AMHERST — Frank Martin has seemingly spent a lot more time shaking his head and throwing his hands up in frustration on the sidelines this season than he has anything else, and given his basketball team’s 5-10 record at the midway point of the schedule, those reactions aren’t unwarranted.

UMass has shown several glimpses of a good basketball team in all but one game (Florida State) this year – outscoring now No. 21-ranked West Virginia 41-30 in the second half back on Nov. 8, leading 10-win Arizona State by five with 12 minutes left in the second half, and playing step-for-step with each of its first two Atlantic 10 games are moments that come to mind. The Minutemen, somehow, always find a way to be within striking distance of a game in the second half despite stretches where they seem lost.

But being in arm’s reach isn’t good enough, and Martin is well aware of that. During Monday’s media availability, the third-year UMass head coach offered his thoughts on why his team – one that to the naked eye seems to leave it all out on the floor every night – has come up short more often than not thus far.

The gist? Outside of Rahsool Diggins, everyone on the Minutemen roster is being asked to contribute more than they’ve had to in their collegiate careers, which adds even more pressure when UMass goes through a scoring drought during a game.

“When we go through offensive struggles, we don’t handle those segments of the game very well,” Martin said. “I’m a player development guy, that’s what I’ve always believed in – getting guys better… The young guys have more responsibility than they did a year ago. Marqui [Worthy], Jayden [Ndjigue], Jaylen Curry, all those guys. There’s moments that they’re trying to do what I ask them to do, but they’re trying to deal with more responsibility, and things don’t work out. And those moments [are] what hurts us right now… We're trying to get our guys to learn how to play through those moments.”

Martin constructed the roster, and he had to have known that this specific problem was a possibility. However giving up on his guys will never be a thought in Martin’s head, and he still believes that they can be a competitive team and win a lot of games in the A-10. And in fairness to him, UMass proved it’s capable of that last week against Saint Joseph’s and on Saturday against Richmond.

The Minutemen held 13-2 and 22-10 leads over the Spiders before embarking on one of those “moments” Martin referenced, and they again were down just four points to Saint Joe’s – a team picked to finish third in the A-10 preseason poll – with five minutes left until another dreadful stretch ensued.

They’ve been close in the majority of their losses, yet as they say, that only counts in horseshoes.

“Have you seen some of these scores around the country in league play?” Martin offered. “People get beat by 30. Like, no one ever loses by 30 in conference play. And you go around the country, people [are] losing by 50, by 30, by 20. This is unbelievable… And I keep saying we’re close. But we’re playing good teams, and those good teams aren’t letting us win right now.”

Outside of occasional poor offensive play, another massive flaw has been the lack of contribution from the UMass frontcourt. Perhaps what makes it even more glaring is the fact that the Minutemen’s four and five spots were occupied by two First Team All-Atlantic 10 players in Matt Cross and Josh Cohen a year ago. Martin tried to replace them with a combination of seven or eight newcomers – Malek Abdelgowad, Daniel Rivera, Shahid Muhammad and Akil Watson most notably – whom he expected to step in and compete at a high level.

Add in Daniel Hankins-Sanford in his second season in Amherst, and UMass’ frontcourt is loaded with size and athleticism. Except Hankins-Sanford missed five games due to injury, Rivera has yet to truly find the Matt Cross-like gear fans are waiting for (they have eerily similar play styles) and Martin continues to carousel Abdelgowad, Muhammad and Watson looking for any sign of life at the center spot.

Whether it be poor ball-screen defense, the inability to rebound despite an average height of 6-foot-10 between the trio (UMass is 262nd in opponent offensive rebounds per game in Division 1) or those players posing no real threat on offense, the center position is the Minutemen’s biggest weakness – and likely will be moving forward.

“They’re just not playing as well as we need them to play,” Martin said. “Those guys have played better, but they have to do more, and it’s not just a scoring standpoint. We get no offensive rebounds from our centers. Zero. It’s mind-boggling to me. And then our ball-screen defense continues to be a problem with our centers. The only thing we get from the center spot is, every once in a while, Shahid blocks a couple of shots or he dunks an uncontested ball. But all the other things aren’t happening right now.”

Following Saturday’s loss to Richmond, Martin voiced his opinion on the state of college basketball – something he’s done a bunch this season. He stated that just because you recruit one player who averaged 15 points per game at his previous school, another who grabbed 10 boards a night somewhere else and one more who averaged five assists, doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to fall into place and create the perfect team.

Martin dismissed the idea that his team is taking longer to develop on- and off-court chemistry, but he did admit the challenges presented at the start of each season as players undergo the feeling-out process.

“They’re gelling, [but] the difference is that all that gelling [between transfers and returners] used to take place during your redshirt year,” Martin said. “...Now the guys that transfer are on the court. So as they’re trying to figure out, ‘Who can I trust? I got new coaches, they’re trying to learn me, I’m trying to learn them and my teammates. I kind of don’t vibe with that guy, but I vibe with this guy, and how do I use my energy to get along with both?’ But they’re playing games at the same time.”

UMass’ schedule doesn’t get any easier, as the Minutemen (5-10, 0-2 A-10) welcome conference powerhouse Dayton to the Mullins Center on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. looking to steer the ship in any other direction than the one it’s currently going in.