Game 10, 2025-26: Boston College @ Mass Mutual (12/10)

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Beating BC is always great. Hopefully they won't run and hide for 10 more years.


Other than the evaporation of the big lead, it was mostly an entertaining game. Leo getting those fouls is really what set that off. The bigs off the bench need to get better quickly. FTs still need to be worked on, but they hit them when it counted. Banks is solid, last night once again showing those Monty Mack vibes.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

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Why do you do this? I'm happy we finally moved out of the A10, but the MAC sucks. Stop trying to tout it as if it's the best conference in history.

[Floyd]

One thing I didn't like was our breaking of their press/pressure after a basket. We looked slow & unsure where to be. Caused a lot of havoc for us, gotta be better or teams will slow us down.

Danny struggled a bit, but he's only 10 games into his freshman year. Hes pretty consistent with handling the ball and is good at finding the open man. Doesn't force much. Hopefully his shot will come around, he's digging in on D too. If K'Jei can continue to produce there as well, we should be fine.

Love to get the W in this next one

[LS71]

Men’s and women’s hoops beat BC this season!

Now it’s hockey’s turn!

I like that the team didn’t fold when BC made its run.

[Steve81]

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Why do you do this? I'm happy we finally moved out of the A10, but the MAC sucks. Stop trying to tout it as if it's the best conference in history.

Never said it is the best conference in history. Stop lying your ass off including the crumbling stadium etc. What I have said is the A10 does not provide the revenue for Athletics. It is the closets geographical conference to the A10 that will take us. That they are public universities like us.

Be proud of the present and look to the future. There is ZERO path to the ACC and even the AAC in the A10. Use this a lot. UConn men's and women's basketball teams have multiple National Championships and can not get into the ACC, so we have ZERO chance in the A10.

Independence is a death trap that we lived through and the results hurt. Back to basketball, the MAC has some good teams in basketball. They have some good teams in other sports and even sports that neither the A10 have or the MAC sponsor.

I know first hand the character of head hunters (old slang for IT recruiters). I assume your character will not change and continue to lie your ass off at my expanse. It's amazing what some people do.

[Plano Minuteman]

Yeah, they won their most important game of the year, imo, so that's great!

I don't enjoy all the mistakes and missed FTs though. It's a consistent theme. What was great about some of the classic 'UMass basketball' was they generally played smarter than their opponent. Definitely can't say that in the Martin era.

[Juice Stand]

Welcome to MAC.... That's all that is left when recruiting at the third tier conference level.

I 1000% disagree with this. We are not getting "all that's left". Frank is recruiting like he always has - sure he's not going to get the #1 ranked recruit, but neither are 360 other D1 schools. Wembley was going to P5 Fla. State before Hamilton was fired. Carbuccia was a top 200 recruit with several P5 schools recruiting him - Maryland, West VA, Seton Hall to name a few. Next years class is solid - Helgason is a Top 200 recruit with several P5 schools offered, and if they land Flemming from WMA - he's also a top 200 recruit. Lets say the average D1 school brings in 5 Freshman each year - thats 1800 D1 Freshman - if UMass is getting Top 200 ranked kids that's far from "leftovers" as you are basically calling them.

You guys make it sound like the A-10 is such a great conference - they are a 1 bid league just like the MAC - sure - overall a much better conference but if you take the Top 3-4 teams from the MAC they'd be middle of the pack in A-10 or maybe the top MAC team is in the mix for the league title - there's not as much difference as you think.

Good post, MMGA. For all of Frank's flaws, he still recruits at a high level, as you noted with Carbuccia and Wimbley. We also got Banks who has turned out to be an absolute stud so far, and to a lesser extent Bettiol and Parker, who I've been very pleased with.

As far as the MAC, Akron for sure would be battling for the top spot if they were an A10 team, currently 40 in the NET. I was told that the MAC would be somewhere around the 24th ranked conference, but this year the MAC is 14th in NET conference rankings. Not at the A10 level, but definitely respectable and as has been said ad nauseam, both 1-bid leagues.

[Juice Stand]

Sorry Steve, I get that you're excited about having a football conference, but this is pathetic. Are you a UMass fan or a MAC conference fan? We win a big rivalry game against BC, an in-state rival that has avoided us for years, and your impulse is to post a MAC flag? Sorry if this offends, but it's so insanely weird.

[inthescoop]

Yeah, they won their most important game of the year, imo, so that's great!

I don't enjoy all the mistakes and missed FTs though. It's a consistent theme. What was great about some of the classic 'UMass basketball' was they generally played smarter than their opponent. Definitely can't say that in the Martin era.

Most important game of the year.. so far

[stevemaz]

Can somebody explain to me why a coach would waste one second recruiting a guard who cant shoot?

Welcome to MAC.... That's all that is left when recruiting at the third tier conference level.






I can take the ups and downs of a game like that, but they need to spend a month practicing their foul shots.... they win that game by 8 or 10 if they could just shoot foul shots.

I don't want to be all down on this, they came back from a spiral and figured that out. Learning to win is part of the process - hopefully they learned something last night.

I think a fair goal from here is to go 21-10 (12-6)

[JoleonLescottsHair]

…and continue to lie your ass off at my expanse.

He’s lying about your vast stretch of MAC bullshit?

[MakeMullinsGreatAgain]

Welcome to MAC.... That's all that is left when recruiting at the third tier conference level.

I 1000% disagree with this. We are not getting "all that's left". Frank is recruiting like he always has - sure he's not going to get the #1 ranked recruit, but neither are 360 other D1 schools. Wembley was going to P5 Fla. State before Hamilton was fired. Carbuccia was a top 200 recruit with several P5 schools recruiting him - Maryland, West VA, Seton Hall to name a few. Next years class is solid - Helgason is a Top 200 recruit with several P5 schools offered, and if they land Flemming from WMA - he's also a top 200 recruit. Lets say the average D1 school brings in 5 Freshman each year - thats 1800 D1 Freshman - if UMass is getting Top 200 ranked kids that's far from "leftovers" as you are basically calling them.

You guys make it sound like the A-10 is such a great conference - they are a 1 bid league just like the MAC - sure - overall a much better conference but if you take the Top 3-4 teams from the MAC they'd be middle of the pack in A-10 or maybe the top MAC team is in the mix for the league title - there's not as much difference as you think.

Good post, MMGA. For all of Frank's flaws, he still recruits at a high level, as you noted with Carbuccia and Wimbley. We also got Banks who has turned out to be an absolute stud so far, and to a lesser extent Bettiol and Parker, who I've been very pleased with.

As far as the MAC, Akron for sure would be battling for the top spot if they were an A10 team, currently 40 in the NET. I was told that the MAC would be somewhere around the 24th ranked conference, but this year the MAC is 14th in NET conference rankings. Not at the A10 level, but definitely respectable and as has been said ad nauseam, both 1-bid leagues.

agree with Akron - I think they have a 40 NET right now - MAC has 3 in top 100 NET - A-10 4 (maybe 5) but again - whats the difference - thats a 1 bid league still

and as far as getting "leftovers" - thats a great point that I did not mention - Banks, Bettiol and Parker are damn good - so you have to factor those players in too when you talk about recruits. I'll take those kind of left overs every year!

[Camby4Life]

Sorry Steve, I get that you're excited about having a football conference, but this is pathetic. Are you a UMass fan or a MAC conference fan? We win a big rivalry game against BC, an in-state rival that has avoided us for years, and your impulse is to post a MAC flag? Sorry if this offends, but it's so insanely weird.

I mentioned it in the football forum but after this latest stunt it truly is time for a Steve81 MAC intervention. Agreed that this obsession is insanely weird and needs to end here. Steve you have the MAC board to post about all of your conference thoughts. This obsession is reaching the point of needing help. Your troll job of posting the flag worked and got all of us fired up. Let’s enjoy the Commonwealth Classic Win.

[eldonabe]

Welcome to MAC.... That's all that is left when recruiting at the third tier conference level.



I 1000% disagree with this. We are not getting "all that's left". Frank is recruiting like he always has - sure he's not going to get the #1 ranked recruit, but neither are 360 other D1 schools. Wembley was going to P5 Fla. State before Hamilton was fired. Carbuccia was a top 200 recruit with several P5 schools recruiting him - Maryland, West VA, Seton Hall to name a few. Next years class is solid - Helgason is a Top 200 recruit with several P5 schools offered, and if they land Flemming from WMA - he's also a top 200 recruit. Lets say the average D1 school brings in 5 Freshman each year - thats 1800 D1 Freshman - if UMass is getting Top 200 ranked kids that's far from "leftovers" as you are basically calling them.

You guys make it sound like the A-10 is such a great conference - they are a 1 bid league just like the MAC - sure - overall a much better conference but if you take the Top 3-4 teams from the MAC they'd be middle of the pack in A-10 or maybe the top MAC team is in the mix for the league title - there's not as much difference as you think.

I was sort of baiting with my Welcome to MAC comment. Thanks for taking it


I am not actually hung up on leaving the A10 as much as it may seem. I just wish we had a better regional match for hoops and unfortunately we do not - lots of old annual rivals and now nothing. It was good that we got BC on the schedule this year - I hope we can play at least every other year if not every year. Its good for the State.

In the end MAC is going to be just like everything else in life.... It will be what we/Umass makes of it. I am not going to hang my entire view of this season on one game, but it does give me optimism that we can do better than I have predicted now. If we just win the games in Conference that we are favored to - that is 13-5 and 20 wins overall not counting MA Boston - I will take that.


Problem 1 is foul shooting
Problem 2 is foul shooting
Problem 3 is Press management (on offesne)

The other stuff is flow of the game and there are always going to be streaks of good and bad - that is just part of the game. Fix those three things and they will have a decent season and should pump the breaks on most of the Hoops negativity for a while.

[Worcester_To_Amherst]

One thing I didn't like was our breaking of their press/pressure after a basket. We looked slow & unsure where to be. Caused a lot of havoc for us, gotta be better or teams will slow us down.

Danny struggled a bit, but he's only 10 games into his freshman year. Hes pretty consistent with handling the ball and is good at finding the open man. Doesn't force much. Hopefully his shot will come around, he's digging in on D too. If K'Jei can continue to produce there as well, we should be fine.

Love to get the W in this next one

Agree with this, my big takeaway from that 21-2 run was Danny’s struggles. I don’t think he was on the court for all of it, but he made some bad plays with the ball and got blown by multiple times. He’s never going to be a shooter, so his path to success is good defense and steady offense, always making the smart play. I like his game and think this will be a good learning experience for him. At least he didn’t have to learn like Trey Davis at VCU.