The Atlantic 10 is previewing each men's basketball team ahead of the 2023-24 season with veteran college basketball writer Patrick Stevens.
MASSACHUSETTS
No coach is ever going to turn down the chance to take a summer trip, and Massachusetts’ Frank Martin was grateful there was an impetus from his administration to set up the Minutemen’s three-game schedule in Puerto Rico in August.
But some of those trips are timed better than others. And Massachusetts, which has seven freshmen in the fold and only three scholarship players back from Martin’s first season, found the extra time together especially useful.
“The moment that we’re in right now, where a majority of us have a lot of first-year guys, I thought it was awesome for us to be able to practice,” Martin said. “There’s a difference of being in a gym with someone for two hours a week and actually being on the court for two and a half hours for 10 days in the middle of the summer. You learn a lot about your players when you’re around them in a competitive environment.”
The head start also represented an opportunity for senior forward Matt Cross to start building off a solid year that was slowed late by injury and illness. Still, Cross revived his career after stops at Miami and Louisville and got a sense of how much better the Minutemen could be this year.
“We have a lot of guys who have never played a college game,” Cross said. “Going over there and playing against pros was just a good start for guys to know what they can and cannot do and what’s the difference at this level. … It already feels like we’ve done so much together.”
There’s also an upshot for Martin, a veteran coach who took Kansas State to an Elite Eight and South Carolina to a Final Four. There are foundational pieces --- Cross most notably --- and nuances to the UMass job that Martin has a better sense of after going through his first season in Amherst.
“I have guys like him that are so much better at this point now than they were a year ago,” Martin said. “Not just physically, but also I understand them better. Sometimes, we forget as coaches we’re not analytic computers. We manage people, not games or machines.”
A look at the Minutemen:
Coach: Frank Martin, second season at Massachusetts, 15-16 with the Minutemen and 303-217 overall in 16 seasons
Last year: The Minutemen were chugging along in the middle of the A-10 pack until late January, when Matt Cross was hospitalized for pneumonia. Soon after he returned in February, he suffered a knee injury that cost him three games. Massachusetts lost eight of its last 10 --- including a 71-38 stumble to Richmond in the first round of the conference tournament --- to finish 15-16 overall and 6-12 in the league.
They’ll miss: Martin’s second roster in Amherst looks plenty different from his first, with only three players back from that team’s rotation. Among the departures is guard Noah Fernandes (13.4 ppg), who was limited to 11 games last season, and RJ Luis (11.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg). The Minutemen saw five of their top six scorers exit the program.
Impact returners: Martin is bullish on Cross (12.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg), who given his quality play and Massachusetts’ 4-5 start to conference play appeared headed for a spot on one of the all-conference teams before illness and injury interceded.
“He was on a roll --- he was playing at a high, high level,” Martin said. “It wasn’t meant to be for him to finish the season individually the way he was playing. Hopefully, we can get him started on the right foot this year and go from there.”
The Minutemen will also have 6-0 sophomore Keon Thompson (5.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 2.7 apg) and 6-2 junior Rahsool Diggins (4.7 ppg, 1.3 rpg) back, both with an excellent understanding of what Martin is looking for after playing in his system for a year.
“Me, Keon and Rahsool, we’ve already played together for a year, lived together and been around Frank and the coaching staff, so we already know what to expect,” Cross said.
Newcomers of note: One of the best transfer arrivals in the entire Atlantic 10 is forward Josh Cohen, who averaged 21.8 pints and 8.3 rebounds while winning the Northeast Conference’s player of the year nod at Saint Francis (Pa.).
“His recruitment was us, Florida, Iowa,” Martin said. “That’s the kind of respect he commanded. He picked UMass and all the sudden, he’s not good enough. I get a kick out of how he went from one of the hottest commodities in the transfer market [to that] --- and a self-made player of the year. Good luck with that one. I know what it takes to be a player of the year. I don’t care what league you play in. That’s hard.”
In addition to leadership, Cohen is also an ace finisher, making 58.5 percent from the floor. He dropped 30 points on Miami, a Final Four team, and turned in a pair of 40-point showings.
“The one thing we struggled at last year was converting 2-point baskets in the paint,” Martin said. “We were amongst the worst in the country at that, and Josh is really good at that. Josh shoots a high number of free throws and shoots a high percentage from that area. … I think he’s going to give us an anchor to help Matt a lot.”
Reasons to be optimistic: The head start helps, which might allow Massachusetts to coax a little extra production out of a large freshman class. But it’s the presence of Cross and Cohen who will give the Minutemen a chance to deploy one of the A-10’s best frontcourts. Having reliable scorers at the four and the five should give less tested players a safety net to work alongside as they develop.
X factor: Cross and Cohen are the most experienced players on the roster, but Thompson and Diggins are both relatively seasoned compared to their teammates. Given their work in Martin’s system last year, they’ll be leaned upon heavily --- especially early on --- to keep the Minutemen on track in the backcourt.
Circle the date: It’s a good year to be part of the Minutemen’s traveling party. After spending a week in Puerto Rico in August, Massachusetts is part of the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii from Dec. 21-24. Closer to home, there are the usual two games against New England rival Rhode Island during conference play --- Jan. 13 in Kingston and Feb. 11 at home.
Bottom line: Assuming Cross and Cohen stay healthy, Massachusetts will lean heavily on its frontcourt as the program continues to mature in Martin’s second season. If the freshman class can establish itself early and both Diggins and Thompson take steps forward, the Minutemen could climb into the middle of the A-10 pack.
DAVIDSON
Matt McKillop set to work after his first season as Davidson’s coach to implement some tweaks he believed his program needed after a .500 season.
Not wholesale changes, perhaps, but enough that could yield significant differences for the Wildcats.
And it starts with Davidson’s approach on defense, which simply was not stingy enough (or effective enough at denying second chances) to allow the Wildcats to move into Atlantic 10 contention.
“We emphasized those things last year. I just think we have a different mentality, a different attitude, collectively but also with some of the individuals that have joined our program,” McKillop said. “When you have a few guys who demonstrate that attitude, it allows others to kind of understand ‘OK, I can do this as well.’ I think the mentality has completely shifted in terms of our defensive aggression.”
A key figure for this year’s defense --- and the offense, as well --- is senior guard Grant Huffman. He was voted to the A-10’s preseason all-defensive team.
“I think us putting more emphasis on our defense and us having the right personnel with new players, I think we’ll be able to have a better defensive rate than we had this past season,” Huffman said.
At a program like Davidson, there has long been both stability and success, which meant an on-court overhaul wasn’t necessary. Bob McKillop led the Wildcats to 21 consecutive seasons of .500 or better records (with nine NCAA tournament berths in that span) before giving way to his son in June 2022.
Matt McKillop had a part in much of that success, first as a player and later as an assistant coach. But he sees a lot to like about his current roster, and its collective ability to boost Davidson back toward the top of the conference.
“We’re going to do some things differently this year that we’ve never done at Davidson, but I think it’s because we have the players who have the attitude to take those things that we emphasize and run with them,” McKillop said.
A look at the Wildcats:
Coach: Matt McKillop, second season at Davidson, 16-16 with the Wildcats.
Last year: The Wildcats’ season was basically split into three parts. There was a 6-1 start, followed by a 5-13 stretch that saw Davidson go 0-8 in games decided by four points or less. But after falling a season-high three games under .500, the Wildcats were one of the A-10’s top teams in the closing stretch, winning five out of six before falling as the No. 8 seed to eventual tournament champion VCU in the league quarterfinals.
They’ll miss: A pair of all-conference players graduated. Second teamer Foster Loyer (16.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.5 apg) and third teamer Sam Mennenga (15.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg) were the only two Wildcats to average in double figures last season, meaning Davidson will be asking even more of its returning regulars from a year ago.
Impact returners: Senior Grant Huffman (9.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 3.6 apg) has experience as a primary ballhandler from part of last season, and he’s the only one of Davidson’s top four scorers to remain in the fold after last season.
Another holdover to keep an eye on as the Wildcats develop is 6-10 senior David Skogman (7.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg), whose .368 3-point percentage was the best on the team among players with more than 10 attempts. He came off the bench in all 32 games last season.
Newcomers of note: A pair of transfers with high-major experience will make their Davidson debuts this season. Redshirt sophomore guard Angelo Brizzi, who averaged 2.0 points and 1.9 rebounds in nine games early last season for Villanova, arrived in the middle of last season.
Jarvis Moss, a 6-foot-4 junior, posted 1.8 points a game for Stanford last season while shooting 42.9 percent from 3-point range.
“I think they’re both going to be incredibly impactful,” McKillop said. “They’re both perfect fits for Davidson College, the school and the academics and the way we want to play basketball. They both can really shoot it. … Their talent is surely there, and we will certainly rely upon them this year.”
Reasons to be optimistic: McKillop is clear-eyed about the issues that contributed to last year’s struggles. One thing that stands out in the analytics is a 3.6 block percentage according to KenPom.com --- the lowest in the country last season.
That helped opponents shoot 51.5 percent from 2-point range, the most Davidson has struggled on that front in seven seasons. But it also focused the Wildcats in the offseason to bolster a weakness.
“We’ve probably done more paint protection drills than the history of basketball has seen,” McKillop said. “But it’s also because we have guys who have bought into doing that in June and July. That's what makes me believe that we’re going to be much better at it.”
X factor: Outside shooting. The Wildcats routinely shoot well above 35 percent from 3-point range, but that was another shortcoming last year. Davidson managed just 32.5 percent from the perimeter in 2022-23, which ranked it 265
th in the country.
Davidson’s additions should help on this front, and while there’s no guarantee the Wildcats rebound to their usual slick shooting, it’s an area that was prioritized and needs to be better.
Circle the date: The Wildcats get a major test in the first week of the season when they face Maryland in the Asheville Championship on Nov. 10, with a meeting with Clemson or UAB two days later. Another nonconference highlight is a Nov. 24 trip to Saint Mary’s.
Bottom line: McKillop knows better than just about anyone other than his dad when a Davidson team looks right. His optimism about this group is noteworthy. Still, the reality is the Wildcats need several newcomers to contribute right away. If Davidson can grow up in a hurry, it can also shoot up the standings.