Atlantic 10 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 17: Hasahn French #11 of the Saint Louis Billikens celebrates a basket against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies during their Atlantic 10 basketball tournament Championship game at Barclays Center on March 17, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /

9 of 15

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 26: Tre Mitchell #33 of the Massachusetts Minutemen (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

8. UMass Minutemen

The Minutemen got off to a slow start in conference play last season, however, they finished the year showing a lot of hope and promise for the future. UMass was playing solid under the leadership of Tre Mitchell, who had one of the best rookie campaigns in the Atlantic 10 (20.4 points, 8.0 rebounds per game in A10 play).

This season Mitchell will be without Sean East, Samba Diallo, and Keon Clergeot, however, just like Davidson there is a lot of young talent on this team. The biggest player to note is TJ Weeks who is poised for a breakout season and was shooting threes at a 49 percent while putting up 14.7 points per game prior to being sidelined. Weeks will be huge for this rotation after playing just 10 games and then red-shirting due to a surgical procedure.

Coach Matt McCall has a lot of talented secondary pieces to work with including, Carl Pierre, Kolton Mitchell, and John Buggs III. The Minutemen also will work Preston Santos into the rotation who emerged into one of the most efficient freshmen last season. Mark Gasperini, grad-transfer big, averaged 10 points and 5 rebounds per game during his first three seasons at American and is a player to look out for. This incoming class of freshmen is among the conference’s best (4 3-star players according to 247Sports).

UMass won’t be up on top of the conference this season but, they are certainly not far off. The Minutemen have a young team to work with and the future is very bright for them. The young depth shows on this team which will benefit them in the long run. We can expect Tre Mitchell to continue his successful freshman campaign into this season and may even be a serious candidate for Atlantic 10 Player of the Year.

Home/Atlantic 10