2025-26 Season

[Juice Stand]

The dorm stuff is somewhat interesting, but HAS ANYONE HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT HOW THE TEAM LOOKS THUS FAR? I need BB news!

New episode of the Being Frank podcast is out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlxCrwyHYz4

[69MG]

^ I listened to it last night. 90% was the same old BS we hear every episode. Here's what I took from it:

1. He thinks Luka has come a long way since last year. Reshaped his body and he's trying to make him into a Josh Cohen type player.
2. He has 3 guys who can play PG, they are all different, but they are all short.
3. He is working on getting official visits from recruits. He can't name names, but last week it was a "small" visit, this week and next week are "big" visits. I think we can figure it out.

If anyone got anything else meaningful from the episode, please fill us in. I think I was a bit cranky when I listened to it because it was after the FB game.

[Juice Stand]

Blue Ribbon Yearbook has put out there '25/'26 predictions for MAC basketball and they have us slotted in at 6th with no all-conference players. I put zero stock in preseason predictions, but if that happens, it will be a massive failure. I expect us to finish top 3, and barring serious injury, DHS will be an all-conference player.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2025/9/ ... ecast.aspx

[eldonabe]

Blue Ribbon Yearbook has put out there '25/'26 predictions for MAC basketball and they have us slotted in at 6th with no all-conference players. I put zero stock in preseason predictions, but if that happens, it will be a massive failure. I expect us to finish top 3, and barring serious injury, DHS will be an all-conference player.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2025/9/ ... ecast.aspx

I am not asking to be an asshole (this time ) but why do you "expect" top 3?

We are not really returning a lot of talent and everyone coming here who is new is fully aware of our new conference weight so overall talent level is questionable at best. Frank is no better / worse a coach than any on the MAC so it is not like we have an advantage there either.

We certainly could finish top 3, but we could finish 9th just as easily right now too. We have no real idea what we are walking into right now (see football 0-2). I would not expect anything.


All of that said, I would and will argue that season 1 in the MAC is far more important for Umass Basketball than it is for Football. We all know Football stinks and it may take 4 or 5 years to dig out of the hole they have created; but if Basketball sucks this year too, that will only compound (bigly) the weight on this athletic department. If hoops can be reasonably competitive this year, that will create some breathing room for everything else. Maybe they NEED to come in 3rd or better, but they definitely need to get to 20 wins regardless of where that places them in conference. I hope they meet your expectations.

[Juice Stand]

There are many differences between football and basketball, but some of them are that basketball, while not good, hasn't been nearly as pathetic as football over the last 10+ years, Frank Martin is a coach with a long resume of success, and while I think that the top of the MAC is good, there is a very soft underbelly. In football, UMass is the soft underbelly.

One thing that I think is going to make a difference this year is that Frank was thoroughly embarrassed last year. Probably his worst season as a professional coach. I think he knows that he's being paid to win, he sees the empty seats, and he's not going to play around. They may start slowly with what I consider a tough OOC schedule, but I expect them to hit their stride and be a contender during conference play.

It's totally fair for you or anyone else to not have any expectations, but I'm not going to let Frank or Bamford off the hook. They've talked the talk, so I expect them to walk the walk now that the MAC is officially here. Yes, I expect UMass to be among the 3 best teams in the MAC basketball league because that is what they sold us on. I have no idea if that's what will happen, but I am absolutely going to have expectations.

All of that said, I would and will argue that season 1 in the MAC is far more important for Umass Basketball than it is for Football. We all know Football stinks and it may take 4 or 5 years to dig out of the hole they have created; but if Basketball sucks this year too, that will only compound (bigly) the weight on this athletic department. If hoops can be reasonably competitive this year, that will create some breathing room for everything else. Maybe they NEED to come in 3rd or better, but they definitely need to get to 20 wins regardless of where that places them in conference. I hope they meet your expectations.

This, I agree with 100%. Coach Harasymiak just got here. Frank is entering year 4 and has a pedigree. It's time to show results. We almost got there with the Cross/Cohen team, but they flamed out in the A10 tourney. The bar for football is win a few games and not get totally outclassed. The bar for basketball is to compete for a league title, 100%.

[69MG]

^ Eldon, I think you are right. We know nothing right now about how good this team might be. I jokingly tell my friends that of the 10 players we lost, 3 were good, 1 or 2 were mediocre and the rest stunk. Of the 3 who were good, Diggins was a loyal guy who cared. Curry, from what I hear, was a cancer in the locker room. Rivera was athletic, but no BB IQ. How many bad decisions did he make at the end of games?

My other joke, sort of, is that if 5 of the 10 new guys can play, we will be better.

Frank totally changed his recruiting philosophy this year. We'll have to see if it paid off. He brought in shooters, something we sorely lacked last year. I would hope that the new bigs are better than last year's bigs. They all had major flaws in their game.

But, we know nothing until we see them on the court. I'm just so disgusted with FB that I'm trying to find a sport to get excited about (hockey is a given).

[DanaDingle3]

Expectation is absolutely top 3. If not, what is Frank even doing here?

I'll be disappointed with anything less than a tourney appearance. I'm really excited for this group.

[Floyd]

^ I agree DD. The team looks to be a more balanced group, more talented group, and we have a proven, experienced head coach who's been here for a few years now. And we dropped down a league. Time to exceed expectations & make UMass hoops relevant again

[Juice Stand]

Time to exceed expectations & make UMass hoops relevant again

yup, this is it for me. I don't care about anything else. We have the coach, we have the money, and we were promised a team that would compete at the top of the league every year. Put up or shut up time.

[Floyd]

Exactly how I feel Juice. I gave up my longstanding season tix last year & won't renew this year probably. I want to see it before I buy in again. Hard for me to say that but as a non local, I was sick of pouring my time into treking out there to watch shitty hoop.

[Steve81]

Blue Ribbon Yearbook has put out there '25/'26 predictions for MAC basketball and they have us slotted in at 6th with no all-conference players. I put zero stock in preseason predictions, but if that happens, it will be a massive failure. I expect us to finish top 3, and barring serious injury, DHS will be an all-conference player.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2025/9/ ... ecast.aspx

With you Juice and found $99 non stop Jet Blue flights to Cleveland for the tournament.

[69MG]

Did Blue Ribbon just get lazy and place us 6th? Last year we were 221 in Net and that would have been 6th in the MAC. Here's last year's MAC Net Rankings:

https://bballnet.com/conferences/MAC

The year before (the Cohen/Cross year) we were 91 in Net. I'm hoping for something closer to that this year. 91 would be great but I think 100-120 is realistic if the new guys are half as good as advertised. As I stated before, we really have no clue until we see them on the court, and we see if they mesh well together.

[MikeUMA]

I'm no analyst, but I don't know how you look at a roster that retains just 2 meaningful minutes players from last year and have any kind of confidence in predicting their success this season. Plus, several of our newcomers are from D2, JuCo, or high school.

If you had said we'll finish somewhere between first and thirteenth, I'd believe that

[Juice Stand]

To be clear about my expectations, it's not a prediction. I'm not looking at our roster and saying based on X, Y, and Z, we should finish top 3 etc. That's a lot of roster turnover. My expectations are based on who the administration says we're going to be. We're UMass, obviously not great the last 10 years, but still better than the bottom half or bottom two thirds of the MAC. Frank built a 20-win, 4th place A10 team just two seasons ago, who says he can't do it again in the MAC?

And to Ryan Bamford: put up or shut up time. You've sold me on the vision, now it has to become a reality pretty much immediately. There is no grace period for the basketball team. That doesn't mean a first place finish and a tournament appearance, but they need to be real darn close.

[eldonabe]

I'm no analyst, but I don't know how you look at a roster that retains just 2 meaningful minutes players from last year and have any kind of confidence in predicting their success this season. Plus, several of our newcomers are from D2, JuCo, or high school.

If you had said we'll finish somewhere between first and thirteenth, I'd believe that

HOW DARE YOU SIR! This kind of common sense reasoning is not permitted on this site.

Umass goes 25-6 or bust! MAC sucks, it is a pushover, WE ARE UMASS FFS!