ORONO, Maine — When the last 12 months have been as tumultuous as they have been for the University of Maine men’s basketball program, you cherish the small victories.
Saturday’s come-from-behind 72-71 win at Binghamton didn’t enable the Black Bears to escape the America East cellar, but with a roster that has lost 11 different players since the end of last season to transfer, injury or suspension, that victory — achieved by erasing a 10-point deficit in the game’s final 8:10 — reflected a level of resilience among the players who remain that’s appreciated by head coach Bob Walsh.
“There’s a natural toughness and a natural resilience to those guys we have that I think has hardened over the year,” said Walsh. “We constantly talk about not allowing the stuff you can’t control to affect the stuff you can control and those guys really toughened up as things got more difficult for our program and continued to believe in what we’re doing.”
The reward for that effort presents eighth-seeded UMaine (7-24 overall, 3-13 in America East) the unenviable task of entering postseason at top-ranked Vermont (26-5), which just completed the first 16-0 regular season in America East men’s basketball history.
Game time is 7 p.m. Wednesday at Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington, Vermont.
Coach John Becker’s Catamounts won the America East regular-season crown by four games over second-place Stony Brook and own the nation’s longest Division I winning streak at 18 games. They haven’t lost since falling 81-69 last Dec. 21 at Butler, currently ranked 13th in the latest Associated Press top 25 poll and 15th in the USA Today coaches poll.
“They’re an elite team nationally as far as consistent excellence over the last 10 years,” said Walsh. “We often take it for granted when you’re consistently excellent because we allow it to become routine, but the worst year that program has had over the last eight years was last year when they finished third in the league and then led the championship game by 15 points with 10 minutes to go.
“That’s the level they’re at.”
Vermont swept the individual America East end-of-season awards announced Monday, led by junior guard Trae-Bell Haynes, player of the year, and freshman forward Anthony Lamb, rookie of the year.
In addition, senior guard Dre Wills was named defensive player of the year, senior forward Darren Payen was sixth man of the year and Becker was recognized as coach of the year.
Bell-Haynes (first team), Lamb (second team), sophomore guard Ernie Duncan and junior forward Peyton Henson (third team) each earned All-America East status despite the fact no one on the roster averages as many as 12 points per game.
“They’ve got 11 good America East players this year,” said Walsh. “They’re so balanced, they’re so well connected, they’re so talented, they’re so well coached. It’s great for our league to have an elite team like that. It’s a tremendous challenge for us to try to beat them.”
UMaine was shut out of AE’s postseason honors save for freshman forward Andrew Fleming earning a berth on the All-Rookie team and sophomore guard Ryan Bernstein on the All-Academic team. And while the Black Bears enter their quarterfinal as a decisive underdog after losing to the Catamounts by 13 and 21 points in two meetings this winter, respectively, they’ll seek to build on their most recent basketball experience.
“I was proud of the way we played Saturday and the resilience we showed because it was obvious that we showed up to win,” said Walsh, whose team will remain without leading scorer Wes Myers, suspended indefinitely since a locker-room skirmish after practice on Feb. 14. “We didn’t show up to play and see how things went and maybe if things worked out our way we’d find a way.
“We talk about winning. We talk about what we need to do to be successful. We’re going there with a great mindset of what we have to do to beat them,” he added.
