ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine women’s basketball team will be one of eight programs competing in the 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Challenge, the school announced Thursday.
The annual NCAA women’s exempt tournament sponsored by the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference will take place Sunday, Nov. 27, at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, preceded by campus-round games leading up to the main event. All proceeds from the event will benefit the nonprofit Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
UMaine will join Bowling Green, Hampton, Lafayette, Louisville, South Carolina, St. Peter’s and Tennessee-Chattanooga in the field.
UMaine’s first three games of the tournament will be played at the University of South Carolina. The Black Bears will face St. Peter’s on Nov. 20, South Carolina on Nov. 21 and Hampton on Nov. 22.
The Black Bears will play Tennessee-Chattanooga on Nov. 27 at the MassMutual Center.
South Carolina went 33-2 a year ago and was ranked among the top three teams in the country for most of the season before losing to Syracuse in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. UTC went 24-8 and was an NCAA Tournament team; Hampton went 14-17 and St. Peter’s was 4-26.
UMaine head coach Richard Barron said he was very excited to be playing in the Challenge and at the University of South Carolina.
“(South Carolina coach) Dawn Staley has built an incredible program and they lead the nation in attendance,” said Barron. “They could be the preseason No. 1 team.”
He called UTC coach Jim Foster a “Hall of Fame coach” and that his Mocs “will be a borderline top 25 team” and Hampton plays a tough non-conference schedule so their record doesn’t reflect how good they are.
“If we can come out of it with a split or better, we’ll be very happy,” said Barron.
He said the “great field” will give his Black Bears one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country.
Barron’s Black Bears will be extremely young. He has big incoming freshman class after graduating six of his top seven players.
“In some ways, it’s healthy for incoming kids to have a rude introduction to college basketball,” said Barron. “They will realize the work that goes into it, how they have to compete and what’s at stake. We won four games four years ago but the team averaged 22 wins the past three seasons. The kids we are bringing in are better than the freshmen class from four years ago. If we can go better than .500 in our non-conference games, I think we’ll have a great shot at winning America East.”
Game times, broadcast and ticket information for the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Challenge will be released at a later date via www.hoophall.com/womenschallenge.
Maine tops AE women’s basketball GPA
The University of Maine women’s basketball team led its sport in the America East Academic Cup standings for the second straight year with a 3.47 grade-point average.
The University of New Hampshire won the overall Academic Cup for the second straight year, while UMaine ranked fifth among conference schools with a 3.16 GPA.
The Academic Cup, established by the America East board of directors in 1995, is presented to the institution whose student-athletes post the highest grade-point average during that academic year.
Every America East institution and 75 percent (104-of-139) of its teams averaged better than a 3.0 GPA collectively in 2015-16. America East student-athletes averaged a 3.15 GPA overall in 2015-16, the highest single-year mark in league history and the fourth straight year a new standard has been set.