2026-27 Season

[BR72]

The scheduling for men's basketball is a disgrace.

Total of 10 games in November/December. I of which is with a Division 3 and one is a MAC game. Thus, in reality, 8 our of conference games. No Harvard no URI.

Women, on the other hand, 12 out of conference games. No MAC games, no division 3 games. They are actually in a 4 team tournament at St. Pete/Tampa.

Could Men have made some out of conference tournament? A total embarrassment.

Couldn't agree more. Compare it to 2019-2020 when we played Virginia, St. John's, Rutgers, South Carolina, Harvard and Yale. Frank said in the podcast that his two jobs were to grow the program and create excitement. He has failed miserably at both and this schedule, particularly the home games, cannot reasonably be intended to create enthusiasm among the STHs or any other fans. I gave up my STs after 30 years last year because I could not convince myself that the program warranted my support but I still attended several games. I'm not sure I will be able to justify the four hour roundtrip to go to a sparsely attended arena to see UM play these teams and I suspect that I am not alone.

[UMassFan99]

Agree but it’s pretty unlikely we get at large bids (*yes, I know, Miami OH), so perhaps it’s best to give the team time to gel with just a couple of tough games?

[BillGASox1]

The scheduling for men's basketball is a disgrace.

Total of 10 games in November/December. I of which is with a Division 3 and one is a MAC game. Thus, in reality, 8 our of conference games. No Harvard no URI.

Women, on the other hand, 12 out of conference games. No MAC games, no division 3 games. They are actually in a 4 team tournament at St. Pete/Tampa.

Could Men have made some out of conference tournament? A total embarrassment.

Couldn't agree more. Compare it to 2019-2020 when we played Virginia, St. John's, Rutgers, South Carolina, Harvard and Yale. Frank said in the podcast that his two jobs were to grow the program and create excitement. He has failed miserably at both and this schedule, particularly the home games, cannot reasonably be intended to create enthusiasm among the STHs or any other fans. I gave up my STs after 30 years last year because I could not convince myself that the program warranted my support but I still attended several games. I'm not sure I will be able to justify the four hour roundtrip to go to a sparsely attended arena to see UM play these teams and I suspect that I am not alone.

Totally agree

[LS71]

I’ll continue to watch/follow, But it’s unlikely that I’ll go to more than a handful of games.

I will attend more hockey games than men’s hoops games. I will also get a few women’s games.

[Juice Stand]

The scheduling for men's basketball is a disgrace.

Total of 10 games in November/December. I of which is with a Division 3 and one is a MAC game. Thus, in reality, 8 our of conference games. No Harvard no URI.

Women, on the other hand, 12 out of conference games. No MAC games, no division 3 games. They are actually in a 4 team tournament at St. Pete/Tampa.

Could Men have made some out of conference tournament? A total embarrassment.

Couldn't agree more. Compare it to 2019-2020 when we played Virginia, St. John's, Rutgers, South Carolina, Harvard and Yale. Frank said in the podcast that his two jobs were to grow the program and create excitement. He has failed miserably at both and this schedule, particularly the home games, cannot reasonably be intended to create enthusiasm among the STHs or any other fans. I gave up my STs after 30 years last year because I could not convince myself that the program warranted my support but I still attended several games. I'm not sure I will be able to justify the four hour roundtrip to go to a sparsely attended arena to see UM play these teams and I suspect that I am not alone.

Totally agree

Definitely. Especially now that we only get 10 non-con games. We used to schedule what, 12 or 13 non-con games? To not be able to fill out a10-game schedule with D1 opponents is, as Vanmeter put it, disgraceful.

[Plano Minuteman]

The whole season fate relies on qualifying for and winning the MAC conference tourney. Troy, Wake, and perhaps some of the conference games will be promising. It's a really sad era for Men's hoops. I may still go to UMass at Troy, probably not I'll be in Atlanta for the 49ers-Falcons the week before and perhaps even Alabama vs. Texas A&M the day before the 49ers. But there's an outside chance I'll go see 'em in Troy.

[69MG]

I'll go slightly the other way. I agree that the schedule sucks. But I'll go as long as the team is playing well and the games are entertaining. We are in no position to play a killer schedule at this time, so I'll live with it. But I'm all for getting rid of the DIII games and bringing in any of the DI Mass schools.

I got bored yesterday and looked at the minutes and points from the returners. I'll do a post on that in the 2026-27 season thread later. It's not pretty.

[Marty Peretz]

The scheduling for men's basketball is a disgrace.

Total of 10 games in November/December. I of which is with a Division 3 and one is a MAC game. Thus, in reality, 8 our of conference games. No Harvard no URI.

Women, on the other hand, 12 out of conference games. No MAC games, no division 3 games. They are actually in a 4 team tournament at St. Pete/Tampa.

Could Men have made some out of conference tournament? A total embarrassment.

Couldn't agree more. Compare it to 2019-2020 when we played Virginia, St. John's, Rutgers, South Carolina, Harvard and Yale. Frank said in the podcast that his two jobs were to grow the program and create excitement. He has failed miserably at both and this schedule, particularly the home games, cannot reasonably be intended to create enthusiasm among the STHs or any other fans. I gave up my STs after 30 years last year because I could not convince myself that the program warranted my support but I still attended several games. I'm not sure I will be able to justify the four hour roundtrip to go to a sparsely attended arena to see UM play these teams and I suspect that I am not alone.

I cancelled after hear one of Frank. He doesn’t give a single shit about this fan base. Fundamentally unserious program. But they have a decent roster this year and are in a dog shit league so they may win 22 games against this awful slate of opponents. Frank will then bet a courtesy extension and we’ll be stuck with him again next year. Joke of a department. Never been this difficult to be a UMass fan.

[Juice Stand]

^ Have to agree, and it's a bummer. I still go because it's close, it's relatively cheap, I love hoops and am an alum. But the whole Bamford experience has become a lead balloon. I don't blame those that have cancelled one bit, especially if it's a haul to get to games.

[eldonabe]

The scheduling for men's basketball is a disgrace.

Total of 10 games in November/December. I of which is with a Division 3 and one is a MAC game. Thus, in reality, 8 our of conference games. No Harvard no URI.

Women, on the other hand, 12 out of conference games. No MAC games, no division 3 games. They are actually in a 4 team tournament at St. Pete/Tampa.

Could Men have made some out of conference tournament? A total embarrassment.

So here is a funny story (not funny).

On the MAC board that a couple of us go to, there was a discussion on schedules and a few people thought our schedule was Great!

That sums up our new Home Conference for Basketball....

[LS71]

Must’ve been the UMass-Boston game that convinced them…

[Floyd]

Wonder what the excuses will be if they dont win 22+ games. Can't blame the schedule

[69MG]

Here are the minutes and point per game for the 5 returning players (not including Rollie as he barely saw the court). I'm not intentionally trying to be negative, but these numbers scare me.

Danny 28 min. 6.8 points
Jayden 29 min. 6.5 points
Wimbley 14 min. 3.3 points
Clerc 9 min. 3.2 points
Luka 10 min. 2.4 points

Can Danny, Jayden and Wimbley all bump their scoring by 3-5 points per game? I'm not putting any numbers on Clerk or Luka because I'm not sure how much playing time they will see with the bigs we have coming in (Ahmed, Wang and Sylla).

From all reports (taken with a grain of salt), the highest scoring expectations seem to be for Clayton, Wang and Helgason. Clayton averaged 3.9 last year and 4.7 the year before when he was injured and played in only10 games. Wang averaged 8.5 points last year, which was his career high. No idea on Helgason but I'll take a shot with him based on all of the scouting reports.

I'm not counting on a lot of scoring from anyone else because I think these 6 players (plus Ahmed at the 5) will all see 20+ minutes. Ahmed is more D than O so maybe 5-7 points from him.

Someone tell me how we average more than 70 points this year.

[Roadtrip]

The big question for me, and one that doesn't seem to concern Frank much, is who is the primary backup at PG? Carbuccia has to stay healthy and be in A+ shape.

[Plano Minuteman]

^

Yeah, we're gonna see Danny play almost every possible minute.

I bet Clayton is the guy for those rare minutes Danny isn't in there.