? on Massachusetts

[UNIChippewa]

I saw that they put up over 100 points tonight. With the injuries in our backcourt, do those of you who have actually seen the teams play or are in "the know", do you think we will be able to keep pace with the Minutemen tomorrow night and pull off the victory? How does our frontcourt match up with them?

[BCPanther]

I caught the end of the UMass game tonight...

They are long and athletic but really inexperienced. We really match up with them pretty well, especially up front...

I expect one helluva game tomorrow night...

[jman2004]

We'll be fine. Yeah they put up over a hundred, but don't forget, NIU also put up close to 90 on them.

The game will be a good one. They're athletic, but we'll get them to slow it down and play our game.

[Minutemen2007]

Hello Northern Iowa fans,

I am a UMass fan and am looking forward to the game tonight. Here is some information about our team in case you're wondering:

Last year, we were an interior-oriented team. Our best two players were our center and power forward (one is now playing for the Golden State Warriors while the other is having success in Europe.) Our best perimeter player also graduated and is now playing in the ABA. Thus, we only have two starters back from last year's team. We had success, winning our conference and making it to the 2nd round of the NIT's but this year is completely different.

This year, we have 7 players who were not on last year's active roster. We are extremely young and inexperienced. This will be our first game against good competition in a hostile environment (our exhibition games were playing at home while the first two games were played with 250 people in the stands.) We are obviously hoping for a win but we understand that this is a rebuilding year for us.

Our best player is #3, Gary Forbes. He can play every position except center. He is a transfer from Virginia and played on the Panama National Team this past Summer at the Pan-American games. He is a very good scorer, slasher, rebounder and can also shoot the ball.

Chris Lowe is our point guard but he hurt his ankle on Friday and most likely won't play tonight. He pretty much runs the offense but our backup freshman pg, Gary Correia played last night vs. Northern Illinois and did a nice job.

Ricky Harris is our shooting guard. He has been impressive so far this season with his shot (averaging 20+ pts in these two games.) As a freshman last year, he did not get a lot of playing time.

We lack interior offense and defense. We have trouble with defense and rebounding like most young teams. Luke Bonner (brother of former Florida star and current San Antonio Spur Matt Bonner) is 7'0'' but he plays more like a small forward, he loves to shoot the 3.

Besides those players, the rest of our players are extremely similar. They all all very athletic, quick, can shoot the 3 (we had six guys last night who made at least two 3's) and inexperienced. We are a well conditioned team and hope to tire the other team out by running up and down the court all game. On Friday, we were tied with Cal-Poly with ten minutes left in the second half and ended up winning by 24.

Heading into this tournament, UMass fans were hoping we'd get 2 wins so we are very happy. A 3rd win will be an extra bonus for us but we know that Northern Iowa is a very good team and excellent competition early in the year. Honestly, none of us really know what to expect from this team because we have so many freshman and are playing a completely new style than what we have played in past years. We are nervous that our starting point guard isn't playing but we will not use that as an excuse if we should lose.

If you have questions, please reply and I shall do my best to answer it. You can also go to our message board at www.umasshoops.com if you should like. Please know that any spamming or trash talk will not be tolerated but if you would like to give some incite of your team, that would be welcomed. I am looking forward to an exciting well-played game tonight and let the best team win.

Go UMass!

p.s. Maybe we can play you guys in the football playoffs this year. That would be fun!

[BCPanther]

Welcome aboard Minuteman!!

I think I speak for all of us Panther fans when I say that we were pretty excited when we heard that your team would be coming to our tournament. I am sure you guys have the same problem with getting quality OOC opponents on your floor...

I think today will be an interesting game between two teams that have really contrasting styles...

[Marc Wigim]

I will say this: Forbes is the real deal, and that is one resilient team you have there. I wish the very best for UMass this year. Kick some @$$ in the A-10!