2025-26 Season

[69MG]

St. Bona was 1979 and URI was 1980.

Trivia Tuesday (or early Wednesday morning)...
Both St. Bonaventure and URI replaced teams that left the league. Who were they? And for extra credit, where did they go?

Since nobody else remembers or dared to look it up, I'll bite:
SBU replaced Penn State. Extra credit, and a trick question, PSU went Independent.
URI replaced Villanova who went to the Big East.

[MikeUMA]

I was a freshman back then in '80. Got to see the glory years of UMass Hoops

Oof. Bless your heart for still being here.

I got sucked in as my student years were 91-95. Much easier to develop a fandom with that success.

[MikeUMA]

St. Bona was 1979 and URI was 1980.

Trivia Tuesday (or early Wednesday morning)...
Both St. Bonaventure and URI replaced teams that left the league. Who were they? And for extra credit, where did they go?

Since nobody else remembers or dared to look it up, I'll bite:
SBU replaced Penn State. Extra credit, and a trick question, PSU went Independent.
URI replaced Villanova who went to the Big East.

Facts ­­↑
https://umasshoops.com/wiki/doku.php?id ... ip_history

Kinda hard to imagine the college hoop independent landscape now. That almost never happens anymore. Chicago State was a couple years ago, but they've been a train wreck of a D1 program. Hartford was recently, but that's when they were downshifting to D3.

[doubledribble]

I was a freshman back then in '80. Got to see the glory years of UMass Hoops

Oof. Bless your heart for still being here.

I got sucked in as my student years were 91-95. Much easier to develop a fandom with that success.

My student years were 66-70. Been STH 74!

[TruBluMaroon]

St. Bona was 1979 and URI was 1980.

Trivia Tuesday (or early Wednesday morning)...
Both St. Bonaventure and URI replaced teams that left the league. Who were they? And for extra credit, where did they go?

Villanova and Pitt both went to the Big East.

[Floyd]

I was a freshman back then in '80. Got to see the glory years of UMass Hoops

Oof. Bless your heart for still being here.

I got sucked in as my student years were 91-95. Much easier to develop a fandom with that success.

Great seats tho Mike. A group of us would walk in at 7:25 and literally sit front row center court & lean up against the bleachers. Some games lucky if there were 3-400 fans there. You could hear everything the players were chirping to each other too. One game against Rutgers who was I believe ranked #4 then, UMass matched bucket for bucket in the first couple minutes. Rutgers center Roy Hinson didn't like it and then swatted the next couple UMass shots into the bleachers. He said something like, "you gotta give us our respect", and then our Tyrone Whitehead said to him " you want respect, you gotta give us a game". We all started laughing and Tyrone ran by with a big smile. We were like 2-24 that year

[69MG]

I was there from the 65-66 season to the 68-69 season. Erving had to play on the freshman team, as most of you already know, in my senior year.

We were mediocre my first 3 years and got better in my senior year. We had a few good players. DiSarcina and Ellerbrook was a very good backcourt and Pete Gayeska was a decent, but not a great center. The only other player I recall was Ken Mathias. He was OK and I don't think we had anybody else who was good that year.

I do remember that after Gayeska, who was 6'10, we were short, even in that era. Erving solved a lot of problems the next year. Do any of you "old-timers" recall any other decent players from that team?

[doubledribble]

I was there from the 65-66 season to the 68-69 season. Erving had to play on the freshman team, as most of you already know, in my senior year.

We were mediocre my first 3 years and got better in my senior year. We had a few good players. DiSarcina and Ellerbrook was a very good backcourt and Pete Gayeska was a decent, but not a great center. The only other player I recall was Ken Mathias. He was OK and I don't think we had anybody else who was good that year.

I do remember that after Gayeska, who was 6'10, we were short, even in that era. Erving solved a lot of problems the next year. Do any of you "old-timers" recall any other decent players from that team?

I was there 66-70.
Other players included Billy Tindall, Tim Edwards and Joey DiSardina. Tindalll 2nd on all time scoring list. Edwards 2nd to Julius altime rebounding. DiSarcina school record in assists. Quite a trio !

[philosopher]

I was there from the 65-66 season to the 68-69 season. Erving had to play on the freshman team, as most of you already know, in my senior year.

We were mediocre my first 3 years and got better in my senior year. We had a few good players. DiSarcina and Ellerbrook was a very good backcourt and Pete Gayeska was a decent, but not a great center. The only other player I recall was Ken Mathias. He was OK and I don't think we had anybody else who was good that year.

I do remember that after Gayeska, who was 6'10, we were short, even in that era. Erving solved a lot of problems the next year. Do any of you "old-timers" recall any other decent players from that team?

Was Dick Samuelson part of that team?

[Berkman]

yes

[SignMan]

I was there from the 65-66 season to the 68-69 season. Erving had to play on the freshman team, as most of you already know, in my senior year.

We were mediocre my first 3 years and got better in my senior year. We had a few good players. DiSarcina and Ellerbrook was a very good backcourt and Pete Gayeska was a decent, but not a great center. The only other player I recall was Ken Mathias. He was OK and I don't think we had anybody else who was good that year.

I do remember that after Gayeska, who was 6'10, we were short, even in that era. Erving solved a lot of problems the next year. Do any of you "old-timers" recall any other decent players from that team?

I was there those same years & a team mgr...
Are you getting forgetful @ 78...
Billy Tindall Varsity 65-68 17.3 Pts/11.3 Rebounds/game
Tim Edwards just 66-67 during our years (two sesons prior to us, a year off then back) 15.1/13.7 our year; MBA from Harvard B School
Gary Gasparek same years as Billy not big stats but good steady player; great golfer; career with Spaulding
John Lisack our 1st two yr his last two...not big stats but was an excellent outside shooter...his 14 straight outside shots @ Providence vs Jimmy Walker team almost got us what would have been huge upset...I doubt any of you were at the game...amazing night...John a great tennis player and 3 sports at UM w Track...was highly ranked in US Seniors Father/Son tennis.
John Dreyer, friend of SM; our class. not remembered much re UM hoops but a legendary Cranford NJ farmer...multi-generational farm (daughter, also a UMie the current generation) only big farm close enough for NYC people, via tunnel...70-80 varieties of heirloom tomatoes put him on my list here.
Pete Gayeska, our class, your mention, worked his butt off to overachieve on the court...a teammate of Joey D @ Somerville & UM, I saw them throughout HS @ Everett/Somerville games and UMass. Peter was out in OR working with water purification, I think, from chat with him before Jack passed on.
Ken Mathias, your mention, was Soph our Sr year; 10.5/8.9
Dennis Chapman was Jr who transferred in same our Sr year; 11.3/7.6
Jack Gallagher ' lesser stats, good athlete
Frank Stewart, Jim Girotti (friend of Gary G), Bob Murphy, Rick Perkins
Srs our Frosh year:
Clarence Hill 24.1 ppg that year
Jim Babyak 17.7 ppg same year; used to see him at some family events; he, a close friend of close relatives of Mrs SM.
Finishing here with a stalwart of a person, Dick Samuelson; played tough...long time MA State Trooper, then Security @ Look Park when his buddy, Ray E. was in charge there...was at most games for many many years, maybe some still...

Postscript: Rich Vogeley, Frosh team our Sr year with Julius...would be pissed at me if I didn't do a shout out. His Frosh game vs Rockwood Academy, along with Julius, who got all the headlines, was a night to remember.

[Juice Stand]

With such a large group of new players, I found this article interesting: "Can You Predict Transfer Success? Finding Correlations Before and After Transferring"
https://a10stats.wordpress.com/2025/08/ ... nsferring/

the most predictive stats were those related to shot selection, rebounding, and defense. Metrics like 3-point attempt rate, rim attempt rate, offensive rebound % and block % consistently showed strong correlations from year to year. These stats appear to reflect ingrained habits or physical traits that stay consistent even after switching programs.

For those moving up from Low Majors, things got more extreme. Like other transfers, stats like rim attempt rate, three-point attempt rate, and block rate were extremely consistent, showing that even players jumping up in competition largely maintain their playing style. But efficiency, especially at the rim and from three, was very unreliable similarly to all the other levels. These players may be able to create the same types of shots, but they could often struggle to finish them as effectively against better athletes and more sophisticated defenses.

I find this interesting because one thing that we hear always transfers is shooting. Shooters can shoot. But this statistical analysis says it might not translate up a level because even though they may be good shooters, it might be more challenging to get the shot off when facing better athletes.

On the flip side, defense transfers. Rebounding transfers. B-ball IQ transfers. Heart and hustle transfer. I love hearing that.

[69MG]

Juice, good article. One point I took out of it was that shooters don't shoot as well when they move up because they face better players, more athletic players. My thought was that it's up to the coach to draw up plays that free up his shooters.

I just saw this post from CSG Minuteman on X. It's a short conversation from "Just Being Frank" Check out toward the end. It looks like Frank understands this. Let's hope he can make it work.

https://x.com/CSG_UMass/status/1954935308908130483

[Steve81]

Kent State Dec 20th source and basketball move on the MAC 42 minute mark, include with AD and POD cast.
48:30th mark and almost everything, including Southwest dorms at the end of the their life cycle and big ideas on tying the stadium into the campus, dining common etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WgerTrJmcg

[minutefanjsf]

Kent State Dec 20th source and basketball move on the MAC 42 minute mark, include with AD and POD cast.
48:30th mark and almost everything, including Southwest dorms at the end of the their life cycle and big ideas on tying the stadium into the campus, dining common etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WgerTrJmcg

I wonder how southwest dorms are at the end of their life cycle and central, orchard Hill, and northeast are not?