First reaction: UMass to the MAC

[Floyd]

I'd love to see UMass get back to a point of Anyone Anywhere Anytime again. Bring in some big name teams for OOC games, draw the big crowds, and it helps recruiting. Home games against most MAC teams and local cupcakes won't draw interest

Not expecting Final Four success but damn those times were electric

[Quann]

Yeah, I know. As I was writing that I was like, here they come, DUCK!

But whatever, Vermont's program is incredibly well run and consistent, that's what I want and probably the larger point I'm trying to make. The MAC is a worse basketball conference than the A10 and the America East is worse than the MAC, I get all that. I don't want to be Vermont, I want to be the Vermont of the MAC in terms of their sustained success. To put a bow on this incoherent ramble, I want UMass to be competing for conference championships, consistently, and Vermont is my comparison for that.

I completely understand your point. As long as we keep spending on the program like we have in A10 we should be competing every year for a MAC basketball title. No excuses and as KDogg said load up that non con schedule, can’t afford to play more than a couple cupcakes.

[MikeUMA]

I'd love to see UMass get back to a point of Anyone Anywhere Anytime again. Bring in some big name teams for OOC games, draw the big crowds, and it helps recruiting.

Easier said than done. The big fish don't want to play the mid majors for fear of hurting their at-large chances. We've seen it recently and the trend is getting worse. We can't even get the big locals (BC, Providence, UConn) to play us anymore, and we'd be willing to play at their places.

* We are playing PC next year, but at Mohegan as part of a Hoop Hall event, so that's not really like a standalone non-conf game we had to put together.

[Uminuteman]

The trick to getting those games is that you have to get good enough that you don't hurt their NET or RPI. Of course, how do you get good enough, in the various ranking systems, without getting those games?

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Press conference starts soon.

Three ways to watch:
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JfAb831NyY
ESPN+ - https://t.co/HvB6Jd59wg
UMass Athletics Website - https://t.co/66tQqWL0xX

[Quann]

I'd love to see UMass get back to a point of Anyone Anywhere Anytime again. Bring in some big name teams for OOC games, draw the big crowds, and it helps recruiting.

Easier said than done. The big fish don't want to play the mid majors for fear of hurting their at-large chances. We've seen it recently and the trend is getting worse. We can't even get the big locals (BC, Providence, UConn) to play us anymore, and we'd be willing to play at their places.

* We are playing PC next year, but at Mohegan as part of a Hoop Hall event, so that's not really like a standalone non-conf game we had to put together.

I really miss playing UConn, those were fun games when we played them almost annually for awhile even if we lost most of them. There should some sort of New England basketball alliance that all of the big d1 schools here become part of. Local games are fun for all fans here.

[LS71]

As the press conference closed a graphic appeared on the screen....UMass logo on one side, the MAC logo on the other...with blurbs touting some of UMass; attributes....the final one on the list...2021 NCAA Hockey champion....which, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with UMass and the MAC.

They should've followed that with, Just sayin...

[dennisdent]

^Three MAC schools do you have D1 hockey teams, which I bet get on future schedules, so there is a slight connection.

[NilesGold]

I think it's going to be harder to recruit higher level talent to the MAC, especially if Frank moves on. IF he stays for a while, he MAY be able to out recruit other MAC programs and be at the top of the conference and it all looks good on paper, but, will he want to stay at this level? The appeal for recruits to come to UMass will be playing for Frank, not playing in the MAC.

It's a new era, NIL $ is probably the single most important factor in recruiting now. If we have the NIL $, players will come, whether we're in the A10, MAC, CUSA, AAC, whatever.

[Juice Stand]

I know they're just words, but I listened for about 45 minutes or so and they said all the right things. Bamford said exactly what I needed to hear "we're ramping up" and "all gas no brakes" in terms of expectations for the basketball team. Frank was excellent as well, repeating earlier sentiments about how he was hired to coach UMass, not hired to coach in the A10. Bamford also brought up something about early conversations with Frank regarding conference realignment prior to him getting hired two years ago, so Frank was definitely in the know and signed on for this. I can't imagine that Frank thought we would be gunning for the Big 10.

My focus now shifts away from this MAC discussion, back to this season and next season. I want to see them go scorched earth on the A10 over the next year plus. As far as the MAC, I'll cross that bridge when we get there, anything else is just speculation.

[Old Cage]

Replay up: https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/ ... 9dd7ff1f74

[Quann]

I do wonder if this is the beginning of the end for the A-10 as a top mid major basketball conference. Even if we haven't exactly been a top tier A-10 program for awhile we were 1 of the last 3 remaining schools left (GW, Duquesne the other 2), that were founding members when the conference started back in 1975. I could see Dayton and VCU bolting in the near future for greener pastures.

[Steve81]

Listen for the past hour, actually 1:20 minutes as almost the first 20 minutes was waiting. Talks started in September, they talk about faculty, academics, academic and leadership consortium and our Chancellor jumped in as he was a product of the academic consortium. About building the next department head, deans, chairs, provost etc while Javier Reyes was at Arkansas in the SEC. Seemed very thoughtful, covering athletics, facility, students, campus vision. Not really much rahrahrah. Commissioner Steinbrecher was quietly on campus during a game in November and disappointed did not seem him.

Hey UDel did what was best for them and we did what was best for us. This has a feel of a long term commitment. The investment in athletics will accelerate with 8 to 10 times the conference revenue growth. As our AD said, we are hitting the gas, no brakes. Frank Martin is a real team player, his wife ran track at UMass, football helps raise all programs and their budgets all went up from his career. Don Brown and Frank Martin had offices next to each other at Northeastern. They both recruit in programs that were at the bottom with no bells and whistles. You recruit players that believe in your vision, the school and not the conference.

[pk77]

I am just concerned about our basketball program, i look at the MAC schools and can't get excited over the schools we will be playing and future recruits will be doing the same. yes we will be competitive in the league, but the level of play and players will go down.
This seemed very evident, when Coach Frank was asked to compare conferences Atlantic 10 vs MAC, and he totally avoided the question, saying something like " I haven't had time to access the level of play of the MAC, I am focused on this season and winning games". Seriously, he has been coaching college basketball for many years and he is unable to compare level of play between two conferences and he is good friends with a couple of MAC coaches. Just seems strange, as he must have learned about this move at least a few weeks ago if not months and he hasn't found the time to think about the impact on his job.
By him not saying anything, I think it is giving us the answer.

[minutefanjsf]

I am just concerned about our basketball program, i look at the MAC schools and can't get excited over the schools we will be playing and future recruits will be doing the same. yes we will be competitive in the league, but the level of play and players will go down.
This seemed very evident, when Coach Frank was asked to compare conferences Atlantic 10 vs MAC, and he totally avoided the question, saying something like " I haven't had time to access the level of play of the MAC, I am focused on this season and winning games". Seriously, he has been coaching college basketball for many years and he is unable to compare level of play between two conferences and he is good friends with a couple of MAC coaches. Just seems strange, as he must have learned about this move at least a few weeks ago if not months and he hasn't found the time to think about the impact on his job.
By him not saying anything, I think it is giving us the answer.

You should read the response from the Toledo coach and Bamford’s comments putting the MAC on notice about how much we will spend on hoops. We are in the A10 for one more year. We are going to be the program that raises the bar and challenges other MAC schools to invest in hoops. The MAC has a year to try to match our investment.