The Massachusetts men’s basketball team is searching for its first win in Atlantic 10 play after dropping its first two contests against conference opponents. After losses against St. Joseph’s and Richmond, the Minutemen (5-10, 0-2 A-10) established a losing streak dating back to their game against Arizona State. UMass will attempt to snap its losing streak against a tough Flyers (11-4, 1-1 A-10) team.
“When we go through offensive struggles, we don’t handle those segments of the game very well,” head coach Frank Martin said. “We’re close and I keep saying we’re close, but we’re playing good teams and those teams aren’t letting us win right now.”
Dayton competed hard through a tough non-conference schedule facing multiple opponents ranked in the AP poll. The Flyers beat No. 7 Marquette and the reigning NCAA champion No. 9 UConn Huskies but suffered a close loss against No. 3 Iowa State.
After a strong start to the season against vigorous opponents, the Flyers have dropped two of their last three contests against unranked foes. Most recently, Dayton faced off against the George Washington Revolutionaries and suffered a 20-point loss, its largest of the season.
Conference play can be unpredictable, especially with how familiar these teams have become with each other over the years. With this season being the Minutemen’s last in the A-10, it will be a chance to get the last laugh over a conference rival that they have a rich history with.
However, UMass will approach this challenge differently than ever before in Frank Martin’s tenure, with a young and developing roster.
“They have more responsibility than they did a year ago. [Marqui Worthy], [Jayden Ndjigue], Jaylen Curry, all those guys,” Martin said. “They’re trying to deal with more responsibility and things don’t work out and those moments [are] what hurts us right now.”
Curry and Ndjigue have been a common starting pair for the Minutemen this season as both players have shown consistent potential throughout the hefty minutes they’re given. Worthy on the other hand has developed into a bench spark-plug for UMass and has shown a lot of growth since his freshman year.
Something that typically helps to focus such a young roster is a leader on the floor, and recently Rahsool Diggins has taken on that role. In the last three games, Diggins has averaged 24 points while shooting 46 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from beyond the arc, more than doubling his scoring average from the first 11 games of the season with much better efficiency.
Another leader for the Minutemen early in the season was Daniel Hankins-Sanford. The junior forward suffered an injury to his right hand that kept him out of the final five games of non-conference play.
“It’s the first time in his life that he’s ever dealt with an injury that prevents him from playing. He felt like a little kid again going into the St. Joe’s game,” Martin said. “I thought he played better against Richmond than he did against St. Joe’s. We need him to continue to grow and reintegrate his personality and his basketball abilities into our team.”
With Hankins-Sanford back for the third straight game, UMass has a completely healthy roster and can look to attack the Flyers the way the team was designed to.
The Minutemen will host Dayton on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m., available to watch on Peacock.
Tym Brown can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @tym_brown1.
