2026 Recruiting

Anything and everything that is UMass Minutemen Basketball.
wmmmfan
Senior
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:16 am
Location: Western Mass

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by wmmmfan » Mon Dec 15, 2025 3:27 pm

I recall reading somewhere last year, one of Franks former players at So. Carolina was from Croatia. The person now coaches Prep ball in the South somewhere and has a pipeline from Croatia. I believe we offered one of his players last year. Maybe that is the connection.

69MG
Hall of Fame
Posts: 13368
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:07 pm
Location: Western Mass

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by 69MG » Mon Dec 15, 2025 9:14 pm

Here's a highlight video from 2024-2025. Keep in mind, it's a highlight video so he doesn't miss many shots, maybe none!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i5dqKn1wrA

69MG
Hall of Fame
Posts: 13368
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:07 pm
Location: Western Mass

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by 69MG » Thu Dec 18, 2025 11:39 pm

Here's today's episode of "Just Being Frank". They talk about the 2 ACC games, and a lot of the usual Frank speak. At around the 23 minute mark they talk about the 5 recruits. He names them all, including Sylla so they must all be signed.

I don't recall if Frank generally goes over the top (ala Charley Molnar) on his recruits, but he really has a lot of good things to say about them. One quick example is about Hailey. He sees the court like Danny and he can shoot like KJ.

https://umassathletics.com/sports/2018/ ... cs-podcast

inthescoop
Hall of Fame
Posts: 5980
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:40 pm
Location: LA

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by inthescoop » Tue Dec 23, 2025 4:03 pm

https://www.zagsblog.com/2025/12/21/vet ... -of-palms/

Stepinac will always have a ton of talent. I hope that after recruiting Carbuccia, Frank now has a strong pipeline there and will get more Stepinac recruits in the future.

inthescoop
Hall of Fame
Posts: 5980
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:40 pm
Location: LA

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by inthescoop » Fri Dec 26, 2025 3:18 pm

College basketball is taking another turn. Young European pros are now joining college teams midseason. 24 year old Russian just joined Oklahoma and some guy who got drafted 2 years ago in the second round just joined Baylor's roster.. wild times.

Roadtrip
Hall of Fame
Posts: 3865
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 1:54 pm
Location: Back in FL
Contact:

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by Roadtrip » Fri Dec 26, 2025 5:54 pm

College basketball is dead. At least at the D1 level.

GOODY
Junior
Posts: 523
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2003 3:38 pm
Location: Fort Myers , Florida

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by GOODY » Fri Dec 26, 2025 8:32 pm

Roadtrip wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 5:54 pm College basketball is dead. At least at the D1 level.
It sucks for all but especially for us ole timers !

User avatar
m626t
Hall of Fame
Posts: 2585
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:24 pm
Location: Western Mass

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by m626t » Sat Dec 27, 2025 4:35 pm

^
I concur.
All due respect, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart, I'm gonna pass.

User avatar
LS71
Hall of Fame
Posts: 8784
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:55 pm
Location: Lost in Space

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by LS71 » Sat Dec 27, 2025 8:45 pm

Very true…in part cuz we can remember how it was prior to all this mishugas!
"Win without boasting, lose without crying." -- Julius Erving

wmmmfan
Senior
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:16 am
Location: Western Mass

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by wmmmfan » Sun Dec 28, 2025 1:38 pm

I have no issue with players getting money, I think the sums are ridiculous but it is what it is. What is turning me away, is players who chose to leave coming back and now a player with 8 NBA games under his belt coming back. The universities that want to compete with major league sports should create their own Association and those who want to compete in college athletics with revenue sharing for schools and players need to do their own thing. The two models are not the same and neither are their prospective members. I do believe the revenue sharing model should include members having football programs and a level of commitment by those members.

69MG
Hall of Fame
Posts: 13368
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:07 pm
Location: Western Mass

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by 69MG » Tue Jan 06, 2026 12:34 pm

It seems strange to me that we have not seen an official release about our 2026 class. Sylla, our recruit from Bridgeton Academy in Maine just had his coach pass away.

Here's the article from NERR:
https://newenglandrecruitingreport.com/ ... hit-lesure

If you go to the Bridgeton website you can see game highlights and videos of their games. Sylla looks like a slightly better version of Clerc, but he's playing against prep school players so who knows.

https://bridgtonacademy.org/athletics/basketball/

Online
MakeMullinsGreatAgain
Junior
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2022 2:20 pm

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by MakeMullinsGreatAgain » Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:43 pm

Forgive me if this was discussed in another thread but didn't see it anywhere.

Was looking at the roster on this site and noticed DHS was listed as a Senior - does that mean he has 1 year of eligibility left if he wants to stay? Frank has always spoken about how loyal he is and I would think if he was to stay for a grad year it would be here

On the other hand - surprised (actually disappointed) to see Placide is a Grad Senior - thought for sure we'd have him next year.

Anyone know for sure if DHS could stay if he wanted to?

69MG
Hall of Fame
Posts: 13368
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:07 pm
Location: Western Mass

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by 69MG » Wed Jan 21, 2026 5:58 pm

MakeMullinsGreatAgain wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:43 pm Forgive me if this was discussed in another thread but didn't see it anywhere.

Was looking at the roster on this site and noticed DHS was listed as a Senior - does that mean he has 1 year of eligibility left if he wants to stay? Frank has always spoken about how loyal he is and I would think if he was to stay for a grad year it would be here

On the other hand - surprised (actually disappointed) to see Placide is a Grad Senior - thought for sure we'd have him next year.

Anyone know for sure if DHS could stay if he wanted to?
Daniel played 1 year at South Carolina, and he'll have 3 years here, so I'm 99.99% sure he will be done. If my info is correct, we also lose Bettiol, Banks, Placide and Brown. We will most likely lose a couple (or more) to transfers. We have 5 commits and that equals the number of players we know we will lose. I'm guessing that any other new players will come from the portal.

#1 priority is a center who can score and maybe block some shots.
#2 is a proven 3-point shooter to pair up with Parker.

Will they be available? That is a good question.

Floyd
Hall of Fame
Posts: 10741
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2003 8:50 am
Location: Not where I should be

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by Floyd » Wed Jan 21, 2026 7:51 pm

Wouldn't surprise me if K'Jei moves on
Time to Win

vl14
newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2022 9:52 pm

Re: 2026 Recruiting

Post by vl14 » Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:59 pm

I sure hope the Collective can find a way to keep K’Jei. He’s terrific! In the meantime, I’d like to see him get about 10 more minutes a game. Shooting over 45% for 3’s and 95+% from the line.

Post Reply