Disappointment Continues For Martin, UMass
Frank Martin returned to a familiar word following the Minutemen's fourth straight loss this weekend.
Frank Martin opened Saturday’s postgame press conference the same way he opened Tuesday’s.
“Disappointed.”
Four days after beginning his remarks the same way following a loss to Miami-Ohio, the UMass head coach returned to the word after UMass fell 86-82 in overtime to Buffalo. The Minutemen’s fourth consecutive loss dropped them to 15-13 overall and 6-9 in the MAC with three games remaining.
“Just disappointed,” Martin repeated. “We got to figure out a way to win the game. Nine more free throws we left on the table.
“It’s been our two things all year. We don’t defend and we don’t make free throws consistently and it’s really hard to win against good teams when you do that.”
UMass led by double-digits in the first half and held late control in regulation before Buffalo forced overtime. But Martin’s focus was not on late offense - with the exception of a devastating Leonardo Bettiol turnover in the final minute of regulation. It was on defensive slippage that he believes has persisted all season.
“Our problems are not defending structure,” Martin said. “Our problems are we’re not good at defending the ball. When you just say, ‘Nah, I’m just going to go at you,’ we’re awful defensively.”
Martin’s frustration sharpened as he described a team that has not improved on that end of the floor.
“We have not gotten an iota better, not an iota better at two things,” he said. “Committing really, really bad fouls, irrelevant fouls by players that can’t be committing those fouls and our defensive ability to even try to put up a fight on the ball.
“Not an iota better.”
To Martin, it’s a personnel and effort issue, not a scheme one.
“The only guy that resembles an athlete at times is Dan Sanford,” he said. “So if you’re not athletic enough to make up for mistakes, then your teammates have to really, really help and we’re really bad. We don’t help each other. We could. We just choose not to do it.”
Buffalo attacked UMass guards downhill throughout the game. Martin pointed to repeated ball screen mistakes.
“We’re trying to trap the ball screen and when we trap it, we’re supposed to send it a certain way,” he said. “Four straight possessions, a guard got beat going the other way.”
He put some of that blame on himself.
“Obviously not very good by me to prepare our ball screen defense,” he said.
Martin was also direct about late effort in a loose ball situation that he felt symbolized the difference.
“The ball fell down on the ground,” he said. “Our guys were right there. We stood and looked at the ball. Third guy went after the ball. It’s our possession. Get on the ball, fight for the ball.”
He added plainly, “We got outplayed (Saturday). They played harder than we did.”
Asked about turnovers, including 14 overall and 11 coming off steals, Martin acknowledged Buffalo’s quality but focused on his own team.
“I was disappointed in our point guard play,” he said. “We had eight turnovers from the point guard spot.”
Freshman point guard Danny Carbuccia uncharacteristically committed half of those.
The loss leaves UMass eighth in the MAC standings. The top eight teams qualify for the conference tournament in Cleveland, and the Minutemen now have little margin starting with a Tuesday night game at Ball State (ESPN+).
“We got three to go.”
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