The University of Maine women’s and men’s basketball teams have undergone a massive turnover in personnel and will field teams with a lot of new faces this season.
The America East coaches feel UMaine women’s coach Richard Barron will continue to put a quality team out on the court as they picked the Black Bears to finish third in the preseason poll behind conference tournament champ Albany and Maryland-Baltimore County.
UMaine was followed by Binghamton, Stony Brook, New Hampshire, Hartford, Vermont and UMass Lowell.
Albany and UMaine have shared the America East regular season championship the past two seasons.
But the men’s coaches picked the Black Bears last in the nine-team conference.
Vermont was chosen to win it followed by New Hampshire, Albany, Binghamton, UMass Lowell, UMBC, Stony Brook, Hartford and UMaine.
The UMaine women are coming off their third consecutive winning season including a 50-18 mark the past two seasons and a 29-3 conference record during that time.
The men haven’t had a winning season 2010-11. They have gone 46-108 over the last five seasons, 22-59 in the conference.
The UMaine women were 26-9 last season, 15-1 in the conference, and they lost a heart-breaking 59-58 decision in the America East Tournament championship game in Albany. They then lost to Quinnipiac 90-44 in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
America East Preseason first team guard Sigi Koizar, a two-time all-conference first teamer, is the only Black Bear returnee who started a game last season. The senior guard started all 35 and averaged a team-leading 17.7 points and 3.7 assists per game.
Junior guard Tanesha Sutton, who is 5-foot-10 and appeared in nine games for Duquesne University two years ago, will be eligible this season after sitting out last year because of NCAA transfer rules.
The Black Bear roster features eight freshmen, including six Europeans.
While the UMaine women’s team was decimated by graduation, UMaine men’s coach Bob Walsh team was hurt by the decision of four players to transfer.
The team’s top two scorers, Isaac Vann (16.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg) and Kevin Little (14.7 ppg), have transferred to Virginia Commonwealth and Colorado State, respectively, and leading rebounder Devine Eke (6.8 rpg, 9.5 ppg) left for Rider University (New Jersey). Lavar Harewood, who averaged 14.5 minutes and 5.1 ppg transferred to Cloud County Community College in Kansas.
Walsh said the poll irritated him and his players.
“I’m glad it bothered the guys because it shows it matters to us. We’ve got an opportunity to go out and prove ourselves,” said Walsh, whose team went 8-22, 4-12 in the conference.
“This has been a great group to coach,” said Walsh, adding that the season-ending nine-game losing streak and the defection of the players has “really toughened our players up. This is a more mature group, and I really like the attitude they bring to practice every day.”
Junior guard Aaron Calixte (10.8 ppg) started 26 of the 30 games last season and Ilija Stojilkovic started 22, but they are the only returnees who started more than seven games. Troy Reid-Knight played in 29 games and started five.
“We’ve gotten better since the season started. We’ve just got to be able to handle difficult situations and block out things we can’t control,” said Walsh.
The men open with Division III Husson University of Bangor on Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, and the women entertain Division II Stonehill College the next day at noon.