AMHERST — The transfer portal news keeps on coming for the UMass men’s basketball team, as four more players made their decisions on whether or not they’ll be playing in Amherst next season.

The biggest news for the Minutemen in recent days came from Daniel Hankins-Sanford and Jayden Ndjigue, two players who have become staples of Frank Martin’s team over the past two seasons. Both Hankins-Sanford, a rising senior, and Ndjigue, a rising junior, announced on social media that they would be returning to UMass next winter. A pair of other players decided to go in the opposite direction, as Nate Guerengomba and Malek Abdelgowad entered the transfer portal this week.

Given the disappointing season in 2024-25, having certain players depart wasn’t the end of the world for Martin and the Minutemen. But Hankins-Sanford and Ndjigue were about as close to “must keeps” for UMass as it gets. And with the help from The Massachusetts Collective, UMass basketball’s NIL collective, the Minutemen retained two of their better players.

Hankins-Sanford averaged 9.8 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game last season, and after returning from a hand injury that kept him out of the lineup for nearly the entirety of December, he became perhaps the most consistent player on UMass’ roster. He finished the season scoring 19 points or more in three of the last four games, including two monster double-doubles of 22 points, 15 rebounds and 22 points, 11 rebounds.

As for Ndjigue, so much of what he does well doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, but the difference in how UMass plays is apparent when he’s on the floor versus when he’s not. Ndjigue began the year coming off the bench, but after UMass lost five of its first six contests, Martin plugged him back into the starting lineup – where he was for all 31 games as a freshman. He made an immediate impact, and started every game the rest of the way. Ndjigue averaged 4.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 steals this past year.

Guerengomba, a 6-foot-4 combo guard, never found a rhythm his freshman season, as he averaged just 2.6 points per game in an average of 10.8 minutes of action. He shot just 17 percent from 3-point range and 25.7 percent from the field. He appeared in 29 games this season.

There was a lot of intrigue surrounding Abdelgowad when he landed in Amherst, as the 6-foot-10 center had a unique combination of size, strength and athleticism. But Abdelgowad struggled for most of the season, his best performance coming against Division 3 UMass Boston – where he posted season-highs in points (26) and rebounds (14). He only recorded double digits in points and rebounds three other times each.

That now makes eight Minutemen players in the portal. Jaylen Curry, Marqui Worthy, Abdelgowad, Guerengomba, Akil Watson, Shahid Muhammad, Lewis Walker and Amadou Doumbia have all departed from UMass while only Hankins-Sanford and Ndjigue have announced their returns. UMass also landed Donovan Brown from Division 2 Florida Tech earlier this week.