AMHERST — There are now a total of 11 players in the transfer portal from last year’s UMass men’s basketball team, as forward Daniel Rivera added to the laundry list this week.

Despite the large number of departures, Rivera is perhaps only the second significant loss to the Minutemen – joining Jaylen Curry. Rivera averaged 11.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in the 2024-25 season, scoring a season-high 29 points in UMass’ triple overtime thriller against Fordham. Curry and Rivera combined to score 25.2 points per game, which is more than the total points per game of the other nine players in the portal combined.

Amadou Doumbia, Lewis Walker, Shahid Muhammad, Akil Watson, Marqui Worthy, Nate Guerengomba, Malek Abdelgowad, Tarique Foster and John Brigham (walk-on) all combined to score 24.3 points per game. Head coach Frank Martin didn’t have a roster that was good enough to win at a consistent clip last winter, so having to rebuild from square one isn’t a huge surprise. Rivera and Curry aside, UMass hasn’t lost anyone irreplaceable.

Foster and Brigham were both additions to the portal this week. Brigham didn’t see action while Foster averaged 9.4 minutes per game in 18 appearances. He had a breakout game against St. Bonaventure on Feb. 15, scoring 14 points in a career-high 37 minutes. Martin said Foster had all of the intangibles that make up a good player, but the fourth-year head coach couldn’t find enough opportunities to put the 6-foot-8 wing in the game as he was playing behind Jayden Ndjigue – the Minutemen’s most consistent player according to Martin.

As of Wednesday afternoon, UMass still has just two transfers coming in – former Division 2 star Donovan Brown and JUCO transfer K’Jei Parker. Both are talented guards. Martin still has plenty of work to do to restructure his frontcourt.