UMBC Men’s Basketball 2021-22 Season Preview
UMBC will dawn a new era this year with new head coach Jim Ferry after a 14-6 (10-4 AEC) season under coach Odom.
Odom left UMBC for Utah State. Leading scorer, RJ Eytle-Rock, and leading rebounder, Brandon Horvath, followed coach Odom to Utah State for their last season of eligibility.
Last season the Retirivers ended the regular season first in the American East Conference but were quickly eliminated from the conference tourney. Our last look at UMBC came in March, and when we see them for the first time in 2021 they will be a completely different team. UMBC was picked to finish 5th in the American East preseason poll.
Who Is Jim Ferry
Jim Ferry has been coaching college basketball since the 1990s. His most recent success was with Long Island University where he had a 52-14 record in his final two seasons from 2010-12. Those two seasons he took the Blackbirds to the NCAA Tournament.
Last season he was the interim coach for Penn State and went 11-14. Penn State did have notable wins over Wisconsin, Maryland, and Virginia Tech under Jim Ferry.
This is his first full-time head coaching gig since 2016-17 at Duquesne. He also only has three winning seasons while coaching at the Division One level.
Roster
UMBC has one of the oldest teams in the country. They are only one of three teams that have no true freshmen on the roster.
Veterans such as Darnell Rogers(G), L.J. Owens(G), Dimitrije Spasojevic(F), and Keondre Kennedy(G) will lead the Retrievers in 2021-22.
Rogers played well down the stretch last season and ended the season scoring in the double digits in six of the last seven games.
Both Owens and Spasojevic played big roles last season and started in most of the games, mostly in the second half of the season.
Kennedy came off the bench most of the season in 2020-21. He will likely see a bigger role this year with the departures of Eytle-Rock and Horvath.
UMBC was busy bringing in transfers this offseason. They were able to bring in four guys that have Division one experience and one other that played at a lower level. Hakim Byrd(G), Anyang Garang(F), Ray Salnave(G), Tre Edwards(G), and Yaw Obeng-Mensah(F) are the transfers. Hakim Byrd(Senior) and Yaw Obeng-Mensah(Junior) are the only upperclassmen.
Schedule
The Retrievers kick off the season at Umass on November 9th. That kicks off a non-conference schedule that includes trips to Pitt, Georgetown, and Princeton. They only play six games at home in their fourteen-game non-conference schedule. UMBC kicks off conference play at New Hampshire on January 2nd and concludes at home against Binghamton on March 1st. You can see the full schedule below.
