Frank Martin spent as much time as a concrete mason as a basketball coach in his first season leading the UMass men’s basketball program. He laid the foundation that the Minutemen’s future success can rise from.

UMass’ season ended Tuesday against Richmond in the Atlantic 10 tournament in the program’s worst-ever defeat in a conference tournament game.

“I know you guys don't see it. I know I see it from where we were at on March 25th of 2022 (when UMass named Martin its coach) to where we're at March 7th (when the Minutemen lost in the A-10 tournament),” Martin said. “We've built. We've grown.”

Construction began long before the season tipped in early November. Martin brought in seven transfers and three freshmen, one of whom didn’t arrive on campus until the weekend before the first game. They needed to familiarize with both each other and the way Martin wanted them to play. 

Everything gelled in mid-November and early December, as the Minutemen won six games in a row and captured the Myrtle Beach Invitational title, their first multi-team event championship in a decade.

Then mainstay point guard Noah Fernandes injured his ankle against Harvard on Dec. 2. He missed the next five games and only appeared in four games the rest of the season, shutting it down after the injury flared up early in the conference season.

UMass was also without center Wildens Leveque, forward Matt Cross, and guards Rahsool Diggins and RJ Luis for periods of injury or illness. The Minutemen struggled to constantly reinvent themselves with their components and rotations constantly in a state of flux. They lost 10 of their final 14 games, and their identity along the way.

“The season teaches you to win or teaches you to lose. The adversity that we dealt with this season, as the season wore on, taught us to lose. We gave into adversity, and that was disappointing but that's part of the lessons that you have to learn when you're building and going through things,” Martin said. “We've had some great moments. We've had some really good games so we showed ability to play a certain way, and we found the ability to play really bad basketball. Unfortunately, that's not what I envisioned in September. ... It's the reality of what we became since Christmas and it's disappointing, but what are we going to do? Sit around, cry and complain? Blame? I'm not doing that. We've got work to do.”

The Minutemen honored six players for senior day: John Kelly, Leveque, Brandon Martin, T.J. Weeks Jr., Fernandes and Isaac Kante. Only Kante and Brandon Martin have exhausted their eligibility. Fernandes and Leveque still have a season to play, while Weeks and Kelly have two seasons remaining.

“I'm at a great place, and we will get this thing done,” Martin said. “We've got a core guys in that locker room that are in it for the long haul, and they're in it to build and grow and become really good. We're going to earn our way to becoming a winning program. It's what we've done where I’ve been at before and it's what we're going to do as we continue to build here.”

Four players have signed national letters of intent to join UMass next season (Robert Davis, Jayden Ndjigue, Sawyer Mayhugh and Marqui Worthy), according to 247sports.com, and a fifth is committed (Rollie Castineyra). That will require some roster shuffling to accommodate them but likely not the complete overhaul the Minutemen have experienced every recent off season.

The three freshmen from this class (Luis, Tafara Gapare and Keon Thompson) committed to UMass and came to Amherst for Frank Martin. Most of the young transfers did the same.

“Seeing the older guys end their season like this doesn’t really sit well with me, but it makes you want to develop the program and get back here as fast as we can,” Luis said.

That building and developing will happen over the summer in the gym and the weight room. Martin and his staff asked the players to commit to a more rigorous offseason strength program when they arrived and saw the results.

Martin uses the weight room often as a metaphor for the program’s ambitions. He tells them if you only go in and try to lift 135 pounds, all you’ll be able to lift is 135 pounds. The first step to lifting 225 pounds is putting 225 pounds on the bar.

“You’ve got to get that thing off your chest. That thing's uncomfortable,” Martin said. “You continue to challenge yourself. That means you’ve got to build your body and your mind to take ownership of that moment. That's where we're at right now. That's what we got to use this offseason for.”

He won’t leave the job unfinished.

“I'm at a great place,” Martin said. “We will get this thing done.”

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>