Featured Image: UT Martin Basketball freshman forward Matas Deniusas (44) shoots the ball at the 2026 OVC Basketball Championship tournament at Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. on March 6, 2026. (Pacer Photo / Chloe Kent)
The UT Martin Skyhawks men’s basketball season came to close after losing to the Tennessee State Tigers in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Championship Tournament in Edwardsville, Ind.
In UT Martin’s third matchup of the season against TSU, the Tigers completed the sweep as they defeated the Skyhawks in all three contest this season.
Similar to the season finale, TSU junior guard Aaron Nkrumah led the game in scoring with 19 points. The Tigers were able to take the lead early in the first half and never give it back.
UT Martin continued to battle, but the offense could not find enough momentum and the team never regained the the lead.
The leading scorer for the Skyhawks was standout junior forward Andrija Bukumirovic with 17 points and five rebounds.
All season long, UT Martin has faced all sorts of hardships. Despite all of those challenges, the team tied the universities all-time season win total with 22 wins and a deep OVC Tournament run.
“I think it speaks to our guys character,” said UT Martin’s head coach Jeremy Shulman. “This team, the people, this program, the coaching staff, the administration and of course the players were just such a joy to coach every single day. There were no bad days.”
UT Martin lost their starting point guard, sophomore Dragos Lungu, early in the season. In six games played, Lungu averaged 13 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists. Shulman said there was a lot of uncertainty when he learned he would be without Lungu the rest of the season.
“We have just faced a lot of adversity. With Lungu going out in the sixth game —especially with such a young team we had. There were a few days (after the injury) where I thought gosh how are we going to do this?,” Shulman said. “It was next man up all year. We had 10 different leading scorers all year. We had a ton a ton of different starting lineups and it was always next man up.”
Now that the season is over, Shulman and his staff have little to no time to savor the season. The team, who was already set to lose two contributors in senior forwards Luca Colceag and Lamine Niang, are now set to lose freshman standout forward Matas Deniusas, as his agency announced that the 11-time OVC Freshman of the Week intends to enter the transfer portal.
Deniusas logged 26 minutes-per-game (MPG), and started in 32 of the 33 games he played. Following injuries, Deniusas got the opportunity to play more minutes and fully took advantage. Deniusas ranked second on the team in points-per-game (PPG) and rebounds-per-game (RPG) following the injury to Lungu. Deniusas averaged 12.5 PPG and 5.2 RPG during his freshman season.
After the announcement of Deniusas’s intention to enter the portal, Shulman went on X to congratulate his player.
“Excited for Matas and his next opportunity! I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to coach Matas this year and be a part of his journey,” posted Shulman.
The 15-day NCAA portal window opens on April 7. The portal rules were changed after prominent coaches were vocal about the previous 30-day window opening up in the middle of March Madness tournament play.
With the transfer portal becoming so prevalent in college sports, there is an expectation more Skyhawks could entertain the portal.
