UMass Basketball: Minutemen sign 4-star forward Tafara Gapare for this season
The recruiting trail is hot. UMass Basketball and Coach Martin made another big splash on Wednesday with the addition of four-star forward Tafara Gapare.
The New Zealand native attended the NBA Global Academy and played at Scots College in Wellington before transitioning to the United States. He most recently played at South Kent School in Connecticut.
The 6-foot-10 forward was ranked the 42nd best prospect in the nation by 247Sports.com. The site also had Gapare as the No.1 prospect in Connecticut and the No. 10 power forward in the Class of 2023.
He originally committed to DePaul over the likes of Arizona State and UConn in June. Gapare then de-committed from the Blue Demons which left the front door open for Coach Martin and UMass to swoop in with an offer.
Tafara Gapare announced that he will reclassify and immediately join the Minutemen this Fall for the 2022-23 season. He becomes the program’s first four-star recruit since Tre Mitchell back in 2019.
Gapare joins Keon Thompson and RJ Luis in Umass’ Class of 2022. Coach Frank Martin has now added nine players since joining the program in March.
“Recruiting high-level players to UMass is something that I’ve been excited about from the day I got hired,” Martin said.
The University of Massachusetts announced the hiring of Coach Martin back on March 25th after ten seasons with South Carolina, where he led the Gamecocks to their first NCAA Final Four in program history back in 2017. He brings fifteen years of head coaching experience at the collegiate level to Amherst.
Massachusetts has also brought in talent by way of the NCAA transfer portal this offseason. The Minutemen have added Louisville forward Matt Cross, UConn guard Rahsool Diggins, South Carolina forward Wildens Leveque, Boston College forward Gianni Thompson, and South Carolina forward Ta’Quan Woodley to its roster. The additions this offseason make the future look very bright for this program.
Next. Offseason grades for each A-10 team. dark
The Minutemen will open up next season at the Mullins Center against the Central Connecticut Blue Devils on November 7th. We can expect UMass led by first-year head coach Frank Martin to make some noise in the Atlantic 10 Conference come this Fall.