UNO NOTES | UMASS NOTES | PRE-GAME QUOTES
AMHERST, Massachusetts – The University of New Orleans men's basketball team will look to build on the momentum of an 83-66 weekend victory when the Privateers take on the UMass Minutemen on Wednesday, Dec. 16, in the Mullins Center. Tipoff is slated for 6 p.m. (CST).
The game at UMass is the first of a two-game road trip for UNO, which will play at Louisiana-Lafayette on Monday, Dec. 21, before closing out the non-conference slate against Blue Mountain College on Dec. 29 in the friendly confines of Lakefront Arena. The Privateers enter the contest 3-5 on the year and 1-5 in road contests so far this season.
"This is a great opportunity for us to really think about how we can turn the corner and the things we can do to become better offensively," head coach
Mark Slessinger said. We need to continue to guard at a high rate and get even better defensively than we've been the past few games. It's yet another road test to see what can get revealed out of us so we can get it fixed."
As a team, New Orleans is averaging 69.2 points, 38.0 rebounds, 13.4 assists, 8.5 steals and 2.3 blocks per game. Junior guard
Christavious Gill leads a balanced Privateer offense with 14.1 points per game followed by junior guard
Nate Frye at 10.3, junior forward
Erik Thomas at 8.8 and sophomore wing
Michael Zeno at 8.4.
Senior forward
Kevin Hill paces the team with 6.9 rebounds per game and sophomore
Travin Thibodeaux headlines the defense with six blocked shots. Frye leads the Privateers with 3.1 assists per game and Gill has a team-best 2.3 steals-per-contest average.
New Orleans is connecting at a .400 clip from the field, hitting 185-of-463 shots from the floor and 44-of-115 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.383), while allowing opponents to shoot .439 overall (195-of-444) and .303 from 3-point land (53-of-175). Privateer foes are averaging 71.0 points, 37.4 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 8.1 steals and 5.3 blocks so far in 2015-16.
"There are still some things offensively that we have to clean up," Slessinger said. "We're just not finishing at a high enough rate. We're shooting free throws better than we did in the first few games, which was good to see. We're getting better offensively. It's just not coming as fast as I'd like and I don't know that it ever does. We're guarding at a good rate and as long as long as we can stay solid defensively, I'll feel pretty good about our chances long term."
UMass enters the weekend showdown 5-4 on the season and looking to snap a three-game skid after dropping consecutive contests to Ole Miss (74-64 on Dec. 5 at the Naismith Hall of Fame Holiday Classic), UCF (67-63 on Dec. 8 in Orlando, Florida) and Florida Gulf Coast (77-76 on Dec. 13 in Fort Myers, Florida).
As a team, the Minutemen are averaging 78.1 points, 36.4 rebounds, 14.3 assists, 7.6 steals and 2.7 blocks per game. Trey Davis leads three UMass players averaging double figures offensively with 17.2 points per game while Jabarie Hinds has 16.7 and Donte Clark follows at 16.6. Zach Coleman paces the team with 6.7 rebounds per game and Malik Hines has seven of the team's 24 blocked shots. Hinds headlines the squad with 4.7 assists and 2.2 steals per outing.
UMass is hitting 45.0 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 250-of-555 field goal attempts, including an 80-of-219 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.365). The Minutemen defense has allowed opponents to post a 41.6 shooting percentage (229-of-550) and a 26.6 clip from 3-point land (49-of-184). UMass opponents are averaging 72.6 points, 40.4 rebounds, 11.9 assists, 6.1 steals and 2.6 blocks per game.
"They're really talented offensively," Slessinger added. "They've got a good, balanced group. They've hit a tough stretch here in being able to finish out games, but they're very talented. They've played a very good schedule up to this point. They're going to change defenses. They're going to play zone press with some traps in it. They're going to be man-to-man with some traps in it. They're going to run some half-court zone.
"They're a very opportunistic defensive team. They really look to try and get steals and turnovers. They really try and be aggressive in the passing lanes. We haven't seen a team like this in a while and I hope that we're prepared for it. I hope that we can be advantageous in how we attack this because we haven't seen a team in a while that plays this way."
Saturday's game between New Orleans and UMass marks just the second time the two teams will meet on the hardwood and the Minutemen hold a 1-0 lead in the all-time series. In the lone meeting to date, UMass defeated UNO, 68-56, in the championship game of the Great Alaskan Shootout on Dec. 2, 1991, in Anchorage, Alaska.
Following the games at UMass and UL-Lafayette, as well as the home contest against Blue Mountain College, the Privateers open the Southland Conference slate on Jan. 4 when they head to Beaumont, Texas, to take on Lamar. UNO will follow that game with a league contest at Sam Houston State on Jan. 9 before returning to New Orleans to face Incarnate Word on Dec. 11.
Tickets to that contest and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking
HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).
