Scholarship options open up with three exits from basketball roster

Trey Lang will to be the next University of Massachusetts men's basketball player to transfer, joining Papa Lo and Max Groebe among last year's freshmen to depart.

Lang and Lo are both still listed on the UMass roster on the school's official web site, but Lo has committed to transfer to Bryant College. Multiple Minuteman sources confirmed that Lang, who is taking summer classes at UMass to solidify his academic standing, will continue his career elsewhere. Groebe, who decided to leave before Travis Ford departed, will be at Cornell.

Lang, the 6-foot-7 son of former NBA player Andrew Lang, was a highly-recruited player out of Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga., but never cracked coach Travis Ford's rotation. He played in just five games and didn't score a point in nine total minutes of play.

With Tyrell Lynch, who sat out last year as an academic nonqualifier, now officially eligible, the Minutemen currently have nine players on scholarship for the 2008-09 season. The other three scholarships could be sorted out in a variety of ways.

If David Gibbs, an incoming freshman from Connecticut is eligible, he'd certainly receive one of the scholarships. Connecticut transfer Doug Wiggins is also expected to get one.

Travon Wilcher, the big man from Springfield, who sat out last year as an academic nonqualifier, isn't officially listed on the UMass roster yet. If he is eligible, he'd be a candidate for one of the scholarships.

UMass has reportedly received verbal commitments from two other potential transfers Oregon State's Sean Carter and Memphis' Hashim Bailey.

If both come they'd be candidates for scholarships. Last year Anthony Gurley transferred to the Minutemen from Wake Forest and paid his own way for a season. It's possible either Carter or Bailey would do the same.

MEMPHIS AT MIDNIGHT? - UMass' Nov. 17 game against John Calipari and Memphis will start at or around midnight.

The late start for the game, which will be on ESPN or ESPN2, was put in place to avoid going head-to-head for viewers against the Monday Night Football game between Cleveland and Buffalo.

The start time could be nostalgic for some UMass fans, especially with Calipari involved.

To get his up-and-coming program TV appearances in the early 1990s, Calipari agreed to play a handful of home games at midnight including the final game at Curry Hicks Cage in 1993.

To accommodate UMass adding its game with Memphis, Sacred Heart agreed to wait a year to face the Minutemen.

Memphis will be either UMass' second or third game of the season. The Minutemen open in the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament on back to back days that will fall somewhere between Nov. 10-15. Their first round opponent is unknown, but Northeastern is rumored. UMass would have to win its first game to have a second game.

The Minutemen have one more nonconference game to fill, which will come either late in December or in the middle of conference play after New Year's.

ON THE BLOG - For the all of UMass' currently scheduled nonconference games for the 2008-09 season visit the UMass sports blog at: http://www.gazettenet.com/category/sports/umass-sports.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com.