Atlantic 10 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2022-23 season

6. UMass Minutemen

With Frank Martin taking over for Matt McCall after the latter’s five seasons at the helm, the Minutemen are going to have a completely different look from what we’ve become used to, both in a sense of the roster and in a sense of the team’s identity. It might take some time to get the ball rolling, as is often the case in year one of a new regime, but this roster is flat-out brimming with talent. Noah Fernandes and TJ Weeks are the only rotational players still in place from last season, but UMass might have had the best offseason in the league as far as both transfer portal and Freshman acquisitions.

The most notable transfers making their UMass debut are 6’5″ wing Matt Cross (Louisville), a shooter who averaged 5.8 points and 3.9 boards last season; and Wildens Leveque, a Senior big man who followed Martin up from South Carolina after putting up 6.6 points and 4.7 boards for a solid Gamecock squad.

Beyond the transfers, and there are certainly a few others (eg. UConn-transfer and former 4-star recruit Rahsool Diggins) to keep an eye on, the Minutemen also brought in the second-best recruiting class in the A10, which includes the league’s highest-rated commit in 6’9” wing Tafara Gapare (#66 in the class). RJ Luis might see limited time with a potential log jam building up on the wings, but both he and 6’1″ PG Keon Thompson are capable of becoming vital pieces on any given night.

This team isn’t elite at any one position (with perhaps the exception of PG if Noah Fernandes picks up where he left off at the end of last year), but they are above average across the board and will be able to play with an extra level of intensity due to their ten or eleven man rotation. UMass is probably a year away from being in the mix for an NCAA Tourney bid, but they can certainly be an exciting sleeper pick in Brooklyn.