It has been 30 years since the words “home playoff game” could be used together in a sentence about the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
That all changes Saturday, as the Black Bears host the UMass Lowell River Hawks for their first postseason action in Orono since 1995.
The 18-13 Maine men’s team had its best regular season since 2009-2010, and the close-knit group has been reinvigorating excitement and pride around the program not seen in years.
“You can see the beginnings of building something really special,” UMaine Athletic Director Jude Killy said Thursday, crediting head coach Chris Markwood, his coaching staff and the student-athletes for the positive momentum. “It is meaningful progress.”
But progress isn’t enough for the third-ranked team in the America East Conference, whose members aren’t satisfied with simply hosting a playoff game. They’re looking for playoff wins, one game at a time.
“They’ve deserved this opportunity,” Markwood said before practice Thursday, repeatedly stressing how hard his team has worked to get to this moment. “But getting this opportunity isn’t the goal. Our goal is to go out and win playoff games and put ourselves in position to go to the NCAA tournament.”
That’s a destination that the men’s team has never reached in its history, even when Markwood was a player and captain for the Black Bears in the early 2000s. Now in just his third year at the helm, after inheriting a team that went 6-23 the season before his arrival, Markwood has UMaine in the conversation and in contention in America East.
A team built on character
Markwood has already made hard work and character a defining part of the team’s culture, and it seems to be paying dividends.
“I always say it, this program has been built on the people that are in it,” the coach said earlier in the season. “And we’ve been very meticulous on who we take — in terms of character first and foremost, team-first guys, hard workers — so what you see is just a locker room full of really good, great young men. And they get along well, they build each other up, they carry each other through the tough times and I think they’re connected.”
Top scorer and senior guard AJ Lopez highlighted that connection after a win in early February.
“We all like each other, we all bond with each other,” Lopez explained.
Ask any of the players about their individual roles and accomplishments, and you’re just as likely to get a response about their teammates or the group as a whole.
Take Kellen Tynes, who just won his third straight America East Defensive Player of the Year Award. Tynes not only leads the team on both sides of the floor, but clearly relishes the role of hyping up his fellow-Black Bears as well.
“I think we’re more connected,” Tynes said in February about the difference with this year’s team. “Not that we didn’t get along with the guys last year, but we spend almost too much time together. We’ll go eat together after practice, play video games together. So we’re really connected, and I think that shows on the court.”
‘Records are made to be broken’
There is little doubt that Tynes’ play has bolstered UMaine throughout the season. The graduate student guard set the program record for all-time steals earlier in the year, and is ranked second nationally for steals this season.
“I wanted to try and do my part, leave the place better than when I came here,” Tynes said after breaking the steals record in February. “So I think, not just me by myself, but with my teammates and coaches, we’re doing a good job of that so far.”
And the community has been taking notice.
Kevin Reed is a former player and assistant coach at UMaine. He is also one of the players who Tynes eclipsed on the all-time steals leaderboard. Reed’s reaction to that development? Nothing but pride.
“Records are made to be broken. I think anybody who’s played at UMaine sets a record and hopes that one day, someone better than them comes along,” Reed said in February. “Because if someone better than them comes along, then that’s a good sign for the program.”
Reed called Tynes “an amazing kid” who has “done some amazing things” and similarly heaped praise on Markwood, a former teammate from their time as players at UMaine.
“What he’s done for that program in such a short amount of time, there’s a level of pride that wells up in you when you see what he’s doing up there,” Reed said about Markwood. “He’s doing an amazing job.”
A core group of guards and a ‘three-headed monster’ down low
Guards Lopez, Quion Burns and Tynes have led the scoring for UMaine this season, with Lopez’s 14.6 points per game just ahead of Burns’ 13.3 and Tynes’ 12.7. Guard Jaden Clayton has added just over 7 points per game and leads the team in assists.
Both Lopez and Tynes were named to the America East All-Conference Second Team on Friday.
“They can compete with anybody in the league,” Reed said a few weeks ago. “I think the league is wide open.”
Burns has led the team in rebounding, averaging nearly 7 per game. Senior forward Christopher Mantis has provided some timely shooting and is averaging more than 8 points per game.
If the Black Bears are going to compete in the conference tournament, the play from what Markwood has called their “three-headed monster” of big men could be key. That group includes forwards Killian Gribben, Keelan Steele and Ridvan Tutic. Markwood said Tutic has been out recently with a minor injury and is “a little bit day-to-day right now” heading into the postseason.
“They’re all physical, they’re really good defenders,” Markwood said. “So they’ve given us a real force in the paint in terms of rim protection.”
And they don’t mind sharing the minutes, according to Gribben.
“We all love each other. It’s competitive here in practice, but on the court when we’re against another team, we’re all as one,” Gribben said Thursday. “We don’t care who gets those minutes, as long as we get that [win], that’s all that matters.”
The teamwork down low could make all the difference on Saturday against UMass Lowell, which Markwood said “has the best front line in the league, arguably.”
Another clash with the River Hawks
UMaine and Lowell have faced each other twice this season, as recently as Tuesday night in Orono, and head into Saturday’s 6 p.m. showdown with plenty of familiarity. UMaine has won the two previous meetings by a total of 2 points. The first game went to overtime, the second went right down to the wire.
Clayton said Tuesday’s game could have gone either way.
Lowell had five players score in double figures against UMaine earlier in the week, led by forward Quinton Mincey with a game-high 26 points.
“Now we just have to up our level, because it’s playoff time and it’s March,” Clayton added.
Women’s team has set the standard
While the men’s team is looking toward its first home playoff game in three decades, the women’s team has made that a regular occurrence. The UMaine women’s basketball team finished in the top four of America East standings for the 12th straight year.
“So they’ve set a phenomenal standard for what basketball can be at the university,” said Killy, the UMaine athletic director.
He hopes that the men can eventually match that high level of consistency, and get to a point where a home playoff game is an annual expectation.
The men’s team is starting to show what it can become, Killy said.
“To me, right now, there is so much positive energy around both programs,” he added Thursday.
Later that day, the women’s team added to the positive energy with a playoff win over NJIT. The Black Bears erupted in the fourth quarter Thursday night to earn another trip to the America East semifinals.
‘Proud to be Black Bears’
Reed, the former player and assistant coach, is still very active in the Maine basketball world. He coaches the Bangor Christian girls high school team, the top-ranked squad in the girls Class D North region this year. And he said that success in Orono absolutely helps get the younger generation involved in basketball.
Reed pointed to the team’s influence on his sophomore son, Bangor Christian guard Rajon Reed, who made the Bangor Daily News’ Class D North all-tournament team this year. Reed said his son is “completely and totally engaged” with following the UMaine men’s team.
“When the team is successful and it’s the only Division I school in your state, it builds up from northern Maine to southern Maine and everyone rallies around a program like that,” Reed said. “So I’m really happy that [Markwood] is getting it back to a place where the whole state is really proud to be Black Bears.”
Asked about those comments, Markwood said that pride means the world to him.
“It’s part of why I took the job,” Markwood said this week. “I have a ton of pride and love for this program, for the school, and I wanted to come back and kind of build it to a point that people — our community, our alumni, our fanbase — could really get behind and take pride in. And to see that that’s happening, at least a little bit right now, is great.”
Saturday’s home playoff game is anything but mission accomplished, however. Markwood called it one step in a continued climb. He’s excited for his team to be able to experience a home playoff game and show the Orono fans what the Black Bears can do in a postseason atmosphere.
“We finished third in the league, we feel like we can beat anybody in the league,” Markwood said Tuesday night. “So our aspiration and goal is to win a conference championship — a tournament championship. Anything short of that, we’re going to be extremely disappointed. All we’re going to worry about right now is that first game in front of us against Lowell on Saturday.”