ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s basketball team has landed a backcourt recruit who has played in the NCAA Division I tournament.
Trae Bryant, a 6-foot-1 point guard from Wilmington, North Carolina, by way of Cape Fear Community College, announced his verbal commitment to transfer to the University of Maine via Twitter post Thursday afternoon.
“I’m excited to announce that I am committed to the University of Maine,” he wrote. “I want to thank all of the coaches that recruited me this year, but after discussions with my family and the Lord above I feel like Maine is the best move for me to grow as a man first and basketball player second. I’m excited for what these next two years up north have in store for me.”
Bryant originally went to North Carolina-Asheville after graduating from Hoggard High School in 2015. He averaged 2.4 points per game in limited action as a freshman at UNC-Asheville and scored two points in two minutes of action during the 15th-seeded Bulldogs’ 86-56 loss to second-seeded Villanova in a round-of-64 game of the 2016 NCAA tournament played at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The University of Maine has never qualified for the NCAA Division I tournament in men’s basketball.
Bryant returned to his hometown last year as he transferred to Cape Fear CC, where he averaged 17.1 points in 32 starts last winter while shooting 50.7 percent from the field, 41.4 percent from beyond the 3-point arc and 82.7 percent from the free-throw line.
Bryant also averaged 5.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game while playing an average of 25.5 minutes per contest.
The Sea Devils, competing in Division I of the National Junior College Athletic Association, averaged 103.4 points per game last winter and finished with a 24-8 record.
Bryant is eligible to play immediately at UMaine and will have two years of eligibility. He becomes the second member of the 2015-2016 UNC-Asheville team to join coach Bob Walsh’s UMaine team for next season.
Isaiah White, a 6-5 wing who redshirted as a freshman at UNC-Asheville two years ago, signed with UMaine last fall while attending Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland. White averaged 13.6 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 47 percent from the field in 26 games for Harford last season.
Bryant and White are among five incoming recruits for UMaine, and all of them have either junior college or postgraduate experience. Point guard Celio Araujo played for two seasons at Sheridan (Wyoming) College; 6-6 forward Duncan Douglass is a two-year veteran of Santa Monica (California) College, though he sat out last season due to a knee injury; and 6-8 Latvian center Miks Antoms played last winter for the postgraduate team at Lee Academy.
UMaine is believed to still have one men’s basketball scholarship available.
