UMass basketball: Minutemen, Minutewomen take center stage in ‘Mullins Madness’ opening event (PHOTOS)

AMHERST — In front of their friends, family, and fans, the UMass men’s and women’s basketball teams took to the hardwood inside the Mullins Center publicly for the first time this season for ‘Mullins Madness.’

Both teams participated in a three-point contest, a big game of knockout, and a variety of other entertaining contests on Thursday night.

Michael Leflar is entering his first year as head coach of the Minutewomen, replacing Tory Verdi who is now at Pittsburgh. Leflar spoke to the crowd and promised his team would put a strong product on the floor and admitted he’s eager to get the 2023-24 campaign underway. He’s been with the program for six years, but now he’s the person in charge.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Leflar said of the transition. “I think we’ll become the best team we can be. I don’t know what our ceiling is right now. But I do think we’ll get there and achieve — we’ll reach our potential because we’re going to work on the right things. We’re going to work on them the right way. And we have a group of 13 young women that are bought in.”

Minutemen head coach Frank Martin is equally excited for the 2023-24 season, as he’s ready to wash the bad taste of last year out of his mouth.

“I’m really excited,” Martin said after Thursday’s event. “These guys got personality, they really, really like being on this team and going to school here. There’s a joy that they bring every day – to the weight room, to practice. I’m not pulling teeth to get guys excited about the next day. They’ve got an enthusiasm that’s a whole lot of fun to be around.”

Just like the men’s team, the women’s team also has a ton of newcomers. The Minutewomen have added 10 faces, six transfers and four freshmen. While it may be a challenge for Leflar to make sure his team is clicking on all cylinders come game No. 1, the acclimation process for the new faces has actually gone quite smoothly.

“I was excited what we were able to add in the transfer portal,” he said. “Six transfers, four freshmen, I mean, that’s 10 newcomers. We have six transfers, four freshmen and three returners. So three different groups of people, and it’s up to my staff and I to make sure we’re on the same page all the time, and I think we’re off to a great start.”

The men’s team displayed their energy on Thursday, as they were involved heavily in every event and enjoyed the entire Mullins Madness showcase. Martin said the greatest asset for his team is its overall unity and chemistry – something the Minutemen struggled with a season ago.

“Their spirit, their personality – last year was new to everybody,” Martin said. “Players were new to each other, I was new to them, they were new to me. We didn’t have cliques, but it wasn’t the unity that these guys have [this season]. We were in the tunnel before they came out tonight, and [the coaching staff] said, ‘Look at this. These guys just enjoy being around each other. I don’t know how good we can be, but I know we’re gonna have a lot of fun together.”

When it was Martin’s turn to address the crowd, he made sure to challenge them to attend as many games as possible. Like Leflar, he too assured the fans they would enjoy watching his team this season. Martin understands the fan base’s frustration considering the struggles of the program over the past two decades, but also knows that a packed crowd makes a huge difference in college basketball.

“This used to be one of the great home court environments in the country,” Martin said. “Not in the Atlantic 10, in the country… Our players’ peers on campus, in their lifetime, this program hasn’t been very good. Plain and simple. The 18-to-20 year olds that are on campus, they don’t realize that this place used to be really good.

“And the older fan base, the fan base that was here during the Jack Leaman years and the (John) Calipari years where a lot of special things were accomplished, they’ve been burnt and scarred,” he continued. “And you can’t get mad at them because of that. As a coach, you comprehend. I’m a fan, too, I get it. I can’t jump back in here with them because it’s been a rough 20-year period. As a fan, I understand. There’s only one way to change that: we do our jobs and regain their trust.”

Before Martin took the job as the UMass head coach, his previous stop was at South Carolina. The Gamecocks visited Amherst back in 2019 – a year removed from their Final Four trip – and Martin was shocked at the turnout, or lack thereof, of what he thought was a historically dedicated basketball community.

That’s why he’s so excited to be a part of the team’s rebuild. He knows what the program used to represent, and he’s hungry to get it back to the glory days.

“Building, man, building,” Martin said. “I came here with a [South Carolina] Final Four team, and the building was empty. I was disappointed that day when I left here, because I had a perception of UMass of what I used to watch on TV. And we came in here, and there was no ‘umph’ in the building. I had no idea I was gonna be the coach here, but I left here and I was like, ‘Wow, that was disappointing.’ So when this university offered me the job, I already realized that we had a rebuild that we had to take on.”