ORONO, Maine — When Chris Markwood arrived on campus earlier this year, the first thing he did was meet with his new players on the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
As a player at the University of Maine and as an assistant coach at Boston College, Markwood has gone through coaching changes and knows how the players feel to be working on their game while not having someone in charge. Markwood wanted to let the players know he was ready to work.
“First thing I wanted to do when I got up here was get around the guys,” Markwood said. “It’s a really hard transition when you’re dealing with a coach moving on or getting let go… The players that are here get left in the dust. I wanted to get in front of them and tell them my vision for the program. Let them know that I am here for them, regardless. Whether they were going to stay or go. I wanted to just wrap my arms around them and help them out and stabilize the situation as much as I could.”
Maine returns nine players from last year’s team that went 6-23 a year ago, 3-15 in America East. The Black Bears also bring in five freshmen to the team.
After meeting with players and letting players either stay with the program or enter the transfer portal, Markwood and the team got to work.
Only three returning players — Ja’Shonte Wright-McLeish, Adefolarin “Fofo” Adetogun and LeChaun DuHart — started double-digit games a year ago. Those three, as well as Ata Turgut, all live together in an apartment and have been instrumental in helping bring the team together, specifically the younger players.
“They’ve done a really good job of inviting guys over to their apartment and helping them learn about the area and the university,” Markwood said. “Those guys have done an excellent job, but so have some new guys like Kellen (Tynes), Jaden (Clayton), Gedi (Juozapaitis), those guys are pretty mature and have been able to jump in and help some of the younger guys.”
Markwood wants to bring the team back to where it was when he was an assistant coach from 2006-2011.
The Black Bear’s last double-digit win season was the 2012-13 season, and its last winning season was the 2009-10 season. Since 2000, the team has had just three winning seasons.
However, Markwood is ready to start his first career season as a head coach.
“I think the nerves come from, as a first time head coach, you’re stepping out on your own,” Markwood said. “You’re betting on yourself a little bit and there are a lot of unknowns… I think for me that’s where a lot of the nerves come from. People say you’re betting on yourself, but for me, I am betting on the University of Maine, the state of Maine and my strong belief in this place. I just am going to pour into it, my staff will pour into it, the players will pour into it and we will see what we can do.”
The team opens the season at Nebraska on Nov. 7.
Markwood was named the boys basketball Gatorade Player of the Year in 2000 at South Portland High School before continuing his basketball career at Notre Dame. After playing 18 games his freshman year and just five his sophomore season with the Fighting Irish, Markwood returned to his home state and joined the Black Bears. During the 2003-04 season, Markwood started in 23 games and averaged 5.9 points and 2.5 assists per game.
In his senior year his numbers rose to 7.7 points per game and 3.7 assists. Both seasons with Maine he averaged 0.8 steals a game.
Markwood then coached with the Black Bears from 2006 until 2011, when he left for an assistant coaching job with the University of Vermont for three seasons. He’d then go on to have coaching stints with Northeastern and Boston College before returning home.
“There’s a lot of history with me here,” Markwood said. “This is my home state and a place that’s near and dear to my heart. I played here, was an assistant coach, so the opportunity to come home and try to rebuild the program and put it in a place where it has been and where I believe it can be, it’s been a while since that’s been the case, and I want to take my swing at it. I want to put the best guys in place and see if we can make it happen.”
Markwood was the recruiting coordinator at Northeastern, so he has connections in New England, a region from which he said he wants to recruit heavily.
“It’s going to start in the state of Maine and the Northeast. We are going to recruit New England hard,” Markwood said. “We have a couple verbal commits and recruit the region really hard. We are going to recruit Canada hard and there’s a lot of great basketball that doesn’t get recruited as it should. Then in the country, we’re going to get out and find pockets we feel we can get into whether it’s relationship-based or places we’ve recruited before, and also recruit places we feel are under recruited.”
The state of Maine is becoming a more serious high school basketball state, with a growing number of players getting looks by Division I teams.
Former South Portland big man J.P. Estrella recently committed to the University of Tennessee and will play his final high school year at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, while former Nokomis standouts Cooper and Ace Flagg have transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida to prepare themselves for Division I basketball in three years, as the two have garnered multiple offers from top schools.
Landon Clark, a sophomore and formerly a standout on the Bangor Rams, transferred to St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire and has already been offered a scholarship by Markwood and the University of Maine.
Last spring, while Jason Steadman was in charge of the Black Bears as interim head coach, the team brought on South Portland’s Owen Maloney and 2022 Maine Mr. Basketball John Shea of Edward Little.
“Those two have been tremendous,” Markwood said. “They’re great young men, and they’re taking their crack at Division I basketball. They’re walking on, and for me, being a part of this program, being an assistant coach, having a Maine flavor on the team is an important piece here. Having guys that really take pride in this university.”
Still, some fans of the team want to see more Maine basketball players on the state’s flagship team. Markwood knows that and said that’s part of his plan. But, the players have to fit the mold. He said they have to have talent, toughness and grit and be able to develop their game to the collegiate level.
“I would love to have a roster full of Maine kids, too, but time shows you that we’re just not producing enough of those guys,” he said. “Maine high school basketball is producing good players, and there are kids that we are watching closely, who we want to recruit hard and watch their development. … But it’s about getting the right ones. I can fill my team with good Maine kids, but they need to be at this level. It doesn’t do us any good or them any good if they’re not the right ones.”