Photos: Bucky Bullett Jamboree 2022

By Jesse Kolodkin, The Berkshire Eagle
Jesse Kolodkin
Sports Reporter

Author twitter

Author email
Dec 7, 2022
Dec 7, 2022

1 of 17

Louis Guillotte layup

Louis Guillotte drives to the hoop for a Drury basket against Hoosac Valley.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Joey McGovern layup

Joey McGovern goes up for a contested layup against Drury.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Frank Field shot

Frank Field hits a 3-pointer to give Hoosac the lead.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Myles Beauchamp layup

Myles Beauchamp drives to the basket for a game-tying layup.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Lauren Davis dribbles

Lauren Davis (white) of Drury dribbles while being guarded by Ashlyn Lesure (red) of Hoosac Valley.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Alyssa Russell shoots

Alyssa Russell hits a shot for Drury.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Ashlyn Lesure dribbles

Ashlyn Lesure dribbles the ball up the court while trying to get around the defense of Isabella Moore.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Alyssa Russell shot

Alyssa Russell throws up a hook shot that goes in for Drury points.

It's been as good a start to the Frank Martin era as one could hope for. Outside of a rough loss to Towson behind Nicolas Timberlake’s sensational shooting night (27 points, 10-of-14 from the field, 4-of-7 from deep), the Minutemen are undefeated at 7-1 and have their best start to the season since they began the 2016-17 campaign at 6-2. But while the team has been performing well, there’s been angst amongst the fan base that students have not. Not the ones on the team, but the ones in the stands. Or more accurately, the ones not in the stands. On Monday night, back in the confines of Amherst after a short trip to Boston to beat Harvard, UMass kept up its winning ways and proceeded to dominate a banged up University of Albany team for most of the game. Although Frank Martin didn’t see it that way. After some slow goings in the first few minutes, including an initial Albany lead, UMass used its physicality and size advantage to simply feed the post and out-muscle the visitors. Isaac Kante finished with 14 points while Brandon Martin had 10. Keon Thompson and TJ Weeks drove the rack and took advantage of the open midrange to finish with 13 and 10 points respectively, while Weeks had eight boards and five assists and Thomposon had four assists. What everyone will remember first and foremost from the game however, and for good reason, will be the sensational performance put on by freshman New Zealander, Tafara Gapare. The forward showed why he was the 67th ranked recruit and a four star in his class. With a bevy of dunks, including a steal recovery that saw him dribble by a defender, go the length of the court and throw down a jam that blew the roof off the Mullins Center. But while “The Bill” got plenty loud, the student section wasn’t the reason why. Calling the student section sparse would be an understatement, a rough headcount put maybe two dozen people in it at the peak. While the UMass Band, which had an excellent performance as usual, could run unimpeded through the stands when Albany shot free throws. With all of UMass basketball starting hot this season, the women’s team is 8-2 with its only losses coming nine to No. 5 Tennessee and a Missouri team that’s 9-1 and receiving votes, it’s reasonable to expect better attendance at games. And the visual of an empty student section works directly against that. It's a fair observation too, students haven’t showed up much for UMass basketball in recent years and while this year the Mullins Center had its largest season opening — 4,963 fans— since 2016, the numbers, especially for students, have been far more depressed since. And seeing the way that students flock to UMass hockey games and how full the student section is for those, it’s understandable that non-student fans and observers are critical of the apparent lack of student fan attendance. But while the optics are poor, there's more than one good explanation for the current situation. For starters, students don’t sit in the student section for basketball games. UMass students sit in the mid-sections of the Mullins Center because those are the best seats for basketball. Sure they’re great for hockey too, but being behind the goal where UMass scores two out of three periods and getting to heckle a goalie is worth the slightly worse view. Not to mention for hockey, the stands are well elevated. For basketball, other than some free throw yelling, the view down low from behind the basket is bad at best and terrible at worst, especially if you're stuck at the wrong angle behind the basket or camera crew. So while seeing just a few students and a reindeer behind the basket might be sad, if you look around, there are plenty of students in the stands, just not in the student section. And UMass basketball games are nowhere near crowded enough to get the athletic department to make sure students stay in their section. Another reason as to lackluster student attendance is the simple fact that students have no connection to the basketball teams. Let’s be real, up until the last two years for the Minutewomen, both UMass basketball programs have been depressingly mediocre at best and just downright depressing at worst for the better part of a decade. In regards to the men's team, today's students have zero connection to the John Calipari teams of the 90’s or even the NCAA Tournament run in 2014. And while the hockey team was even worse for even longer, it became a nationally relevant powerhouse that beats Top-5 programs, the attention it receives is for good reason. But I’d also remind folks that even the hockey team took time to fill up the stands. UMass was hot to begin the 2018-19 campaign coming off a 2017-18 season where it won a series in the Hockey East tournament. But neither the Mullins Center nor the student section were close to full until the Minutemen went to Columbus and split a two game series against the then No. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. Only then did the arena start to fill up and the student section start to be packed. And yet at the beginning of the 2019-20 season, coming off a run to the national title game, outside of rivalry games like against Boston College, UConn, BU or UMass Lowell, the Mullins Center was still no better than two-thirds full for most of the season. This is Massachusetts after all, fans are notoriously fickle, look at what happened the season after some guy who wore No. 12 went south to Florida. So too did how many Pats fans? And the year after the Red Sox won a World Series, how quickly did fans turn on the organization and front office when the rebuild, which has come along swimmingly, began? UMass hasn't exactly played a host of major competition in Amherst. Of the games at the Mullins Center so far, none have come on a Friday or weekend day and two have been on Mondays. By the time students get back after winter break, the team will be deep into conference play and have just three home games left, a Tuesday, a Wednesday and a Saturday. Not great for getting students to come. And now you expect massive support for a men’s basketball team that young people have no deeper connection to and that hasn’t proven itself against ranked or even conference competition yet? The reported fan attendance for the Albany game was 3,174 and if you looked at those in attendance in the middle sections, it felt like 25-30% were students. And a lot of them just wandered in cause they knew a basketball game was going on and that UMass had a good shot at winning. For a random Monday night game against a meh opponent during exam season… that’s amazing. Today’s game against Lowell should be instructive. It’s a Thursday, exams and end-of semester projects are around and will hurt numbers but the Minutemen are 7-1 while Lowell is 9-1. UML's only loss came to Rutgers and the River Hawks are No. 53 in the initial NET rankings. This is the Flagship against the little brother. Not only should there be students in the regular sections but the student section should look like it does for a hockey game. If there's a game to turn out for, this will be it and hopefully that happens. But at the same time, if student attendance seems light, that doesn't mean there's a major issue, especially if you're just looking at the student section. Either way, give the students a break, they don’t owe the team anything. At least not until the team gives them a reason to.

Colby Marko and Judge Martin tip off

Colby Marko (left) and Judge Martin (right) go up for the jump ball at the beginning of McCann Tech and Mount Greylock's scrimmage at the Bucky Bullett Jamboree.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Judge Martin shot

Judge Martin rises for a floater and early Mount Greylock points.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Max McAlister dribble

Max McAlister tries to dribble around Jacob Howland to initiate Mount Greylock's offense.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Jacob Howland shot

Jacob Howland goes up through three Greylock defenders to attempt a shot.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

MT and MG girls tipoff

Hannah Boisvert and Charlotte Coody go up for the tip off.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Hannah Boisvert swat

Madison Powell goes up for a shot but is met by Hannah Boisvert.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Mia Filiault shot attempt

Mia Filiault shoots agaisnt two McCann defenders for needed Greylock points.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Phoebe Barnes layup

Phoebe Barnes hits a layup for some fast break points for the Mounties.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Taylor Paree dribbling

Taylor Paree dribbles against Annabelle Art to take the ball down the court for the Hornets.

JESSE KOLODKIN — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

More like this...

Jesse Kolodkin

Sports Reporter

Jesse Kolodkin is a Berkshire Eagle sports reporter. He worked in the same position at The Bradford Era in western Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in broadcast journalism. He is an avid New York Giants fan. He can be reached at jkolodkin@berkshireeagle.com or on Twitter @JesseKolodkin.

Notifications
Settings

Topics

all