The Massachusetts Minutemen and Minutewomen have formally wrapped their males’s and ladies’s basketball tenure within the Atlantic 10 Convention (A-10). UMass heads to the Mid-American Convention (MAC) in a football-driven transfer.
Since forming the Atlantic 10 in 1976, the College of Massachusetts has been a major a part of the convention’s historical past. The Japanese Collegiate Basketball League (now the A-10) is approaching its fiftieth season. UMass is departing earlier than this main milestone to hitch the MAC for the 2025-2026 season. The one workforce that has remained within the A-10 since its inception is George Washington (Duquesne as nicely, however they left for one season and got here again for the next season).
UMass has had an incredible historical past of profitable throughout its time within the Atlantic 10, with a number of NCAA appearances within the Nineteen Nineties for each groups, in addition to appearances within the WNIT and NIT from the 2000s via the 2020s. The Minutemen and Minutewomen of Massachusetts have loved notable runs within the NIT and WNIT through the years, offering gamers with helpful experiences.
Since attending my first UMass basketball sport in 2007, once I was simply 3 years outdated throughout Travis Ford’s last season, I developed a ardour for a number of excellent gamers who’ve come via this system and have basically created a “Mount Rushmore” of gamers that I proceed to comply with carefully.
Since 2007, I’ve witnessed 3 NIT appearances and 1 NCAA look by the Minutemen, together with 3 WNIT appearances and 1 NCAA look by the Minutewomen. The lads’s basketball workforce has been idle in postseason appearances since their 2014 NCAA match, marking the ultimate season for gamers like Chaz Williams, Sampson Carter, and Raphiael Putney.
In the meantime, the ladies’s basketball workforce has seen more moderen success with the “Savage Seven,” a WNIT look within the 2020-21 season, an automated bid to the NCAA match within the 2021-22 season, one other WNIT look within the 2022-23 season, and an look to finish the 2024-25 season within the WNIT.
Though this transfer goals to help the soccer workforce in leaving its impartial standing in FBS, it might doubtlessly profit each groups. Nonetheless, the MAC has a historical past of being a “One-Bid League” for the NCAA match since 2021 for the ladies’s facet, and the lads’s facet has adopted the same development for many years. Analyzing the NET rankings, UMass seems to suit proper in the midst of the pack for each the Minutewomen and Minutemen.
Finish of an Period for Ladies’s Basketball
UMass Minutewomen noticed their tenure within the Atlantic 10 come to an finish after being within the convention for 43 years. UMass has had a ladies’s workforce since 1968, however the A-10 didn’t start sponsoring ladies’s basketball till 1982.
The Minutewomen started their success within the A-10 below former head coach Joannie O’Brien (1991-2002), attaining two at-large NCAA Match appearances (1996, 1998) and a Ladies’s NIT look in 1995.
After O’Brien’s departure from UMass, the ladies’s basketball workforce didn’t safe any postseason appearances till 2020. The coaches earlier than Tory Verdi didn’t restore this system to O’Brien’s success, leading to a number of the hardest seasons in its historical past.
In 2016, Tory Verdi took over. He got here to UMass from Japanese Michigan (a future convention opponent) and was prepared to assist rebuild this system. In Verdi’s first season, the workforce had solely seven out there gamers (together with a ladies’s soccer participant) and completed with a 9-21 total file and 3-13 in convention play. Over the subsequent three seasons, Verdi’s workforce, led by Hailey Leidel, started to enhance, considerably impacting the file books.
Leidel was named Rookie of the 12 months in her first season, aiding Verdi and the workforce in gaining momentum. By Leidel’s senior yr, UMass achieved its first 20-win season since 1995-96 and tied for fourth place. Though their season was lower quick as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, had it continued, there might have been a primary WNIT look since 1995.
Leidel’s aspirations of changing into the all-time main scorer in this system’s postseason historical past got here to an finish. Unbeknownst to many, Leidel’s teammate, Penn State switch Sam Breen, would break that file in 2023.
Breen and Destiney Philoxy stepped into management roles after Leidel, guiding the Minutewomen to their first A-10 match championship look since 1998. Along with 5 different gamers, they fashioned the “Savage 7” (Breen, Philoxy, Angelique Ngalakulondi, Ber’Nyah Mayo, Stefanie Kulesza, Sydney Taylor, & Makennah White), bringing the primary of three consecutive postseason appearances again to Amherst.
Within the following season, UMass completed third within the convention and reached their second consecutive championship sport. Not like their first look, the Minutewomen claimed their first A-10 Match title. The workforce celebrated by reducing down the nets in Wilmington, Delaware, in 2022, incomes their first NCAA bid since 1998.
The Minutewomen have been poised for fulfillment within the convention and secured a share of the common season title within the 2022-23 season with Rhode Island. Verdi introduced the Minutewomen to unprecedented heights for this system. UMass reached the championship sport for the third consecutive season however in the end fell to Saint Louis in additional time.
On Choice Sunday that yr, regardless of a powerful case for the NCAA Match, the Minutewomen fell quick and located themselves simply outdoors of the match. UMass certified for the WNIT for the second time in three years. The Minutewomen confronted two sturdy opponents, UAlbany and Harvard, however noticed the historic careers of Breen and Philoxy come to an finish.
Breen’s time with the Minutewomen included breaking the all-time scoring file for UMass, profitable Atlantic 10 Participant of the 12 months in back-to-back seasons, and incomes the Becky Hammon Mid-Main Participant of the 12 months and ECAC Participant of the 12 months awards, amongst many different accolades all through her profession with the workforce.
After a historic 2022-23 season, Verdi was employed as the subsequent head coach at Pitt. Only a few days after he left for Pitt, UMass appointed his affiliate head coach, Mike Leflar, as his successor. Leflar noticed key gamers, together with Taylor, White, Mayo, and Ngalakulondi, depart for Energy 5 faculties. He was left with three gamers from the earlier season: Kulesza, Lilly Ferguson, and Kristin Williams.
In his first season as head coach, the workforce completed with a file of 5-27 total and 2-16 within the convention. By the top of the 2023-24 season, an announcement was made about transferring to the Mid-American Convention (MAC), marking the ultimate season within the A-10 as 2024-25.
Leflar and his teaching employees aimed for vital development of their final season within the A-10. Including gamers like Megan Olbrys (switch from Villanova), Aleah Sorrentino (switch from Lipscomb), and Momo LaClair (switch from Drexel) from the portal enormously benefited the workforce in comparison with the prior season.
Olbrys and freshman guard Yahmani McKayle instantly impacted the court docket for the Minutewomen alongside Kulesza and Chinenye Odenigbo. Regardless of a sluggish begin to the season, UMass gained confidence by early December, which constructed nice momentum for convention play. Allie Palmieri proved to be a helpful asset all through the season, serving to the workforce discover methods to attain when obligatory.
McKayle started to hit her stride in December, showcasing a method of play paying homage to what Philoxy had delivered to UMass. She achieved career-high numbers whereas carrying Philoxy’s quantity through the Play4Kay video games, as soon as with Philoxy in attendance. McKayle was capable of earn Rookie of the 12 months for the primary time since Leidel did it in 2017 after she gained Rookie of the Week 4 instances this season.
The Minutewomen had an opportunity to safe a double-bye this season, which exceeded expectations for UMass followers. They completed in a three-way tie for fifth place with Dayton and Rhode Island however lacked the tiebreakers wanted to safe the fifth or sixth seed.
UMass entered Henrico because the seventh seed, ready to search out out if they might face the tenth seed in Saint Louis or the fifteenth seed in St. Bonaventure. Sadly, Saint Louis defeated the Minutewomen within the second spherical of the match, ending a forty-three-year tenure for girls’s basketball.
UMass had the chance to increase its play into the postseason within the Ladies’s NIT (WNIT), and received to expertise postseason play below Leflar in simply his second season. The Minutewomen had nice success of their first-round matchup towards the Stonehill Skyhawks, with McKayle changing into the primary freshman in UMass historical past to file a triple-double, and solely the third particular person to take action in this system’s tenure.
Within the second spherical matchup towards the Buffalo Bulls – a workforce that’s within the MAC — the Minutewomen discovered methods to maintain near the Bulls and acquire a giant lead, however watched it disappear all through the fourth quarter. Whereas the Minutewomen misplaced to the Bulls, the long run is shiny for UMass within the MAC. UMass and Buffalo might turn into convention rivals within the MAC, however that’s nonetheless powerful to completely get a very good grasp of with the Bulls having half of their workforce depart after they gained the WNIT championship, and their coach getting employed to be the pinnacle coach at Arizona.
The Minutemen Go away Behind Traditions within the Transfer to the MAC
When the convention was fashioned, UMass had legendary coach Jack Leaman on the head of the lads’s basketball program. Nearly all of Leaman’s tenure was earlier than the formation of the ECBL within the Yankee Convention the place he had big-name gamers taking part in for him and the Minutemen. Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Al Skinner, Rick Pitino, and Invoice Tindall have been a number of the huge names that got here out of Amherst, Mass. earlier than the formation of the ECBL with Leaman. Though Leaman’s teaching tenure got here to a detailed after the 1978-1979 season, he stayed actively concerned inside the athletic division in quite a lot of completely different roles, together with teaching the ladies’s basketball workforce for the 1986-1987 season.
UMass firstly of the convention didn’t see an entire bunch of success, usually going nicely under 0.500 till a training legend stepped in to assist carry the workforce again to the place it was within the Seventies below Leaman and made it considerably higher. Enter UMass Corridor of Fame Coach John Calipari who was taking his first ever place as a head coach at 29 years outdated.
In Calipari’s tenure as the pinnacle coach of the Minutemen, he solely had one season under 0.500 in his eight seasons. Coach Cal helped to get UMass onto the nationwide stage with two NIT appearances (1990 and 1991) and 5 consecutive appearances to the NCAA match (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996). Within the workforce’s 5 straight NCAA appearances, the Minutemen began to turn into a family identify by additionally sweeping the match and common season titles within the Atlantic 10 and in addition via the traditional press convention second with former Temple Head Coach John Chaney on the brink of combat Calipari after a sport within the Mullins Heart.
Calipari produced NBA gifted gamers in Marcus Camby and Lou Roe, and different extraordinarily gifted gamers from his last groups in Amherst. Former UMass Head Coach Derek Kellogg, Dana Dingle, Carmelo Travieso, Edgar Padilla, Tyrone Weeks, Mike Williams, and Donta Brilliant have been simply a number of the gifted gamers within the last seasons of Calipari’s tenure.
With the gifted gamers that Calipari recruited, he was capable of make three Candy Sixteens, two Elite Eights, and one Remaining 4 within the span of these 5 years. The run to the 1996 Remaining 4 and the entire wins within the match have been vacated by the NCAA as a result of violations of Camby accepting improper items from sports activities brokers. Whereas the NCAA stripped it from UMass, the Minutemen nonetheless acknowledge it with banners hung up within the rafters of the Mullins Heart and the Males’s Basketball Follow Courtroom.
After the 1995-96 season, Coach Cal went on to educate the New Jersey Nets (presently the Brooklyn Nets), and Camby having been drafted second total by the Toronto Raptors, the Minutemen needed to fill these voids. Bruiser Flint grew to become head coach of the Minutemen, and he tried to maintain the momentum going for the Minutemen and postseason. Flint was profitable in getting again to the NCAA Match in 1997 and 1998 with Weeks, Travieso, and Padilla all returning and the additions of Lari Ketner, Monty Mack, and Mike Babul. After these final two appearances, making the NCAA Match felt prefer it was going to be powerful with out gamers like Camby and Roe.
Flint resigned after the 2000-01 season with the stress of preserving this system on the stage that Calipari as soon as had. Steve Lappas grew to become the pinnacle coach of the Minutemen, and that was what felt like might have been the beginning of a darkish flip for the UMass followers on the market. Lappas didn’t have his four-year contract renewed by the point he was let go which resulted within the Minutemen hiring a brand new head coach.
Travis Ford got here crashing into the scene in Amherst and began to rebuild what UMass followers noticed again within the Nineteen Nineties with Calipari. Ford took benefit of the expertise that was left for him in Rashaun Freeman and Stephane Lasme whereas bringing in contemporary expertise from Chris Lowe. Whereas they completed under 0.500, that was simply the start line for Ford and his employees.
Getting into into the 2006-07 season, Ford had Lasme, Lowe, and Freeman all return and had Gary Forbes out there after he sat out as a result of transferring a yr prior and Ricky Harris. Ford led the workforce to their first common season title since 1996 and introduced the workforce to the second spherical of the NIT.
Ford continued to have the momentum go in the appropriate course in his third season with Forbes, Lowe, and Harris all returning. The Minutemen completed in third place and acquired one other bid into the NIT for the second straight yr, making it to the finals at Madison Sq. Backyard. Shortly after the season ended, Ford was supplied to be the subsequent head coach at Oklahoma State thus abruptly ending his tenure with UMass.
The Minutemen introduced again a well-recognized face to this system in former participant Derek Kellogg. After Kellogg graduated, he frolicked as an assistant coach at George Mason, Youngstown State, and Memphis, the place Calipari was the pinnacle coach on the time. Kellogg inherited Harris, Lowe, Tony Gaffney, and Anthony Gurley to assist begin constructing his program.
Whereas Kellogg’s first few seasons have been under 0.500, he was working laborious at revamping the Minutemen. He would go on to herald Sampson Carter, Sean Carter, Freddie Riley, Terrell Vinson, Raphiael Putney, Jesse Morgan, and Javorn Farrell. This group of gamers with Gurley gave Kellogg his first season at or above 0.500 displaying a constructive development in this system in 2011.
Kellogg continued to have success by bringing in Chaz Williams, Maxie Esho, and Cady Lalanne for the 2011-12 season. UMass would go on to complete fifth within the convention with Williams changing into a star for the workforce after having sat out the yr prior. The Minutemen would go forward and earn Kellogg’s first postseason look by making it to the NIT semifinals.
Kellogg stored bringing in gifted gamers every offseason to match the workforce he had. Trey Davis and Tyler Bergantino have been the most recent freshmen that have been introduced in. Whereas they didn’t make a major affect of their first season with the Minutemen, they might turn into contributors in a technique or one other of their time with UMass.
A Williams-led workforce with Kellogg teaching introduced them again to the NIT the place they might get eradicated at dwelling by Stony Brook within the first spherical. The Minutemen picked up the place they left off for the 2013-14 season, and went on to win ten-straight video games to begin the season out.
Williams, Lalanne, and Sampson Carter have been the main scorers of the squad, they usually helped get the workforce within the AP High 25 for the primary time for the reason that 1998-99 season. Trying even farther down the bench you had gamers contributing within the scoring column right through. UMass completed the season at 24-9 and 10-6 in an excellent aggressive Atlantic 10 Convention.
The 2013-14 season within the Atlantic 10 had some of the stacked leagues on the market. With how sturdy the convention was throughout that season UMass discovered themselves heading to the NCAA Match for the primary time since 1998, with 5 different groups within the convention. The Minutemen would make an early first-round exit to Tennessee, ending the careers of Williams, Putney, and Sampson Carter of their time with UMass.
After the NCAA look in 2014, the Minutemen haven’t made it again to a postseason match. Kellogg was let go after the 2016-17 season after the ultimate two seasons of his time at UMass ended under 0.500. The Minutemen have been then set to rent Pat Kelsey because the substitute, however moments earlier than his introductory press convention, Kelsey backed out of the place and determined to return to Winthrop, the place he was teaching at the moment.
UMass then went on to rent Matt McCall as Kellogg’s substitute. McCall had Luwane Pipkins, CJ Anderson, and Rashaan Holloway from Kellogg whom he paired with Carl Pierre. Pipkins, Anderson, and Pierre grew to become a strong trio within the backcourt that helped McCall get some scoring.
By McCall’s third season, he introduced in TJ Weeks (son of Tyrone Weeks), Tre Mitchell, and Sean East II as part of a stacked freshman class. Pierre, Mitchell, and East have been dominant in trying to get this system again the place it was with Mitchell incomes himself A-10 Rookie of the 12 months honors. Weeks Jr., Pierre, and Mitchell grew to become leaders for UMass through the 2020-21 season with the addition of Noah Fernandes. The bubble COVID-19 season was McCall’s lone season above 0.500 (8-7) with how few video games have been performed as a result of having to quarantine with outbreaks and shut contacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mitchell and Pierre each transferred out after that season, and McCall’s workforce fell flat and he noticed himself fired earlier than the top of the 2021-22 season. Outdoors of the 2020-21 season, McCall didn’t have a season above 0.500 with UMass.
Bringing in Frank Martin to attempt to appropriate the ship in Amherst was the subsequent step for the Minutemen. Martin recruited Matt Cross and Rahsool Diggins out of the portal and recruited RJ Luis and Keon Thompson as freshmen to assist construct this system.
Coach Martin retained Fernandes and Weeks Jr. to assist as beginning blocks for his first season as the pinnacle coach of the Minutemen. UMass would find yourself ending on the backside of the convention in his first season, however issues would flip round for the Minutemen.
Cross, Diggins, and Thompson labored laborious to get higher within the offseason, and Coach Martin introduced in Josh Cohen from St. Francis (PA) and Daniel Hankins-Sanford from South Carolina from the portal to assist the workforce develop. Martin additionally introduced in eight freshmen to replenish the depth. Jaylen Curry, Jayden Ndjigue, and Robert Davis Jr. have been a number of the huge abilities that received the squad going.
Cross and Cohen grew to become a double-threat within the publish on offense, Diggins improved considerably from his first season at UMass, Thompson grew into taking part in the purpose guard position and helped the workforce in scoring, and Ndjigue offered the younger spark and was utilized in each class there was on the court docket to assist the workforce.
These 5 gifted gamers with the sturdy bench that Coach Martin constructed up led UMass to their first 20-win season since 2013-14, and first top-4 end since 2007-08. The Minutemen had nice momentum heading into the match with a double-bye, however simply didn’t get off to a very good begin and misplaced within the quarterfinals to A-10 Match runners-up VCU.
The 2023-24 workforce had 4 gamers obtain all-conference awards. Cross and Cohen have been named to the primary workforce, Curry was named to the rookie workforce, and Diggins was named Co-Most Improved Participant of the 12 months.
The switch portal took nice expertise from UMass as Davis Jr., Cohen, Thompson, and Cross all entered the portal with another teammates following behind them. Martin then needed to go and construct the roster from the freshmen he had coming in and the gamers who stayed.
Early on within the offseason, the workforce had given glimmers of hope of remaining in direction of the highest of the convention. After waiting for a very good portion of the non-conference, these requirements have been lowered by longtime followers.
By the point convention play hit UMass hit their stride and Diggins received scorching with having a number of 30+ level video games together with setting this system file for many factors scored in a single sport (46 factors at Fordham [3OT] on January 15, 2025). Curry, Hankins-Sanford, and Daniel Rivera all have been huge contributors to getting again on observe.
Accidents and the abdomen bug then grew to become an element for the Minutemen in mid to late February which led to an Eleventh-place end within the last season with the Atlantic 10. UMass would go on to lose within the first spherical to La Salle to finish their tenure within the Atlantic 10.
The switch portal this offseason struck once more taking 11 scholarship gamers and a walk-on. UMass was capable of retain solely Ndjigue, Hankins-Sanford, and Luka Damjanac, however Coach Martin has been working laborious to rebuild his roster with incoming freshmen, and switch college students from the entire completely different ranges (Division 1, Division 2, and Junior Schools). Curry moved as much as a Energy 4 workforce after his breakout season, and the remainder of the gamers within the portal have discovered houses which can be a transfer down or are nonetheless out trying to find a brand new dwelling.
Whereas the lads’s basketball workforce had such nice success within the Nineteen Nineties and once more in 2012-14, the Atlantic 10 has shifted enormously since each of these eras. Shifting to the MAC goes to be a step down for this system, however it is likely to be what is required to get UMass again to the place it was even whether it is in a weaker males’s basketball convention. MACtion is right here for the Minutemen of Massachusetts and are available November they higher be able to embrace this huge change for the higher.
My Hopes for the Minutemen and Minutewomen Applications within the MAC:
The transfer to the MAC is a small step down for each groups, however each groups ought to slot in with no difficulty. If Coach Leflar’s workforce picks up proper the place they have been final season, they might be within the prime half of the convention. Coach Leflar was capable of retain A-10 Rookie of the 12 months in McKayle, and a overwhelming majority of his workforce that went to the WNIT. If McKayle continues to develop and Olbrys and Odenigbo do as nicely that may assist the Minutewomen within the MAC.
The Minutewomen have the chance to fly below the radar as a number of the groups within the MAC have no idea what to anticipate from UMass. This workforce will doubtless end inside the top-8 which can allow them to contend for the MAC convention match title.
The Minutemen are a little bit more durable to learn into with so many new gamers coming into into this system for the upcoming season. If Hankins-Sanford, Ndjigue, and Damjanac proceed to develop as they’ve over their time with UMass, then we might see a powerful workforce. Incoming gamers for the lads’s basketball workforce might assist to spice up their possibilities of the top-8 within the convention. In the event that they don’t make it into the top-8, then there’s a good likelihood that UMass followers shall be dissatisfied within the workforce.
Having seen each the Minutemen and Minutewomen play within the A-10 for all of my life, this transfer to the MAC was shocking and has had me reminiscing on the good historical past of each packages at UMass. The adjustment for followers from the A-10 to the MAC will take a while, however we’ll study quite a bit about how the entire groups within the MAC perform over the subsequent few years.
Whereas leaving the A-10 is hard for folks to nonetheless totally embrace, UMass goes out on their very own word to move over to the MAC. The transfer to the MAC shall be a change for followers and the gamers, however we’ll get used to the brand new convention over time.
As I grew up a lifelong fan of UMass, all I’ve ever identified is the Atlantic 10 convention. This variation goes to be powerful to regulate to, however this might result in a pleasant shiny future of creating extra NCAA Tournaments for each the Minutemen and Minutewomen in basketball. Whereas that is an finish of an period for UMass within the A-10, and for me masking them for the final 3 years for A10 Discuss, some issues should come to an finish. As Frank Sinatra has stated “I Did it My Manner,” and I might not change my time masking these two great groups.
Featured Pictures: Chris Tucci, UMass Athletics
