UMass Basketball: Tre Mitchell’s departure a big blow for Minutemen

UMass Basketball star center Tre Mitchell will enter his name into the NCAA transfer portal via his Twitter after two seasons in the program.

He tweeted Monday, “After extensive thought and conversations with family I’ve decided that at this juncture I’m going to weigh every option and have entered my name into the transfer portal.”

The 6-foot-9 sophomore averaged 18.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.2 assists and was named to the Atlantic 10 First Team this past season.

He led the Minutemen with three 30-point games this past season as they finished 8-7 on the season. UMass’s season would come to an end with an 86-72 loss to Saint Louis in the A-10 quarterfinals.

Mitchell recorded 31 points and 11 rebounds at the start of the season in a win against the Northeastern Huskies, and 37 points against the La Salle Explorers.

He was the 2019-20 Atlantic Rookie of the Year and averaged 17.7 points and 7.2 rebounds as a freshman.

He was ranked No. 74 in the ESPN 100 for the Class of 2019. Mitchell was also the highest-ranked recruit during the Matt McCall era.

With Mitchell’s departure, the Minutemen frontcourt will look very different. Center Mark Gasperini will most likely graduate this spring which will leave UMass with three big men going into next season. The Minutemen will have Ronnie DeGray III, Dyondre Dominguez, and Dibaji Walker. Ronnie DeGray III had a big freshman year averaging 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game and he will have big shoes to fill next season.

Mitchell is not the only one expected to transfer out of the program. A couple more names were tossed out as players who could potentially join Mitchell in the transfer portal, however, nothing is confirmed just yet.

Although the Minutemen will most likely go through a rebuild, their plans to keep Matt McCall as their head coach through the 2021-22 season will remain the same.