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Massachusetts Travels To River City For Wednesday Night Matchup Against Richmond – University of Massachusetts Athletics

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Massachusetts Travels To River City For Wednesday Night Matchup Against Richmond – University of Massachusetts Athletics


University of Massachusetts Men’s Basketball Notes & Information
Matchup Massachusetts at Richmond
Date | Time Feb. 14 | 7:00 p.m. ET
Location Richmond, Va. (Robins Center)
Twitter @UMassMBB
Instagram @umassbasketball
Facebook UMass Men’s Basketball

AMHERST, MASS. – The Minutemen hit the road for a Valentines Day matchup with Richmond on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center. The broadcast can be found on ESPN+ with links and live updates available at umassathletics.com or @UMassMBB on X (Twitter).

This week for the Minutemen

The Matchup

  • Wednesday’s game marks the 26th all-time matchup between Massachusetts and Richmond, with the Spiders holding a 17-8 advantage in the series.
  • The Minutemen last faced Richmond in the 2023 Atlantic 10 Tournament, dropping a 71-38 game on March 7, 2023.
  • UMass is seeking its first win in the Robins Center since claiming a 79-68 victory on Jan. 21, 2012.

Last Time OUT

  • Massachusetts picked up a tightly contested win over Rhode Island, 81-79, on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon at the Mullins Center.
  • Junior Rahsool Diggins led the Minutemen, finishing the game with 18 points and a career-high six three-pointers in 34 minutes.
  • Keon Thompson followed closely behind with an effective performance, going 7-10 from the field for back-to-back 16-point games. The guard was perfect from the free-throw line, while picking up six rebounds and four assists.
  • UMass combined for 11 three-pointers, marking the first time since 12/21/23 (vs. Georgia Tech) that the team tallied 10-plus in a single-game..
    MBB23 - Jayden Ndjigue vs. URI

Scoring and Security

  • The Minutemen have been one of the best teams in the nation in regard to ball security, ranking no. 38 in the country in turnover margin (2.9) and no. 39 in assist to turnover ratio (1.48).
  • Massachusetts has shown the ability to score consistently and efficiently, ranking No. 45 in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 80.3 points per game.
  • The Minutemen have recorded 90-plus points in four games this season including a 100-78 victory over Portland on Dec. 22.
  • Massachusett’s 102-81 victory over Quinnipiac marked the first time the Minutemen scored 100 points since March 4, 2021 vs. Saint Joseph’s.
  • The Minutemen were secure in possession, turning the ball over just five times vs. UAlbany (11/7/23) and URI (1/13/24). It marked the first two times since March 10, 2010 vs Temple (4 TO) that Massachusetts has recorded 5 or fewer turnovers in a game.
    MBB23 - Bench Celebration vs Siena

Dynamic Duo

  • Seniors Matt Cross and Josh Cohen make up one of the Atlantic 10’s premier scoring duos averaging a combined 31.5 points per game, ranking third in the conference.
  • The two forwards also rank as the no. 1 rebounding duo in the A10, pulling in a combined 14.8 per game. They sit just above George Mason’s Keyshawn Hall and Amari Kelly (14.6 rpg).
  • Matt Cross (31 points) and Josh Cohen (26 points) combined for 57 of the Minutemen’s 89 points against CCSU (11/22/23). The performance marked the first time since Jan. 10, 2018 that two players have each scored 25-plus points. Luwane Pipkins (44 points) and Carl Pierre (25 points) were the last teammates to achieve the feat, doing so in overtime vs. La Salle. 
  • With their efficient performance vs. CCSU (11/22/23) Cross (84.6%) and Cohen (90.9%) become the first two players to shoot .750 or better from the field (min. 10 att), since Tre Mitchell shot 76.5% (13-17) at La Salle on Dec.16, 2020.
    MBB23 - Cohen and Cross rebound vs. UAlbany

Year Two Under Coach Martin

  • Massachusetts basketball is in the midst of its second season under head coach Frank Martin in 2023-24. 
  • Massachusetts comes fresh off a 2022-23 campaign that saw Coach Martin lead the Minutemen to their best record under a first-year head coach since 1996 and capture the Myrtle Beach Invitational title.
  • Martin’s team also recorded the largest true road win over an A-10 opponent by a UMass squad since February of 1996 with a 69-45 win at Rhode Island.
  • Martin holds a 318-225 (.584) collegiate coaching mark, picking up 171 of his wins in 10 seasons at South Carolina while recording 117 wins in five seasons at Kansas State.
  • Head coach Frank Martin picked up his 300th collegiate coaching win on Jan. 25, 2023 with a 85-76 win over Richmond. 
  • Prior to his time in Amherst Martin led the Gamecocks to a new program record for wins in a single season and coaches the team to its best NCAA Tournament run in program history, a trip to the Final Four in 2016-17. The 15-year head coach also led Kansas State to a 29-8 record and an Elite Eight appearance during the 2009-10 season.
    MBB23 - Coach Martin vs West Conn

New MEN in Mullins

  • UMass features a new look roster which includes five returners and 10 newcomers (two transfers).
  • The Minutemen welcome a talented eight-man freshman class which spans players from seven states and South Sudan and is comprised of Jaylen Curry, Robert Davis Jr., Marqui Worthy, Jayden Ndjigue, Tarique Foster, Mathok MajokRollie Castineyra and Tyler Mason.
  • Tyler Mason joined the freshman class as a December enrollee, providing depth in the front court with 23 games remaining on the schedule.
  • The class features three 3-star recruits, including Jaylen Curry, one of the highest-rated recruits in the Atlantic 10 for the class of 2023.
  • UMass also brings in two transfers in Daniel Hankins-Sanford and Josh Cohen who have played an immediate role in the Minuteman frontcourt.
  • Cohen was one of the most productive post players in the nation a season ago, scoring a career-high 40 points twice against Lehigh and Hawaii on his way to earning NEC Player of The Year honors.
  • Hankins-Sanford comes to Massachusetts after playing 22 games for South Carolina a year ago. The Charlotte, North Carolina native features natural rebounding instincts and elite athleticism at the power forward position. 
    THOM KENDALL FOR UMASS ATHLETICS

Familiar Faces

  • Massachusetts returns three key pieces in Matt Cross, Keon Thompson and Rahsool Diggins from last season.
  • Senior Matt Cross was selected as a 2023-24 preseason All-Atlantic 10 Third Team selection after a productive first year in Amherst.
  • Cross ranked as one of just seven players in the conference to average over 12.0 ppg and 6.0 rpg. a season ago.
  • Cross is joined by St. Joe’s Cameron Brown and Dayton’s Daron Holmes as the only three players to achieve this feat who return to the Atlantic 10 in 2023-24. 
  • Sophomore point guard Keon Thompson steps into an elevated role this season after starting nine of the last 10 games for the Minutemen in 2022-23. 
  • Thompson averaged 8.88 points per game and 4.0 assists per game in those nine starts. The guard was one of just three individual players in the A-10 last season to record 12 or more assists in a game with 12 against Davidson on Feb. 4, 2023.
  • Junior Rahsool Diggins steps into a bigger role in 2023-24 after making 26 appearances and 10 starts for the Minutemen a season ago.
  • Diggins averaged 4.7 points and 2.4 assists per game, scoring a career-high 15 points on 3-of-6 from 3-point range at Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 21, 2023.
    MBB23 - Matt Cross run out vs. UAlbany

On The Bench

  • Head coach Frank Martin boasts a talented staff full of experienced assistants featuring three former head coaches, two former McDonald’s All-Americans and a former NBA lottery pick.
  • Associate Head Coach Allen Edwards was the head coach of the Wyoming Cowboys from 2016-20. Edwards’ teams recorded 60 wins over four seasons, including back-to-back 20-win seasons
  • Assistant Coach Brett Nelson comes to Amherst after spending the last four seasons as the head coach at Holy Cross. Nelson, a former McDonald’s All-American, is a 2004 graduate of Florida, a three-year starter for the Gators and helped his team to four NCAA Tournaments and to the 2000 national championship game.
  • Assistant Coach Brian Steele enters his second second UMass after spending time on head coach Frank Martin‘s staff at South Carolina. Steele was a three-year letter winner at South Carolina as a student-athlete and served as a student assistant during the 2015-16 season in addition to the 2016-17 Final Four campaign. 
  • Director of Player Development Anthony Evans spent five seasons as the head coach at FIU following six years as the head coach at Norfolk State. At FIU, Evans’ teams ranked in the top-10 percent nationally from 2015-17 in the NCAA Academic Progress Report and coached multiple Conference USA all-league and all-defensive players.
  • Director of Player Personnel Doug Edwards ed the Seminoles to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1990-93. The Miami, Fla. Native scored 1,604 points in his career and is the only player at FSU to score 500 or more points in three consecutive seasons. Edwards earned All-SEC Second-Team honors as a senior before being drafted with the 15th overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the 1993 NBA Draft. 
  • Head Coach Frank Martin coached now associate head coach Allen Edwards and director of player personnel Doug Edwards at Miami Senior High School.
    MBB23 - Allen Edwards Pre-Game

Up Next

  • The Minutemen stay on the road for a Saturday night showdown with La Salle  on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Tom Gola Arena. The broadcast can be found on ESPN+ with links and live updates available at umassathletics.com or @UMassMBB on X (Twitter). 
    MBB23 - Pre-game Huddle vs West Conn





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Man cited for alleged wrong-way deadly crash

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Man cited for alleged wrong-way deadly crash


BOSTON, (WPRI) — A somerset man has been cited for allegedly causing a deadly wrong-way crash in Boston late Saturday night.

Just before midnight, troopers from the H9 Barracks were called for a report of a multi-vehicle crash on I-93 North before Exit 15A.

A preliminary investigation showed that the driver of a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, identified as 81-year-old Antone Carvalho, of Somerset, entered Route 93 North at Exit 15B and drove southbound in the northbound lanes.

Two vehicles, a Honda Odyssey and an Audi A4, attempted to avoid the Carvalho and crashed into each other.

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Four people in the Honda Odyssey, were taken to a Boston-area hospital for evaluation.

Shortly after the initial crash, police say Carvalho collided head-on with a Chevrolet Cruze.

Carvalho and the other driver were taken to Boston-area hospitals for their injuries

The driver of the Chevrolet Cruze, identified as a man in his 20’s from Haverhill, died from his injuries.

Carvalho will be issued a summons to appear in court at a later date.

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8 Picture-Perfect Main Streets In Massachusetts

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8 Picture-Perfect Main Streets In Massachusetts


Norman Rockwell painted Stockbridge so often that the real Main Street now looks like one of his canvases come to life. That is the trick these Massachusetts towns pull off. A whaling-era cobblestone lane on Nantucket and a Revolutionary common in Concord do the same thing in different accents. Each one packs its best landmarks into a few blocks you can cover on foot. The eight New England streets here all sit under 50,000 residents and earn their reputation the honest way.

Stockbridge

Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Fewer than 2,000 people live in Stockbridge, yet its Main Street may be the most recognizable in the state. Credit Norman Rockwell, who lived here and painted the view down the street so many times it lodged in the national memory. The white clapboard buildings, the old inns, and the big shade trees are all still right where he left them, and people still use them.

The Red Lion Inn has welcomed guests on this corner since 1773, and its long front porch is the street’s anchor in every sense. A short walk away, the Norman Rockwell Museum holds the largest collection of his work and even his relocated studio. Naumkeag adds a Gilded Age cottage with terraced gardens climbing the hillside. Come December, the town recreates Rockwell’s famous “Main Street at Christmas” scene with vintage cars parked along the curb, which is about as close as a real place gets to stepping into a painting.

Lenox

Downtown street in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Downtown street in Lenox, Massachusetts. Image credit Richard Cavalleri via Shutterstock

Edith Wharton built her dream house just outside Lenox, and the writer’s eye for proportion seems to have rubbed off on the whole town. The center is small enough to park once and walk, with bookshops, cafes, and galleries shoulder to shoulder under the trees. Under 10,000 people live here, and the place wears its Berkshire elegance lightly.

The Mount, Wharton’s 1902 estate, runs as a house museum and public garden and hosts readings and outdoor events all summer. Ventfort Hall, a Jacobean-style mansion built for a sister of J.P. Morgan, fills in more of the Gilded Age story. Just up the road, Tanglewood draws crowds every July and August as the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, so a quiet shopping street can be ten minutes from a world-famous concert lawn. Few towns this size balance that kind of culture against that little traffic.

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Concord

Main Street in the historic town center of Concord, Massachusetts.
Main Street in the historic town center of Concord, Massachusetts.

On April 19, 1775, the shot heard round the world was fired a short walk from where Concord shoppers now buy their morning coffee. That is the strange gift of this town. Its pretty village center sits below 20,000 residents, and its old houses, churches, and civic buildings look calm until you remember what happened among them.

Minute Man National Historical Park preserves the battle road and the fields where colonial militia turned back British regulars. Old North Bridge marks the spot itself, with Daniel Chester French’s Minute Man statue standing guard. Concord also raised more than its share of writers, and Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, where she wrote “Little Women,” still opens for tours. Two miles south, Walden Pond holds the woods Thoreau made famous, an easy swim or walk that closes the loop between the town’s history and its quieter ideas.

Marblehead

Marblehead, Massachusetts: Sites of historical homes and buildings in historical downtown district.
Marblehead, Massachusetts: Sites of historical homes and buildings in the historical downtown district. Dee Browning via Shutterstock

The streets in Marblehead’s Old Town were laid out for foot traffic and fishing nets, not cars, so they bend and narrow and dead-end at the water. The town tops 20,000 residents now, but the historic core feels far older and more intimate. Washington Street and the lanes around it run past brick sidewalks and preserved houses, with the harbor flashing into view between rooftops.

The Jeremiah Lee Mansion, a grand Georgian house built in 1768 for the wealthiest merchant in colonial Massachusetts, still keeps its original hand-painted English wallpaper. Old Burial Hill rises above town with weathered colonial gravestones and one of the best harbor views around. Abbot Hall, the brick town hall with the clock tower, houses the original “Spirit of ’76” painting. Walk the waterfront and the reason for the whole town becomes obvious. Marblehead grew up facing the sea, and it never turned away.

Newburyport

Downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts
Downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts. Image credit Heidi Besen via Shutterstock

Federal-era sea captains built their fortunes at the mouth of the Merrimack, and their three-story brick blocks still line the streets of downtown Newburyport. The Main Street feeling here spreads across several streets rather than one. Under 20,000 residents keep the center humming, with shops and restaurants filling old facades right down to the riverbank.

Market Square and State Street form the heart of it, a tight grid of brick that survived a great fire and a wave of 1970s urban renewal to come out the other side intact. The Custom House Maritime Museum, set in a granite 1835 building, tells the port’s seafaring story. Waterfront Park gives you a bench and a view of the boats. A few miles out on Plum Island, the Parker River refuge at Joppa Flats turns the same trip into prime birdwatching, so a downtown afternoon can end with herons instead of storefronts.

Rockport

Rockport, Massachusetts.
Rockport, Massachusetts. Editorial credit: Starmaro / Shutterstock.com.

A plain red fishing shack on a granite pier may be the most painted building in America, and it sits right in Rockport’s harbor. Locals call it Motif No. 1, after an art teacher who got tired of seeing his students paint it. The town runs under 10,000 residents and folds its best parts into a few tight blocks by the water.

Main Street leads to Bearskin Neck, a skinny peninsula crammed with galleries, candy shops, and lobster shacks that ends with the open Atlantic. Front Beach puts sand and water within a short stroll of the shops. The Shalin Liu Performance Center, opened in 2010, built a concert hall with a wall of glass behind the stage, so the ocean becomes the backdrop for a string quartet. You can wander from a storefront to a harbor view to a gallery without ever breaking stride.

Great Barrington

Rustic brick buildings along Railroad Street in the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Rustic brick buildings along Railroad Street in the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Editorial credit: Albert Pego / Shutterstock.com

Great Barrington wired the first downtown in the world lit entirely by alternating current, back in 1886, and the place has kept that forward lean ever since. Under 10,000 residents fill a center that feels genuinely busy, with restaurants, bookstores, and galleries spread along Main Street and Railroad Street. It looks like an old Berkshire town and behaves like a young one.

The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, a restored 1905 theater, books films, concerts, and live broadcasts year-round. The Housatonic River Walk threads a half-mile greenway along the water right behind Main Street, the work of volunteers who spent decades clearing a once-polluted bank. Just outside town, Monument Mountain offers a short climb to a quartzite ridge and a long view over the Housatonic River valley, the same trail Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne hiked together in 1850.

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Nantucket

Main Street in Nantucket, Massachusetts
Main Street in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Image credit Mystic Stock Photography via Shutterstock.

Whaling money built Nantucket’s Main Street, and the cobblestones laid to keep wagon wheels out of the mud are still there to rattle your suitcase. The island stays well under 50,000 year-round residents even at the height of summer. Brick sidewalks, weathered shingles, and window boxes give the downtown the texture of an old port rather than a new outdoor mall.

The Whaling Museum, set in an 1847 candle factory, explains how a small island once lit the lamps of the world, right down to a full sperm whale skeleton. Brant Point Lighthouse marks the harbor entrance and ranks among the most photographed beacons in New England. Straight Wharf keeps the working waterfront within steps of the shops, and the Oldest House, built in 1686, anchors the streetscape in the island’s first century. Every detail down to the gray shingles seems to point back to the same seafaring story.

Massachusetts Main Streets Worth Slowing Down For

What ties these eight together is not a shared look but a shared honesty. Stockbridge and Lenox lean on Berkshire culture, Concord carries the weight of 1775, and Great Barrington keeps reinventing itself. Marblehead, Newburyport, Rockport, and Nantucket all grew up facing salt water and never lost the habit. The best Main Streets here are not stage sets. They are working downtowns that happen to be worth a long, slow look.



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Battenfeld: AG Andrea Campbell’s errors sting Massachusetts voters

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Battenfeld: AG Andrea Campbell’s errors sting Massachusetts voters


No single person in Massachusetts bears more responsibility for denying voters the right to cast a ballot than inept Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

No rent control? Blame Campbell.

No state income tax cut? Blame Campbell.

No audit of the state Legislature? Blame Campbell.

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Again and again Campbell has screwed up or worse, been complicit, leaving Bay State voters without the ability to exercise their right to decide important issues.

No amount of fawning pieces in the Boston Globe or publicity-seeking lawsuits against President Trump can cover up that fact.

She is a disaster. Unfortunately we have to suffer through another four years of her bonehead decision-making because Republicans in Massachusetts are just as inept at fielding viable candidates.

Massachusetts voters had the best chance in two decades this fall to establish rent control with a referendum question capping rent increases at 5%. Polls showed the ballot question with a solid advantage.

But Campbell, a liberal Democrat, allowed language on the question giving exemptions from the rent limits to religious institutions, which in Massachusetts violates the Constitution. The Supreme Judicial Court voted unanimously to kick the referendum question off the ballot.

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This was not a case of political decision-making on Campbell’s part, since Democrats favored the rent control question. It was purely a rookie botch job, and a huge one at that, which will have major ramifications for renters, who will now be denied a much needed break from astronomical increases.

A simple reading of the Constitution should have caused Campbell to flag the question, and get the rent control advocates to strike the religious exemption. She admitted after she “got it wrong” — which is of no help to the renters in this state.

Apparently following the law, as Martin Short’s synchronized swimmer character would say, is not the Attorney General’s strong suit.

A similar error — or possibly an insidious political move — on Campbell’s part also blocked voters from getting a chance at lowering the state income tax from 5% to 4%.

The referendum question clearly had majority support, but was strongly opposed by Democrats like Campbell who argued it would have led to unconscionable cuts in social service programs to make up for the lost tax revenue.

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Campbell okayed fatally flawed language in the ballot question which again caused the SJC to punt it off the ballot. This one may not have been just a simple mistake, but a possible deliberate act by Campbell to poison the question.

Politics again played a role in Campbell’s moves around a 72% voter-approved legislative audit by Auditor Diana DiZoglio. By not enforcing the new law, Campbell is flagrantly keeping DiZoglio from auditing the books of the despised, free-spending Legislature.

Campbell — rather than do her job — will not represent DiZoglio in her efforts to secure the audit, but authorized her to seek outside counsel, which will cost millions.

So on one hand saying she’ll enforce the law, she’s done everything she can to block it.

So what does Campbell do exactly? She has sued the Trump administration 50 times already, on a pace to exceed even Gov. Maura Healey’s lawsuits against Trump back when she was AG.

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And she rarely ventures outside her Dartmouth, Mass. manse. Far from being the people’s lawyer, she stands against the people’s will.



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