Atlantic 10 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season

11. UMass Minutemen

2022-23 season record: 15-16 (6-12)

A promising start last season ended up with a disastrous finish for the program, which led to a ton of changes. A number of key players transferred out in the offseason, including RJ Luis, Noah Fernandes, Tafara Gapare, and Dyondre Dominguez. The one freshman UMass was able to keep was Keon Thompson, who is set to run the offense after producing 5.8 ppg and 2.7 apg.

Rahsool Diggins is the only other returning guard on the roster and after a limited role, is set to have much more minutes. Among the many newcomers is Jaylen Curry, a four-star freshman standout newcomer who could very well start in the backcourt early on.

The key to any hope the Minutemen will have is in its frontcourt. Matt Cross averaged 12.2 ppg and 6.3 rpg while shooting over 35% from deep and will be a focal point of the offense. Joining him is Josh Cohen, a 6’11 big man from Saint Francis (PA) who was Co-NEC Player of the Year last season, averaging 21.8 ppg and 8.3 rpg. Cohen had multiple 40+ point games and is an elite post-scorer but how his game (both ways) translates from the NEC to Atlantic 10 Basketball is the question.

UMass will easily be the youngest team in the conference, with its entire bench likely being true freshmen. There’s going to be a lot of growing pains for this group but if this core can stick around, brighter days will be ahead. But this year, it’s a major question as to how many legit pieces they have that can compete outside of Cross.