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

[69MG]

I'm now on the "find a way to buy out Frank" train. His substitution patterns, much discussed already, are mind boggling. Placide gets 1 minute, Luka plays ahead of Clerc after being awful in the last game. There are more, but they've been covered.

Also, I cannot believe the low BB IQ on so many of our players. On offense, they were too focused on getting the ball to Leo. He was double and triple teamed, and they still tried to pass it to him instead of getting it to an open 3-point shooter. I lost count of the turnovers caused by doing this.

On defense, why in hell are Leo, Luka and Clerc chasing #33 out past the 3-point line? Stay inside the free throw line and you might not commit so many fouls. Then, to make it worse, they switch off on a guard and 33 rolls to the hoop with Carbuccia or Banks having to defend him.

Next, they have a couple of guys who are lights out from 3 and their man leaves them to help on someone else. A wide open 3 results with nobody within 6 feet of the shooter.

Finally (actually there are more bonehead plays but this is it for me), how many telegraphed passes were there that led to fast breaks for Buffalo?

This is a sad way to end the season, and I feel for the 1996 guys who had to watch this painful excuse of a team tonight. This is more than my usual rant, but this game frustrated the hell out of me and Buffalo did it with a 20 point per game scorer not available. THE END!

[Uminuteman]

The writing was on the wall when we lost to NIU. I checked out then and nothing has changed.

[kd68]

No matter who we play, it always seem we have a chance to win, but lose. We should by probability win at least half of these nail biters. Definitely need a coaching change.

[Floridafan71]

The Luka play has been stated. Zero points in 2 games and opponents shoot right over him.. 6 10 guy plays like 6 3. Slow . makes errors. Does not create his own shot and has little feel for how to play the game. Doesn’t seem like a Div 1 player. At least Clerc sank 2 free throws. Ghost does more in 2 minutes than Luka does in 2 games. Is Frank rewarding him for staying another year as he gets special playing time because of that? I am still not understanding why Placide hardly plays last night. College basketball it certainly changed. I remember when they used to start the senior players I believe Brown was recognized as a senior. They showed his folks on TV and him taking a happy photo before the game. I don’t believe he got a minute of play. Coaches used to start the seniors at least for a few minutes. This is getting to be such a business. That player does he not deserve a few minutes.? Not student athletes anymore. It’s semi pro . Minor league. Does Frank or his staff teach these guys? DHS goes in the lane twice before the buffalo center shoots the free throw. Costs us two points tonight. there needs to be some big changes here with this team ..great that the ladies team are winning .. evidently coaching has something to do with it.

[bunkerhill87]

Welcome to NIL and the portal. Reload every year HOPING they pan out. Umass can be incredible on offense. Bettiol Banks Parker etc. Poor on defense though we rebound the f out of the ball. As mentioned basketball iq. The better teams dont force or make poor turnovers. Big glaring stat every game in freethrows. Us making them changes our record drastically. I hope we can retain some guys but I fear rinse and repeat

[Floyd]

We are much better with multiple perimeter scorers on the floor. It opens up the inside for Danny to drive & dish, and takes some of the double teams off Leo. With only Banks out there, its easier to double down on Leo and shadow Marcus because teams know DHS, Jayden, & Danny are more reluctant to shoot. But we still force feed Leo and he gets doubled. We're lucky he's done as well as he has.

Placide should have got more time last night. Maybe play more zone if the thought is we can't guard because we're small on the perimeter or foul too much. And not starting Donovan Brown or even giving him a sniff of time last night on senior day was in poor taste

[Juice Stand]

*** 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.

[Juice Stand]

Welcome to NIL and the portal. Reload every year HOPING they pan out. Umass can be incredible on offense. Bettiol Banks Parker etc. Poor on defense though we rebound the f out of the ball. As mentioned basketball iq. The better teams dont force or make poor turnovers. Big glaring stat every game in freethrows. Us making them changes our record drastically. I hope we can retain some guys but I fear rinse and repeat

I think the transfer portal and NIL are cop outs. Every team is dealing with it, not just UMass. And if you believe the reports, we have top-of-the-MAC NIL resources, so we should be able to get top-of-the-MAC talent, and retain those players as well. The reason we don't retain good players is because Frank can charm them and is extremely engaging and great to talk to, but he can not retain them because of his ineffective and abusive antics, and overall general losing. He can recruit but not retain.

[Floyd]

- 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.

Pretty much agree with everything you said Juice, but this one is the big one to me. The guy is too stubborn to adjust anything. Just yell more & hope it changes

[Floyd]

Welcome to NIL and the portal. Reload every year HOPING they pan out. Umass can be incredible on offense. Bettiol Banks Parker etc. Poor on defense though we rebound the f out of the ball. As mentioned basketball iq. The better teams dont force or make poor turnovers. Big glaring stat every game in freethrows. Us making them changes our record drastically. I hope we can retain some guys but I fear rinse and repeat

I think the transfer portal and NIL are cop outs. Every team is dealing with it, not just UMass. And if you believe the reports, we have top-of-the-MAC NIL resources, so we should be able to get top-of-the-MAC talent, and retain those players as well. The reason we don't retain good players is because Frank can charm them and is extremely engaging and great to talk to, but he can not retain them because of his ineffective and abusive antics, and overall general losing. He can recruit but not retain.

Yup. We need a change

[Juice Stand]

Because they are honoring the 96 team and because the game has some bearing on qualifying for the conference tournament, I think we can be reasonably confident they will lose tonight. We don't win important games anymore. We just don’t...

I can not believe how spot on this post was.

[Juice Stand]

^ Senior Day stuff...

For those who weren't there and are curious how the program went, they made an announcement for Bettiol, Banks, and Placide. All three of them came out together, walked across the court, and went off to the side. Then they did the traditional senior day thing with pictures and individual honors, starting with a student manager, then Donovan Brown, then DHS. I felt bad for Brown, he didn't have anybody with him on the court and didn't get in the game.

I was glad to be able to celebrate DHS. It wasn't 4 years, but in today's landscape I'll take 3 and be happy with that. I'd like to see some more production from him, but he's been a pleasure all 3 years and has had some outstanding moments. Congrats to Daniel on graduating from UMass.

[stevemaz]

I am in camp where i wouldnt mind seeing us finish 9th place. There would be no conceivable reason to keep Martin

[Uminuteman]

We'll be lucky to finish 9th.

[ClubMan]

I am in camp where i wouldnt mind seeing us finish 9th place. There would be no conceivable reason to keep Martin

I agree and It’s very unfortunate that it’s come to this. Remember how excited we all were when they signed Frank? This is his team, he recruited them, signed them, and coaches them every day. Does he ever take responsibility for the team’s play during his post game press conferences? There’s always an excuse to lay the blame on the players, but the blame goes around top to bottom.