Game 28, 2025-26: Buffalo (2/21)

[InnervisionsUMASS]

^sure it would have been a weak flagrant 1 and there was less than 10 seconds left but that was a textbook hook and hold flagrant.

There was nothing weak about it... as you then said, it was textbook. Should have been a very easy call on the floor, and an easier call upon review. Would have gotten FTs and the ball. That sucked.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Overall attendance was over 2k fewer. Students don't like to sit in that section and when the place is about half full they choose where to sit. My guess is that the drop off was equal among students and general public.

.

Students simply don’t go! Awful!
They do turn to for hockey those which makes for a great atmosphere! Wish they would do that for basketball

If hoops was as competitive as hockey they would.

Oddly enough, they've been competitive and the games have been fun. But, they aren't winning enough. And as has been discussed here ad nauseam, UMass "fans" generally stink and only care about the Ws.

[Scott O]

^
He also runs an offense that resembles something from before the advent of color television.

[LS71]

.

Students simply don’t go! Awful!
They do turn to for hockey those which makes for a great atmosphere! Wish they would do that for basketball

If hoops was as competitive as hockey they would.

Oddly enough, they've been competitive and the games have been fun. But, they aren't winning enough. And as has been discussed here ad nauseam, UMass "fans" generally stink and only care about the Ws.

…and the giveaways.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

…and the giveaways.

*sigh*.... you're missing the point, Larry.

[69MG]

^sure it would have been a weak flagrant 1 and there was less than 10 seconds left but that was a textbook hook and hold flagrant.

There was nothing weak about it... as you then said, it was textbook. Should have been a very easy call on the floor, and an easier call upon review. Would have gotten FTs and the ball. That sucked.

And we probably would have missed the 2 free throws, finding yet another way to lose a game.

[stevemaz]

*** Rant Alert***
I'm sure much of this has already been stated, but I'll state it again as my own personal therapy session. Frank lost us that game yesterday. Another blown opportunity to get a win in front of a good crowd (5,096), this time against an opponent without their best player, and to top it all off, with the '96 Final Four legends in attendance. I'll keep this strictly about his coaching decisions and avoid talk about his antics, which I've made pretty clear I think are neither appropriate or effective.

- These end of half plays, holy hell. Half 1: Danny dribbles around for a little bit, then drives straight into the defense and throws it away. Half 2: Danny feeds it to Leo who gets double teamed, passes it back, and Danny goes up for a heavily contested shot that's easily blocked. Are these really the plays that are being drawn up? Pathetic.

- Playing the center at half court to trap and generate turnovers. it worked one time when Clerc caused a backcourt violation. But every other time, you expect one of two results: Either the center commits a foul trying to press too hard (that's how Leo got his crucial 4th), or someone rolls to the hoop and the center has to scramble to play catch up, leading to an easy layup. It's an ineffective strategy that Frank continuously runs. Obstinate and bone headed. He says that the game is played from the inside out. If that's true, why is your center playing from the outside in?

- Wimbley over Placide. You know, I like Wimbley. I think he has potential and he seems to have a good attitude. But he's a freshman and hasn't really shown much yet. Placide on the other hand, while being a below average defender (but who isn't on this team), has shown that he can get crazy hot. But because Frank is pals with the Wimbley family, Placide's ass is glued to the bench. He gave you 19 points and single handedly kept you in that Miami game, and he can't get off the bench last night in favor of 0 points and 1 rebound Wimbley? Come on, man.

- Lineups with only 1 perimeter shooter on the floor. You have Banks, Parker, and Placide, that's enough to rotate guys in and out and have multiple outside shooters at all times. But he doesn't do that. We routinely have lineups with 1 outside shooter, making Leo and DHS easier to defend. We become one-dimensional. The strength of this team is it's offense. Put your shooters out there and stop trying to be something you're not. Stubborn.

- Damjanac over Clerc. This has been beaten to death, allow me to beat it to a pulp. Again, Clerc is not god's gift to basketball, but Luka doinked two free throws, got called for a lane violation, and was getting absolutely abused by #33. Bigger, stronger, faster. But because Frank is pal's with his HS coach, he actually put him back in the game in the 2nd half before going to Clerc. I think Clerc only came in when Leo picked up that 4th foul. Clerc wasn't great, but he was big enough to stand up to #33, caused a backcourt violation, and made his two free throws.

- Over committing on penetration. I think I saw three consecutive Buffalo possessions where they drove baseline, the defense completely collapsed, and the Buffalo player had his pick of kick-out passes to wide open 3pt shooters. Those were like practice shots. Three in a row. This wasn't a problem only in yesterday's game, that is a feature of the Frank Martin defense. Over commit, stop the dribbler, and leave shooters wide open. It's almost like he denies the existence of the 3pointer, which is weird because even though he's old school, the 3 has been around his entire coaching career. Old school to a fault.

Am I missing anything? My goodness that was awful. Players need to be better, hit their FT's, etc. yes, but this is who they've been all year. It's up to the coach to make the right in-game adjustments and decisions, which he has not done. The time for playing around with lineups and experimenting with strategies is over. It's nut cutting time, but he's still (to use his own phrase) "playing patty cake" and we now sit at 6-9 in the MAC, far below my prediction of 3rd, the preseason coaches poll of 5th, and only 1/2 game above the cut line.

Frank needs to go..he is basically clueless when it comes to todays on the court game

[minutefanjsf]

Why would they limit students if the place is empty?
Do students even need tickets?

I’ve asked this question many times. Students do not actual tickets. They have a cap on how many can enter. It is near a third of the capacity. They do not release unsold tickets to the students.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Why would they limit students if the place is empty?
Do students even need tickets?

I’ve asked this question many times. Students do not actual tickets. They have a cap on how many can enter. It is near a third of the capacity. They do not release unsold tickets to the students.

This is generally correct, but they have done that in the past. The UConn game in 04 being the immediate example that comes to mind.

[minutefanjsf]

The sleeping giant did one of those big sleeping yawns on Tuesday as if it was going to awaken, but we lost, and apparently the sleeping giant went right back to sleep yesterday. Brutal.

I'm sure there were some students there, but it's crazy that they don't band together as a section, or that the Department doesn't make a concerted effort to force them too. And what happened to the greek life thing? And enough with the end zone section is bad bullshit... it has nothing to do with that. They don't care because A) the team continues to stink, and B) the marketing/promotion of what a game day student experience is terrible.


As for the game itself... once again Luka as the backup option to Leo was a disaster. And how in the world does Placide go from the performance Tuesday night to playing 1 fucking minute???? You don't even give the kid a chance to see if he can repeat or at least build on that? Holy hell. And not calling a timeout when Leo was trapped right in front of our bench was very bad.

That review at the end that went as a common foul was BS, that would have given us a chance. But in the end, it was all the same stuff that doomed us.

I love sitting in the endzone. Always have. I choose the opposite non student endzone all the time. The students don’t sit there. I don’t know why. They announced all the Greek organizations that were there. No idea where they were, definitely weren’t in the student section. That foul was clearly flagrant.

[eldonabe]

Why would they limit students if the place is empty?
Do students even need tickets?

I’ve asked this question many times. Students do not actual tickets. They have a cap on how many can enter. It is near a third of the capacity. They do not release unsold tickets to the students.

Which is ANOTHER whiff by this fucking AD..... They know days in advance that there are plenty of unsold seats avialble.... but you know, why let the students come in for free and create some atmosphere..... ?

Hmm let's see.... Empty free seats or some additional occupation and noisy free seats???????

[LS71]

…and the giveaways.

*sigh*.... you're missing the point, Larry.

OK…what am I missing? When the team was good, kids came. Now it seems like they show when there are freebies to be had.

Why do you think they show up for hockey snd not for hoops?

[Juice Stand]

I crush him when he doesn't, so I'll give him credit when he does. Frank took some responsibility and acknowledged that he needs to get the team better prepared:

“We’re trying to trap the ball screen and when we trap it, we’re supposed to send it a certain way,” he said. “Four straight possessions, a guard got beat going the other way.” He put some of that blame on himself. “Obviously not very good by me to prepare our ball screen defense,” he said.

https://www.minutemancommand.com/p/disa ... for-martin

For me, the game was lost starting at 11:37 remaining in the 2nd. We were leading 44-41 at that point when they got a steal and hit four consecutive 3's. Buffalo converted for 12 points in 2 minutes. And what I recall is not that their ball pressure defense was poor. There was no blow-by, these were the plays where the defense collapsed along the baseline and they had very easy kickouts for wide open 3's. Completely sucked the air out of the room, UMass' confidence was shot and Buffalo was feeling it. Plenty of time to recover, but they couldn't do it. 12 points in 2 minutes is FAST, a total gut punch.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

…and the giveaways.

*sigh*.... you're missing the point, Larry.

OK…what am I missing? When the team was good, kids came. Now it seems like they show when there are freebies to be had.

Why do you think they show up for hockey snd not for hoops?

The point is that the giveaways don't matter either, it's the winning.

They show up for hockey because they've been a winning program. Basketball hasn't been, even though this season they have been very competitive and exciting.

[LS71]

^ No argument from me that wins translate to better student turnout. Giveaways help but as we’ve seen in the past students treat giveaways like they’re grab n go instead of staying for the game.