The UMass men’s basketball team will face its stiffest competition to date in its Mid-American Conference (MAC) tilt against No. 24 Miami (OH) on Tuesday.
The Redhawks sport an undefeated, 20-0 record and sit comfortably atop the MAC standings at 8-0. Miami will mark the the Minutemen’s first ranked opponent since Feb. 15, 2020. UMass hosted then-No. 6 Dayton at the Mullins Center in a 71-63 loss.
The Minutemen are on a roll of late themselves, taking wins in four out of their last five, including a 68-67 victory at Buffalo in their most recent outing last Friday. UMass improved to 13-8 overall and 4-5 in MAC play in the win over the Bulls.
“I’m really happy we won [Friday],” Minutemen head coach Frank Martin told reporters after the game against Buffalo. “In about 30 minutes when the emotion of the game wears off, that plane home and practice tomorrow feel a lot better, because we won.
“But it’s frustrating because there’s some stuff that internally, we’re battling,” Martin said. “We control these things. We don’t control the ball going in, but we control that attention to detail that we have to fix and we’re not fixing it and it gets a little frustrating.”
Marcus Banks Jr. drilled 19 points as UMass’ top scorer versus the Bulls, while Leonardo Bettiol (17 points) and Daniel Hankins-Sanford (15 points, 10 rebounds) were also impact players in the victory.
The Minutemen’s trio of Banks Jr., Bettiol, Hankins-Sanford are all averaging double-digit, points-per-game totals this season, with K’Jei Parker included in that group as well.
Miami is paced by Brant Byers, who averages 15.2 points-per-game, which is good for 12th-most in the MAC. Eian Elmer and Antwone Woolfolk make up the Redhawks’ rebound leaders, with the pair averaging slightly more than five boards per game.
Tuesday’s clash will count as just the third-ever contest between the two programs. UMass took both previous matchups, with the most recent occurring on Jan. 4, 2014, a 73-65 Minutemen win.
Miami is coached by Travis Steele, who is in the middle of his fourth season with the Redhawks.
Tipoff for Tuesday’s game at Millett Hall is scheduled for 9 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPNU.