On Saturday, the University of Maine men’s basketball team will begin the second half — and the most critical half — of its season.
Starting with reigning conference champions Vermont (10-5) on the road Saturday, the Black Bears (8-7) will play all eight other America East teams twice, culminating in the conference tournament in early March.
The only way the Black Bears can punch their ticket to March Madness — the ultimate goal for any mid-major Division I school, and something the UMaine’s men’s basketball team has never done before — is by winning the America East tournament. Fortunately for fans of the Black Bears, UMaine is in an unprecedented position to do so due to its strong defensive identity and calculated style of play.
Led by reigning NCAA steals champ junior Kellen Tynes, crafty veteran forward Peter Filipovity and sophomore point guard Jaden Clayton, this year’s Black Bears were the quickest to reach eight wins since 2003-04, in only 12 games). The Black Bears also have America East’s best turnover margin (+2.53 per game) as well as its third-best defense (66.3 ppg allowed) so far this season.
“Defense fuels everything we do — we really pride ourselves on that side of the ball,” second-year head coach Chris Markwood said. “We want to set our own standard.”
In Markwood’s first season as head coach, UMaine’s defense jumped from seventh in the conference in 2021-22 (71.1 ppg allowed; +0.24 turnover margin) to fourth (69.7 ppg allowed; +1.57 turnover margin), right behind eventual America East champs Vermont (66.9 ppg allowed; +2.09 turnover margin).
Unfortunately, UMaine’s improvement on defense wasn’t enough to make a deep postseason run, as the Black Bears finished just 13-17 (7-9 in America East) and were knocked out by No. 2 UMass-Lowell in the conference quarterfinals. The Black Bears were bogged down by their below-average offense (68.5 points scored per game) last season, and are currently last in scoring (68.8 ppg) in America East this season.
But these low scoring numbers are not as concerning as they may seem.
In addition to allowing the fewest field goal attempts per game in the America East (55.3 per game), the Black Bears are equally as deliberate and hard-working on the offensive end, attempting the conference’s fewest field goal attempts per game (56.1 per game), and making a respectable 46 percent of them.
The Black Bears like to slow the game down to a chess match on both sides of the ball, and this uncommon style of play could be very disconcerting to fast-paced America East teams like Bryant (8-7), Albany (8-7) and New Hampshire (8-5).
Moreover, UMaine’s dismal 3-point shooting clip (28.8 percent, last in America East) is sure to cross back over the 30 percent mark — a threshold UMaine has maintained the past three consecutive seasons — with the growing confidence of this group and the return of junior winger AJ Lopez (10.1 ppg) from injury.
“There’s no question the guys believe that they can compete with these teams,” Markwood said. “Last year they said it, but they didn’t really know. This year, we know.”