At the end of the season, UMass is leaving the Atlantic 10 for the Mid-American Athletic Conference. It’s a surprising move, considering the A-10 is a top-10 basketball conference, and the MAC isn’t top 20. It’s clearly a decision motivated by football, even though UMass football was already in the MAC from 2012 to 2015 and left after a 7-25 conference record.
Former Kansas State and South Carolina head coach Frank Martin is in his third season at the helm for the Minutemen. In those three seasons, the Minutemen have a 44-38 record, including a 20-win season last year. This season, UMass is 9-11 with a 4-3 record in A-10 play. They have won three in a row and have wins over Dayton (14-6) and George Washington (14-6) this season.
When Martin played Rhode Island a year ago, he expressed his love for the regional rivalry game. Unless the two schools agree to an annual non-conference match, Martin and the fans will likely not see this game again anytime soon. In his time at UMass, Martin beat Rhode Island to the tune of a 3-1 record and averaged a margin of victory of eight points.
This season, the Minutemen started 1-6 with their lone win against an awful New Hampshire (4-18) team. By the end of the non-conference schedule, UMass was 5-8 and one of the worst teams in the A-10 entering conference play. Despite the lack of success in the non-conference, the script has flipped in A-10 play. UMass ranks at the top of the A-10 in points per game (79.7), opponents field goal percentage (38.7) and rebounds per game (41.4).
Leading the way for UMass’s massive leap in A-10 play is a trio of starters who have taken their game to the next level. Fourth-year Rahsool Diggins has become a scoring machine. Through seven games, Diggins is averaging 24.7 points per game and is making more 3s per game (4) than anyone else in the A-10. Making the plays for Diggins is second-year point guard Jaylen Curry, who is averaging 3.4 assists for every turnover he commits.
As a team, UMass hasn’t been great at limiting turnovers, ranking 10th in the A-10 with 12.6 turnovers per game. What UMass has been elite at is cleaning the glass. They feature the best rebounder on the best rebounding team in the A-10, fourth-year Daniel Rivera. Following a dominant season at Bryant, the former Saint Louis Billiken returned to the A-10 and continued to dominate. In A-10 play, Rivera ranks fifth in rebounds per game with 8.1. He adds 15.3 points per game.
For Rhode Island, there is a lot on the line. After dropping two straight games, the Rams have fallen to 3-5 in A-10 play. However, it’s still January, and Rhode Island is only 1.5 games back from a double bye with 10 games left on the schedule.
On Wednesday, Rhode Island is at home against UMass, giving them a huge advantage that they must take advantage of. Rhode Island is 10-2 at home this season, while UMass is 2-3 on the road. It’ll be the last home game for the Rams before they get a week off and then head on the road for a game against Fordham (9-11) and the top team in the A-10, George Mason (15-5).
“It’s an important game, in many ways it can define the rest of the season,” Rhode Island head coach Archie Miller said. “By being able to put some stop to playing poorly… we have a monumental task with UMass. Frank [Martin] is a tremendous coach… they’re as physical, hard playing, tough as any team that you’ll ever play.”
How has Rhode Island fallen to 3-5 in the A-10 after a 9-0 start to the season? The simple answer is injuries and an extremely poor offense stuffed with turnovers. When fourth-year David Green returned for Rhode Island’s game against Davidson, the Rams experienced an offensive explosion, but that went away as quickly as it appeared. Of the eight games Rhode Island has played against A-10 opponents, they have only scored more than 70 twice. Rhode Island has the second-worst offense in the A-10 since league play started and has committed 111 turnovers, 10 more than anyone else.
“Since we’ve started conference play, we’ve seen a lot of different things that have knocked us on our heels,” Miller said. “We haven’t been able, to as a staff, help our players enough… we just haven’t been good at what we do type of team.”
Miller is just 14-30 in A-10 play since becoming the Rams’ head coach before the start of the 2022-23 season. In the past two seasons, his teams have finished poorly, losing nine of their last 10 in 2023 and losing eight of their last nine in 2024.
Miller believes his team can turn it around and avoid that looming end-of-season collapse.
“We have to get some more guys feeling better about themselves,” Miller said. “To do that, I think we have to invest in them a little bit more individually here down the stretch, but no question about there has got to be some adjustments made as we end into the back end of conference.”
Miller said that taking advantage of early offense and using guys in new situations could help revamp the Rams’ offense. Ball movement and fast-paced offense lifted Rhode Island through its early season success. At one point, the Rams ranked in the top five for fast break points per game and the top three in free throws made and attempted. Rhode Island also had extremely good assist-to-turnover numbers during that stretch of the season. Since the start of league play, it’s been the total opposite. In five of their eight A-10 games, the Rams have turned it over more than they’ve assisted, and thus, they have the worst assist-to-turnover ratio in the A-10.
With so much time left in the season, it’s possible that the Rams will regain their confidence and start fixing their issues. Yet, most aren’t optimistic due to the collapses seen in previous years. However, it’s worth noting that this roster has experienced success that those previous teams had never come close to. If this team returns to their early season form, it’ll have to start with this game against UMass.
