The University of Maine men’s basketball team, coming off one of its best seasons in over 20 years, has added four new transfer players to the roster heading into next season.
UMaine has picked up guards Ryan Mabrey, Yanis Bamba, TJ Beal and Mekhi Gray through the transfer portal. Mabrey played at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut last year, Bamba was at Wichita State in Kansas previously, Biel comes to Orono via Southeast Missouri State and Gray played most recently at UMass Lowell.
All four are listed as guards by their previous schools and are 6-foot-4 or taller, bringing additional size and versatility to the UMaine roster.
Mabrey spent his junior season at Quinnipiac where he averaged 4.3 points per game. Prior to that the 6-foot-5 guard from Belmar, New Jersey, played two seasons at Miami University in Ohio. He comes from a basketball family, and his sister Marina Mabrey plays in the WNBA for the Connecticut Sun.
“Ryan is a highly skilled guard with great size and feel for the game, who comes from a great basketball pedigree,” UMaine head coach Chris Markwood said in a press release announcing the new transfers. “He has played a lot of college basketball throughout his career, and knows what it takes to win.”
Bamba played in four games as a redshirt freshman at Wichita State this past season. Markwood said UMaine initially tried to recruit the 6-foot-6 combo guard from Quebec “heavily” out of high school.
“He is an extremely versatile ‘two-way’ player that can play multiple positions on the perimeter and possesses a great combination of size, athleticism, and skill,” Markwood said about Bamba.
Biel, also from Canada, spent his last two seasons at Southeast Missouri State University. The Calgary native can play multiple positions, according to Markwood.
“TJ is another extremely versatile ‘two-way’ player who can play multiple positions,” Markwood said. “He is a very fluid athlete for his size at [6-foot-8], with a great motor, and has the ability to score the ball in a variety of ways.”
Gray is from Montrose, New York, and joins UMaine after splitting five years between UMass Lowell and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The 6-foot-4 guard, who Markwood called “proven” in the America East Conference, averaged three points over 10 games for the River Hawks last season, and averaged more than 10 points per game the season before with NJIT.
“He is an electric athlete with a well-rounded game, and brings great versatility to both sides of the basketball,” Markwood said about Gray.
UMaine has also been expecting the previously announced addition of three incoming freshmen: Forward Ace Flagg, guard Bashir N’Galang and forward Josh Ojuri. Flagg is the twin brother of Cooper Flagg, who is considered the consensus number one pick in the upcoming NBA draft.
The Black Bears had lost three of its leading guards from last season, with three-time conference defensive player of the year Kellen Tynes exhausting his college eligibility, and top scorer AJ Lopez and versatile guard Jaden Clayton entering the transfer portal in March.
Lopez will play at the University of Richmond in Virginia next season and Clayton ended up at the University of the Pacific in California.