AMHERST -- Ready or not, Frank Martin is set to unveil the 2024-25 University of Massachusetts men's basketball team.
"Are we ready? Yeah," said Martin, when asked about Saturday's exhibition game at Providence. "These guys are excited to compete and play. We were excited at that so-called 'secret scrimmage' against Iona. This team likes to compete. They compete against each other.
"They're excited about, after a month of beating each other upside the head for 2 1/2 hours a day, they're ready to see what we can become playing against other guys."
The Minutemen will head for Providence's Amica Mutual Pavilion for a 4 p.m. tip. The game marks the first time UMass and Providence have played each other since UMass beat the Friars 79-76 in Providence back on Dec. 7, 2018.
UMass has only won nine of 34 matchups against Providence, but four of those wins have come in the last 12 years. In seven seasons between 2012 and 2018, the Minutemen have won four of seven games.
Saturday's game is made possible by a decision back in August where the NCAA Committee for Legislative Relief approved a recommendation from the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Oversight Committee, allowing for teams to play exhibition games for charity fundraising purposes. The UMass-Providence game will raise money for the Rhode Island Free Clinic and for Baystate Children's Hospital in Springfield.
When Martin met with reporters in the Champions Center Thursday afternoon, he was asked about the differences in an exhibition game and the so-called secret scrimmages like the one the Minutemen played earlier in the month against Iona.
Martin said the exhibition game will give him and his staff a first real look at how the new team will play with the lights on, so to speak.
"I can't walk in the middle of the floor and correct a mistake. That's the thing with those secret scrimmages. The coaches are basically standing around the court for both teams," Martin said, "and we're in a major, major, hands-on teaching situation. Even though you have referees and the game is being played, it's very informal from that standpoint. Everyone understands that we're trying to teach."
As important as it is for the Minutemen to know what they're doing on the court, the veteran coach said that how they respond when the bright lights are on and there are several thousand fans inside the arena, could tell him a lot about the season ahead.
There are 10 new players on the UMass roster, six of them are freshmen.
"From a playing standpoint and a coaching standpoint, I haven't coached a bunch of these guys in a real game," Martin said. "It's a different animal when you have fans, referees, fans in the stands, family members, good plays, bad plays, television, social media opinions, you guys asking questions after the game. It's a different animal.
"I know how Rahsool [Diggins] is going to handle all that. I don't know how [Bryant transfer] Daniel Rivera is going to handle all that, even though he's played college sports. That's how we learn."
The first regular-season game for the Minutemen is Monday, Nov. 4, when they host New Hampshire.
As Martin looks forward to the coming season, he knows UMass will need to replace 40 percent of its points from last year. Josh Cohen, now at USC, and Matt Cross at SMU, combined to average 31 points per game. As a team, the Minutemen averaged 77.4 per game.
"Every team has to have a different personality. Last year, scoring from our guards was something we weren't very good at, so we had to do everything through Matt and Josh. As the year evolved, Rahsool really started growing from a confidence standpoint, so we started doing more things for him and he started growing within our structure. So, by the end of the year, we had three pretty good scorers."
Martin said he's going to be looking to Rivera, who averaged 15 points per game at Bryant for coach Phil Martelli Jr. The UMass coach said Diggins and guard Jaylen Curry are both much improved over last year.
Up front, Martin said the improvement of forward Daniel Hankins-Sanford and Arizona State transfer Akil Watson could help the Minutemen, along with centers Malek Abdelgowad and Shahid Muhammad.
"At the end, that's going to be my job is to create an offensive structure in the halfcourt that fits the people that can score, so we can be efficient offensively," he said.