It's too bad UMass isn't a full MAC member because at a cursory glance, they'd be the most interesting team of them all. As mentioned yesterday, the Minutemen have yet to win a game by double-digits, but all three losses have been by 10+ points. Here's another case where they scratched and clawed out a win, cheating death and escaping with a narrow victory. They're now 9-3 and as Harry Plumer pointed out, they have a negative scoring differential.
In terms of yesterday's game, UMass built a 10-point lead late in the first half, but the second half saw five ties and six lead changes, and for the last 18 minutes the largest lead was four points. The last points were scored with 1:19 to go on a Chaz Williams jumper. Miami could've tied but Quinten Rollins missed the front-end of a one-and-one, and Will Sullivan having a "missed layup" with one second left doesn't look too good.
But that's how UMass is going to win games, apparently. By the hair on their nose.
A nice game from Allen Roberts, though: 21 points on 15 shots, including 5-for-9 on threes. But that darned rebounding was another red flag: the Minutemen won that 46-29, including 16 offensive boards.
Miami starts their MAC play next Wednesday as they host NIU. UMass hosts Eastern Michigan on Saturday.