UMass Basketball’s roster for this upcoming season is perhaps the deepest it has been since the Minutemen last made the NCAA Tournament in 2014.
There are a lot of new and talented players in Amherst this season, and beyond the play of returning stars Noah Fernandes and TJ Weeks, it can be tough to project the 2022-23 Minutemen from the standpoints of both their play style and their rotational composition.
Frank Martin has made some major upgrades to the roster since he made the trip up from South Carolina, but questions remain about who will shoulder the lion’s share of the work at certain positions, and, at those positions with more “obvious” (though that feels like a strong word) starters, what the hierarchy below them on the depth chart will look like.
This article is my attempt to break down each positional group and offer what I view as the pecking order at 100% health. I haven’t been inside the gym with the team, but beyond the pure ability of the players, I considered things like what past Frank Martin teams have looked like (size, experience, identity), as well as the tidbits we’re hearing from Summer and Fall practice as far as players who have made strides, health news, etc.
My ultimate goal was to predict a possible starting lineup, as well as a 9-man rotation (not that the rotation will be limited to 9, but to see: if it had to be trimmed that low, how would that be done?), so that’s what I have concluded with on the final slide.