Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Anything and everything that is UMass Minutemen Basketball.

Expectations for 2022/2023 Season

Top 2 in A-10, NCAA tourney
7
7%
3-4 in A-10, NCAA bubble, NIT bid
39
40%
5-6 in A-10, NIT bubble
32
33%
7-8 in A-10
11
11%
9-10 in A-10
2
2%
Other
6
6%
 
Total votes: 97

NilesGold
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by NilesGold » Wed Feb 15, 2023 9:16 am

kdogg8173 wrote: Wed Feb 15, 2023 8:44 am Very much agree about the roster. I just don’t think they were that talented overall. Guys like weeks, kante, and leveque are who they are at this point. Still have some optimism that there’s some talent to work with in the off season but still ver much TBD. Cross is a player, DD made huge strides, Luis has monster potential, and Diggins has something to build on from his January.
My sense is that UMass (sans Noah) has a more talented roster than Fordham, La Salle, Richmond, URI, and Loyola... and comparable to Duquesne, St Joe's, Bona, and Davidson. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I'm wrong then it just says Frank did a shit job assembling a roster, kind of pick your poison in terms of deciding what you think our HC fucked up the most.

inthescoop
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by inthescoop » Wed Feb 15, 2023 10:17 am

Are we going to continue to ignore how terribly plagued this team was by injuries this season?

You cannot expect the most from the players when they are not physically able to give their 100% on the court.

NilesGold
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by NilesGold » Wed Feb 15, 2023 11:02 am

^ Who's ignoring it?

eldonabe
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by eldonabe » Wed Feb 15, 2023 1:03 pm

I would like to formally change my expectations..


I expect the season to end and end poorly.

Bob1975
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by Bob1975 » Wed Feb 15, 2023 1:17 pm

I think most of our expectations were based on early season performance when healthy, especially Myrtle Beach, but as it turns out none of the teams we beat have proved to be particularly good this year. In retrospect, I would guess we would have finished 5-6 in the conference without all the injuries.

It is hard to say this is a talented roster, when they constantly miss open jump shots, fail to finish at the rim, and get outrebounded at crucial times during the game.

Give the coach a break for his first year, he may have underestimated the talent in the A10 coming from 2 power 5 schools

Juice Stand
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by Juice Stand » Wed Feb 15, 2023 2:27 pm

^ Good post, Bob, although my expectations were not based on early season performance. This thread was started in late April. Here was my first post in the thread from April:
I expect to be looked at as a NCAA bubble/NIT team. The talent has already been upgraded, and we know that the coaching staff got a pretty significant upgrade. We all love Preston Santos, but he barely played this year and missed all of last year. He's being replaced by Matt Cross, who by all indications, is a major talent. We also lost Garcia, but he was under utilized, or poorly utilized, and is being replaced by Rahsool Diggins. He didn't do much in one season at UConn, but the talent is certainly there.

I'm optimistic about this team, not expecting a top 25 ranking and elite 8 run or anything, but with the talent infusion and most importantly, Frank Martin at the helm, I see no reason to expect another lackluster 8-10th place A10 finish and 150 KenPom/Net/RPI.
I didn't specify a number of wins or our place in conference standings, but I was expecting around 18 wins and a 5/6th place finish. NCAA bubble was probably too lofty a goal, but I maintain that this team should have been in contention for an NIT berth. Injuries and poor roster management have derailed that by a wide margin. My next post in this thread in August was the expectation that we would hit bumps in the road early, and then be better in Feb/March hitting our stride right about now. That also was derailed by poor roster management and injuries.

I also agree with your point about the coach underestimating the league. He stated publicly a few weeks ago (prior to the game against Richmond?) that he wasn't very familiar with the A10 aside from knowing the coaches. I think the A10 punched him in the mouth this year and he wasn't expecting that at all. I expect him to be better prepared for what it takes to compete in this league next year.

NilesGold
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by NilesGold » Wed Feb 15, 2023 2:46 pm

Juice Stand wrote: Wed Feb 15, 2023 2:27 pm I also agree with your point about the coach underestimating the league. He stated publicly a few weeks ago (prior to the game against Richmond?) that he wasn't very familiar with the A10 aside from knowing the coaches. I think the A10 punched him in the mouth this year and he wasn't expecting that at all.
In concrete terms what does this mean?

Juice Stand
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by Juice Stand » Wed Feb 15, 2023 5:31 pm

^ I'm not exactly sure when he said it, but it was recorded in one of the game prep videos that Michael Bergman had been doing. Frank said something along the lines of he was familiar with most of the coaches in the league, or at least he knew that there were quality coaches in the league, but wasn't familiar with the teams or what style they play. He went on to say that he wasn't expecting the guard play to be as good as it is. There was some discussion about it on here if anyone else remembers.

As an SEC coach, he probably didn't play a lot of A10 teams regularly, and therefore didn't have to do game prep and film study on them often. When I say the league punched him in the mouth, I mean he wasn't prepared for the quality and style of a lot of these teams and the results (when we were relatively healthy) we're the result of that.

This is going off of memory as I didn't rewatch the video again. Let me know if you're looking for something else, but I think I answered your question.

Juice Stand
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by Juice Stand » Wed Feb 15, 2023 5:38 pm

Found the video: https://twitter.com/MLBergman_/status/1 ... hMO3A&s=19

My takeaway from it is that he didn't watch many A10 teams play, and wasn't prepared for the quality of the guard play. We talk alot about year one, and it mostly revolves around the roster, but it's important to remember that game planning for 14 new coaches and teams is a lot in the first year. On that, I definitely give him a pass and expect better next year.

capezona
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by capezona » Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:01 pm

With DD out, Kante is the only player who has been in all the games.

capezona
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by capezona » Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:10 pm

Not sure where to put this. I noticed that UMass was 4-3 against teams that made a post season tournament. They beat Colorado, Charlotte, and Hofstra and split with Duquesne. Lost to North Texas and VCU. Of course, Towson, UMLowell, Dayton, Fordham and St Louis should still be playing - except Dayton chose not to. UMass was 1-4 against those teams.

capezona
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Re: Expectations for 2022-23 Season

Post by capezona » Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:54 pm

Charlotte eaked out a win over Eastern Kentucky for the CBI championship. And we beat them. So UMass is sorta not champions. That leaves North Texas St as the only team from our schedule still playing.

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