Hoops Roster Refresh – Tony Bergeron out as Assistant Coach

Here’s a news sandwich –
Bread: Preston Santos announced he would be back in Maroon and White next year
Meat: UMass let assistant coach Tony Bergeron go
Bread: Program is expecting Ronnie DeGray and Javohn Garcia to return; Brian Matthews still coming

Preston returning is unalloyed good news. The Minutemen seemed to miss him this year, he can do everything and defend at least 4 positions, and creates a matchup problem for the other team. He also is a great kid that you can’t help but root for. Finally, that’s one more scholarship that doesn’t need to be filled with a new recruit.

Which brings us to TB being fired (or bought out if you prefer to blow smoke up your own ass). The guy can recruit, there is no question about that; what there is a question about is whether he was on UMass or Team Tony. For the team to move on from an assistant coach that recruited basically the entire roster as rumors of mass defections were flying means that a) the situation was untenable; b) they knew that it would not lead to more departures; c) both. The most likely option is c.

A word about former senior advisor and basketball guy (TM) Paul Cromier’s comments:

“The chemistry and the personnel involved was such that I wasn’t going to be successful in bringing anything to the table…. In order for you to help or teach or mentor, you have to at least have listeners, and I don’t think the staff was ready for that. … I think they’re progressing to some degree, but there has been too much turnover and not enough stability to really be where they want to be. … They need some stability. They need people who really buy in and want to stay there and build a program, not just go from year to year.”

These are a real rorschach test – I’ve read a lot of commentary online and in group chats that Cromier is just talking about TB. I … didn’t read it that way. I read it that he was talking about all of them. Do with that what you will, particularly the last line.

And before we move on, there is a lot of blame being put on TB, starting with this expertly pitched news dump, but it should be noted that Bamford and McCall knew exactly what they were getting into when they hired TB. They hired TB, they got TB with all the good and bad that entailed, let’s not pretend that they were shocked that he wasn’t rowing in the same direction as the rest of the program.

In the article confirming that TB was let go there all appeared this nugget: “… the Minutemen have been approaching spring recruiting with the expectation that freshmen Ronnie DeGray and Javohn Garcia would both be back,” and Brian Matthews later confirmed on twitter that he would be arriving in the fall as scheduled. This is great news – you can’t just replace a Tre Mitchell, but the returning nucleus is one that can be the base of a solid roster for next year (and the next few years).

Here’s the roster refresh:

Preston Santos, G/F, 3 years, 🏡
Brian Matthews, C, 4 years, 🏡

TJ Weeks, G, 4 years, 🧳
Dibaji Walker, F, 2 years, 🧳
Noah Fernandes, G, 3 years, 🧳
Ronnie DeGray, F, 4 years, 🧳
Javohn Garcia, G, 4 years, 🧳

Cairo McCrory, G, 4 years, 🧳🧳
Kolton Mitchell, G, 3 years, 🧳🧳🧳
Dyondre Domnguez, F, 4 years, 🧳🧳🧳🧳

Tre Mitchell, C, 3 years, ✈️
Carl Pierre, G, 1 year, ✈️

This is far from the worst case scenario. With Tre Mitchell this is an NCAA tournament team, but even without him this roster is … good? It still needs a center with experience (you can’t go into next season with only a freshman center on the roster), you could use a pg to take some of the load off of Noah and let JG play off the ball, and then some younger players that can shoot and/or get to the rim and can play limited minutes and develop – it’s far from perfect, but it is a lineup that can win some games in the Atlantic 10. Add 1-2 from that third block and bring in a couple of transfers (and hit on them unlike a few years ago) and this team can be fun to watch.