UMass Lowell’s Matt Harris gets to the hoop plus the harm against Vermont. OBW Photo / Sam Perkins
The final seven games on UMass Lowell’s season may have been the most important in their young Division I history.
On Jan. 31, in the final seconds of a 76-69 road loss at Binghamton, Jahad Thomas, the River Hawks leading scorer, rebounder, and team epicenter, crumpled to the ground, suffering a season-ending torn ACL.
At the time, UMass Lowell sat at 3-6 in league play and 9-13 on the season. Without their do-everything power forward, without the chance of a post season berth due to NCAA restrictions on schools transitioning to Division I, and with an roster that included eight freshmen, the River Hawks season seemed to be effectively over.
“It was a long bus ride home from Binghamton,” said River Hawks head coach Pat Duquette, who described the moment when the team received Thomas’ diagnosis as a “moment of prolonged silence.”
But Lowell responded by winning 3 of their final six, to finish 6-10 in the league (sixth place) and 12-17 overall, surpassing last seasons Division I record, with several previously unproven freshmen stepping up the share the burden of shouldering the load Thomas had been carrying all season..
“Jahad’s a guy that you can’t just replace with one guy,” said Brad Shaub, a freshman forward who averaged 4.7 points per game on the year, but 6.4 points over the seven games after Thomas’ injury. “He rebounds, he sets other guys up, he scores. He’s such a great player that one guy just can’t replace him.”
“Everybody knew how important Jahad was to us,” said Duquette. “Everybody also knew that we weren’t going to give up. So, we needed some time just to think it through, and then what our identity was going to be without him, and we all came to the same conclusion that nobody was going to replace him; that we were just going to have to all give a little bit more.”
With Thomas out, the River Hawks spent the final stretch of the season without a star or go-to scorer, but the loss may have forced them to become a more deep and diverse team, with freshman Schaub, point guard Lance Crawford and sharp shooter Matt Harris each elevating their games.
“Brad Shaub has not scored as much, but plays a ton of minutes in the front court for us and has a super basketball I.Q., and I feel that he’s made a ton of progress as well,” said Duquette.”
Crawford moved into a more prominent role at the point down the final stretch, and finished the year second on the team in scoring and assists at 9.7 points and 2.3 assists per game, while also shooting over 34 percent from behind the arc. Crawford exploded for a career-high 35 points against Maine on Feb. 28, setting a school Division I record.
“Lance Crawford is still learning how to play point guard at the college level,” said Duquette, “but it’s clear that he’s talented and is starting to get a better understanding for that position.”
While losing Thomas forced the River Hawks to adjust greatly on offense, it also forced them to adjust on defense, especially in the paint where, despite his pint-sized 6’2” stature as a power forward, Thomas strength gave him a large presence in the post.
“I think that’s a good thing that we haven’t relied on our size,” said Duquette. “We’re quick, we’re tough, we’re strong, we’re quick to the ball. We have to be that way to survive defensively, and I like the attitude that that’s helped create amongst our team.”
While the big guys on the River Hawks aren’t quite “big,” – at 6’5” Schaub was the tallest player in uniform to see meaningful minutes — they made up for their size in versatility.
“One of our biggest things that our forwards can do is coach gives us the freedom to pop and shoot three’s which, I mean, there’s not a lot of teams that do that,” said Shaub. “You only have maybe one or two guys, but coach gave a lot of us that freedom, and most of the time it’s just because he had the confidence in us and a lot of us are shooters. I mean, a lot of us have played the wing before. I felt comfortable out there, so I felt comfortable catching and shooting all season long.”
And while Thomas injury – his second torn ACL in as many years – is heartbreaking and the soon-to-be red-shirt sophomore remains the most important player for the River Hawks, playing without the young star may have led to a big growth spurt for the young team.
“I think it’s just going to open up possibilities for us,” said Shaub, “that we have guys that can play the wing and the forward. We’ll become more versatile. I think you’ll be able to run a lot of different sets, because we have three guys that all play the same position on the floor together.”
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