• Season: 2025-26
• Date: Saturday, December 20, 2025
• Opponent: Kent State
• Start Time: 2:00 PM ET
• Site: Mullins Center
• Event: MAC game, UM's first as a MAC member
• Television: none
• Stream: ESPN+
• Radio: WEEI 105.5 FM, WCRN 830 AM, Varsity (stream)
• Spread: UMass -1¹⁾
• UM personnel report: Josh Engel was not dressed, no official report as to why.

UM's first league-play game with the MAC went down with a loss.

• Result: Kent State 69, UMass 59
• Attendance: 3104

• Game notes: UM, KSU
• Daily Hampshire Gazette: Minutemen set to face top MAC team Kent State in conference opener
• Minuteman Command: UMass To Open MAC Play
• sMACk Talk: Chasing the Crown: MAC Men’s Basketball Enters League Play
• sMACk Talk: Learning the League: UMass Men’s Basketball Prepares for its Mid-American Challenge

See the UMassHoops.com Message Board thread for pre-game and post-game discussion.

• UM: Massachusetts Basketball Falls To Kent State In MAC Opener
• KSU: Golden Flashes Start 1-0 in the MAC With 69-59 Victory at UMass
• Daily Hampshire Gazette: Minutemen fall to Kent State 69-59 in first Mid-American Conference game
• MassLive: UMass men’s basketball falters against Kent State
• Mass. Daily Collegian: UMass falls flat in MAC opener to Kent State
• MDC: UMass can’t create shots in conference loss
• sMACk Talk: Gillespie Records Double-Double in First Win in MAC Play
• Minutemen Command: UMass Drops MAC Opener

• Photo gallery
• Post-game pressers: Ndjigue and Parker, Frank
• Video clips: Ndjigue finds Clerc wide open, Ball movement finds Parker for 3, another angle of Parker's 3, Wimbley connects from deep, Banks connects after being swarmed on D, Parker to DHS for the flush
• Video: Highlight pack from ESPN

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