,” McCall said. “This is not to put pressure on Noah, but he’s as good as any guard in the Atlantic 10 --- in his playmaking ability, in his ability to shoot the ball from behind the perimeter, but he’s also extremely unselfish.”
Javohn Garcia spent much of last season as a starter, averaging 10.4 points while collecting a team-high 23 steals. And T.J. Weeks posted 9.3 points a night in mostly a reserve role after recovering from a knee injury. Both have a chance to expand their place in the rotation this winter.
Newbies of note: Rich Kelly has scored 1,386 points in four college seasons, and is a career 38.4 percent shooter from 3-point range. His best season was in 2019-20 at Quinnipiac, when he averaged 16.7 points; last year he was a part-time starter at Boston College.
“He’s been through a lot in his basketball journey, starting his career at Quinnipiac and playing at the highest level at Boston College in the ACC, averaging double figures there,” McCall said. “When him and Fernandes are your primary ballhandlers within our offense, they both have tremendous leadership qualities, which we’re going to rely on a lot.”
Reasons to be optimistic: Scoring is not going to be a problem for the Minutemen, even without the imposing presence of Tre Mitchell in the paint. UMass has six players who averaged at least 9.7 points in their most recent college season.
Of course, only three of them (Fernandes, Garcia and Weeks) actually did it with the Minutemen. Both Kellys (C.J. and Rich) were double-digit scorers last season at Albany and Boston College, respectively, and Michael Steadman nearly hit that figure at Montana last year.
X factor: With all the change on the roster, it’s easy to overlook a guy who opted out last season. But the 6-6 Preston Santos has a chance to bolster the Minutemen once he shakes some rust off.
Santos’ numbers as a freshman two seasons ago were modest --- 2.4 points in 17.3 minutes per game. But he started the last 12 games that season, collecting 8.1 points a game while reaching double figures on six occasions. Maybe it doesn’t happen immediately, but Santos should be able to help before long.
Circle the date: The Minutemen get a pair of Big Ten teams (and former conference rivals from long ago) at home in November. Penn State comes to Amherst on Nov. 15, while Rutgers makes the trip to Mullins Center on Nov. 27.
Bottom line: McCall has things trending in the right direction. Massachusetts struggled in his first two seasons, but moved up to a share of eighth in 2019-20 and a tie for fourth last season. There’s enough flux in Amherst and enough strength elsewhere in the league that it’ll be tough to maintain that trajectory in 2021-22, but UMass now has both experience and all-around offensive punch. A finish in the top half of the A-10 is well within reach.
Patrick Stevens is a veteran freelance college basketball writer. A former sports reporter for the Washington Times, he has been a contributor to Atlantic10.com for the past eight years. Follow him on Twitter at @D1scourse.