Game 8, 2025-26: Harvard (12/3)

[Juice Stand]

Rant: I don't know why, but Frank has a bug up his ass for Bettiol. Yes, he has a turnover problem and he's not perfect defensively, but no one on this team is. We don't have any perfect players. In the postgame show, Frank said Leo had a terrible game. Ok bud, he had 18 points on 7-10 shooting and a perfect 4-4 at the line. Without that, your team would have been blown out by a bunch of bookworms. Criticize him/them in private in the locker room, but it's like Frank has no clue how hard it is to play and win. It's easy to sit on the bench and scream obscenities. Leo's woring his ass off. They won the game, and he was a big reason why.

Did you notice the play in the 2nd half where Leo was diving after a loose ball near the UMass bench before a timeout and Frank ran over and was screaming in his face as he was on the floor?

Team wins and if you look at them you'd think they lost by 50. There's no joy in playing the game. Could be a reason no one goes to games

Yup, I immediately turned to the friend I was at the game with and commented on that. If I remember correctly, it was a bad pass by Danny that Leo couldn't handle and he scraped and clawed to try to save it. Praise the kid for his hustle and help him up off the floor, but don't do whatever that was. Maybe their lack of energy in that half was because when they show hustle they get shit on.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

It's a win and I will take it - but Meh......


I had not noticed until last night but Carabucci carries the ball A LOT especially when he is in half court set when he is standing still waiting for things to start moving....

He's not the only one. It's amazing that players of recent eras can't dribble the ball. Maybe more amazing that referees allow it.


I like wins, but 2nd half struggles are going to be the death of this team.

[eldonabe]

It's a win and I will take it - but Meh......


I had not noticed until last night but Carabucci carries the ball A LOT especially when he is in half court set when he is standing still waiting for things to start moving....

He's not the only one. It's amazing that players of recent eras can't dribble the ball. Maybe more amazing that referees allow it.


I like wins, but 2nd half struggles are going to be the death of this team.

I wonder what Bamford thinks of Frank's courtside antics? I had to work late so I only watched on TV last night and I saw RB down at the end of the bench in a few clips so he could see that first hand.

Attendance looked pretty miserable - hard to guess without being able to see the upper half of the seats, but I am guessing no more than 2,500?

[fenway617]

Attendance looked pretty miserable - hard to guess without being able to see the upper half of the seats, but I am guessing no more than 2,500?

2,216 attendance.

[Juice Stand]

I've talked about Parker/Carbuccia recently and have been critical of Frank's decision making with them. I've also said I don't disagree with his decision to bring Parker off the bench because it can help lift that second unit that desperately needs someone, anyone, to step up. I was glad to hear his comments on why Parker is coming off the bench in his presser last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIGWIn9VEko

[69MG]

Danny is one of the worst free throw shooters on the team. In high school he shot free throws at 53%. It was indeed good to have Banks and Parker in at the end and to find a way to get the ball in their hands.

I need to correct my stats on Danny. I was looking at last year, not his whole HS career. He was at 58% from the line in high school. He is at 33% from the line this year. He was also 25% from 3 in his HS career. I don't want him taking outside shots.

We only have 2 guys who I want at the line. Parker is at 100% (15/15) and Banks is at 85% (17/20). Next best is Leo at 67% (38/57) which isn't horrible for a center. We need DHS to pick it up (55%) as he has the 2nd most free throw attempts. Only Bettiol has more.

[bunkerhill87]

The fan turnout, especially students, is horrific. The marketing and outreach to build support for this team and any other team has been so bad. This in state rivalry game should have had a full compliment of students. The attempt to get them there with free pizza is laughable. Under Bamford attendance has dwindled. I am thankful Pat and the collective bought up and are distributing tickets to the UMass BC game next week. If they hadn’t, that game likely would be less attended than tonight. Nothing Bamford has done has attracted fans. Quite the opposite. Yes, winning would cure a lot. There are 23,000 undergrads at UMass. They had about 200 in attendance tonight. Bamford needs to go away.

Totally agree here. our student attendance sucks and to be honest i hate the comment that if we win they will come. Has anyone been at another venue to see what they may do? i do frequent Syracuse games and on the other half of the dome is a few activities for kids ( hoops set up etc) and plenty of space to hang eat and drink. not sure how that relates to students. as mentioned on the football page and game day maybe do some half time stuff for the students maybe give them 1 college credit for attending games w/a some level of commitment. at st bona the dorms would have their own t shirts to create a competition amongst the kids. have a half time competition between dorm areas. I have no clue to be honest but its embarrassing on tv. maybe just sell lower bowl. the mullins needs to be reconfigured . have umass house bands play before or at half time . concession pkgs for students etc etc etc

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I wonder what Bamford thinks of Frank's courtside antics? I had to work late so I only watched on TV last night and I saw RB down at the end of the bench in a few clips so he could see that first hand.

Attendance looked pretty miserable - hard to guess without being able to see the upper half of the seats, but I am guessing no more than 2,500?

Considering he canned the only NCAA tournament coach we've had since Bruiser and didn't properly vet Kelsey, would we be surprised if he didn't know about Frank's courtside antics upon bringing him in?

And if he doesn't think positively about Frank's courtside antics, there's no way he'll ever say that outloud. Would be just another knock against him.



And I say all of this with this disclaimer: I don't really have any problem with the "courtside antics"... but I do wish more winning came with them.

[69MG]

I'm not sure any of us have the answer for getting students to the games. Winning would help, but we need more than that. I like the idea that Bona has about dorms, etc. It's probably been tried, but maybe we need to find a way to recruit a couple of "ambassadors" in each dorm to try to drum up support with a goal of getting 50 students per dorm to attend.

I have no idea how far-fetched this idea is, but we have to try something. How many dorms are there?

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I'm not sure any of us have the answer for getting students to the games. Winning would help, but we need more than that. I like the idea that Bona has about dorms, etc. It's probably been tried, but maybe we need to find a way to recruit a couple of "ambassadors" in each dorm to try to drum up support with a goal of getting 50 students per dorm to attend.

I have no idea how far-fetched this idea is, but we have to try something. How many dorms are there?

51 residence halls/dorms.

14k on campus students, 25kish total undergrad enrollment, 9kish Amherst residents (non students), and 162kish people in Hampshire County. Nevermind only being 2 hours away from Boston (not considering traffic, I know...).

The theme here is that the athletic department is terrible at fan engagement... and that's not a shot at the current Admin, that goes back decades.

[debache]

When Cal started here our team was not great, but he would be on campus talking to students to get them excited to go to the games. Also the local TV and radio sports team would have him on all the time promoting the team, he had the players promoting the team on campus. The cage was basically full of students, by the time the Mullins opened the brand sold itself. I honestly think the team needs to go back to basic promoting to get the students and the people back in the Mullins Center.
I do understand that Cal is the ultimate salesman, he could sell shit on a shingle.

[Floyd]

^ well said

Cal was like going over to that friend's house that always welcomed you and had fun stuff going on. Always wanted to hang out there

Frank is like going over that friends house where the parents always yell at you for making too much noise or mess up the place. Not a fun atmosphere

Not sure who it was that said it, but someone said they saw McCall somewhere & tried to talk to him and his response was something of the order that he didn't care what the fans thought. Fans feed off the teams energy and its part of running the program

[eldonabe]

When Cal started here our team was not great, but he would be on campus talking to students to get them excited to go to the games. Also the local TV and radio sports team would have him on all the time promoting the team, he had the players promoting the team on campus. The cage was basically full of students, by the time the Mullins opened the brand sold itself. I honestly think the team needs to go back to basic promoting to get the students and the people back in the Mullins Center.
I do understand that Cal is the ultimate salesman, he could sell shit on a shingle.

Today's climate and culture is much different...... Cal did get the kids attention, but he backed it up by getting his players to play hard and improve/win.

Even in DK's tournament season they could not sell out the M (even with that 12-1 start)- they came close but as I recall that took most of the season to get there and St Louis game near the end of the season was the closest they got.



The only thing that is gonna bring in crowds right now is wins.... Frank needs to get this team winning and playing for something come February.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

When Cal started here our team was not great, but he would be on campus talking to students to get them excited to go to the games. Also the local TV and radio sports team would have him on all the time promoting the team, he had the players promoting the team on campus. The cage was basically full of students, by the time the Mullins opened the brand sold itself. I honestly think the team needs to go back to basic promoting to get the students and the people back in the Mullins Center.
I do understand that Cal is the ultimate salesman, he could sell shit on a shingle.

Today's climate and culture is much different...... Cal did get the kids attention, but he backed it up by getting his players to play hard and improve/win.

Even in DK's tournament season they could not sell out the M (even with that 12-1 start)- they came close but as I recall that took most of the season to get there and St Louis game near the end of the season was the closest they got.



The only thing that is gonna bring in crowds right now is wins.... Frank needs to get this team winning and playing for something come February.

Off the top, PC, VCU and St. Louis were all sellouts that season.


EDIT: Those are the only 3 I could confirm via the UMass Athletics website. I don't recall any others that season, and none rang a bell looking over the home opponents.


I do not believe bball has had a sellout since that season, but I might be mistaken.


EDIT 2: A bit more digging, and looking through the 25-26 edition of the Bball record book, the SLU game in the 13-14 season was the last sellout.

From the last page:

Sellouts (9,493 capacity): 63 (last vs. Saint Louis, March 9, 2014)

https://umassathletics.com/documents/20 ... d_Book.pdf

[Quann]

I don’t think any of the coaches we’ve hired over the last 25 years realize they need to be as much a salesman of the program as much as they are coaches of the team. It’s probably exhausting but no one since Cal has sold the brand consistently. Every time we get a new coach they have the honeymoon period where they tour the state, hit up the Red Sox broadcast booth, etc but after the first few months you don’t really hear from them again. Frank was all over local tv and radio in Boston at the beginning but it’s been awhile since I’ve heard him on the local channels. You have to do everything in your power to sell this college basketball program in a pro sports dominated state.