UMass men’s and women’s basketball took on Atlantic 10 media day in Washington, D.C. on Monday as UMass prepares for its 49th and final season in the conference it helped charter.
The UMass men’s basketball team was voted to finish ninth in the preseason poll. They were picked 13th last season, but went 11-7 in the conference, good for the No. 4 seed and a double-bye in the A-10 Tournament. They lost their quarterfinal matchup to No. 5 VCU, the pick to win the conference this year.
The Minutemen were represented on the A-10 preseason all-conference teams for the third straight year as Rahsool Diggins made the third team after earning the Most Improved Player award last season. Matt Cross, now at SMU, was named to last year’s preseason third team and ended the season alongside teammate Josh Cohen as a First-Team All-Conference selection.
While Cross and Cohen are gone, Diggins leads a group of returning players, including sophomore guard Jaylen Curry, sophomore guard Jayden Ndjigue and junior forward Daniel Hankins-Sanford. The Minutemen added Daniel Rivera, Akil Watson, Shahid Muhammad and Malek Abdelgowad from the portal and signed freshmen Nate Guerengomba, Lewis Walker, Luka Damjanac and Amadou Doumbia.
“I think we’ve just got a great group of returning guys, and with the transfers we’ve brought in, I just think they mix well,” Diggins said on The Field of 68 podcast on Monday. “I think we’re just very deep, it’s not just one guy, I think it’s a few of us that can impact the game in a high way.”
While UMass was led by its two frontcourt all-conference picks last season, Diggins and Curry are expected to take on a larger load this year. Curry was named to the A-10 All-Rookie squad last year after playing in all 30 games and averaging 7.6 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists. He signed an NIL deal with The Massachusetts Collective after the season to stay in Amherst, and Martin has been struggling to contain his excitement about Curry all summer.
“He didn’t run away from being a backup his freshman year, he took it on,” Martin said Monday. “Rahsool has been unbelievable in helping Jaylen – Jaylen can really go. So we’ve got our two guards in place.”
The Minutemen start their season with an exhibition at Providence on Oct. 26 before opening it officially against New Hampshire on Nov. 4 at the Mullins Center. UMass opens its final Atlantic 10 conference slate on Dec. 31 at Saint Joseph’s.
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The Minutewomen were picked to finish 13th in the conference and will hope to rebound from a disastrous 2023-24 season in which they went 2-16 in the Atlantic 10 and 5-27 overall. Defending champs Richmond were picked to repeat.
In 2021, UMass won its first A-10 Tournament title and went to the NCAA Tournament for just the third time ever and first time in 24 years. In 2022, the Minutewomen won the program’s first A-10 regular season title and fell in overtime in the A-10 Championship. But head coach Troy Verdi left for Pitt and only three players returned. New head coach Mike Leflar lost 15 straight A-10 games from Jan. 6 to Feb. 24.
Fifth-year guard Stefanie Kulezsa was one of those returners and was one of three players to average between 11.2 and 11.6 points per game for the Minutewomen last year. Six teammates from last year’s squad are back, but sophomore center Chinenye Odenigbo (5.5 ppg) is the only one who scored more than five points per game in 2023.
The Minutewomen open their season with a home exhibition against Assumption on Oct. 28 before hitting the road for their season opener against Harvard on Nov. 4. Their home opener is Nov. 7, also against New Hampshire, and their conference opener is Dec. 29 at home against Fordham.
