This season has been a rough road for the University of Maine men’s basketball team so far, with the Black Bears languishing near the bottom of the America East Conference and sporting a 3-17 record.
Just one season removed from its best playoff showing in over two decades, the team has had to weather several key offseason losses in the transfer portal, work to incorporate a host of new transfers and freshmen, and try to overcome a spate of untimely injuries.
Monday’s loss to the University of New Hampshire may prove to be a low point for the Black Bears this year, with the team’s sluggish offense once again disappearing for long stretches of the game. UMaine continued to struggle mightily from distance, going 1-14 from three-point range against UNH.
“I thought our offensive struggles led to some defensive struggles,” UMaine coach Chris Markwood said after Monday’s loss, noting how injuries have contributed to the team’s offensive inconsistency. “We’re up and down on that side of the ball just because of the bodies that we have — or the lack of bodies that we have.”
The coach said there was plenty to be frustrated about in the 65-48 loss against the Wildcats, which he called one of the team’s worst performances of the year. It was the third time this season that UMaine has been held under 50 points in a game.
If the Black Bears are going to be able to turn things around this year and be competitive in conference play, Markwood said the first key will be staying whole and avoiding further injuries and absences. UMaine has already lost forward Killian Gribben and guard Darius Lopes to season-ending injuries.
“We need all our bodies out there. It starts there,” Markwood said. “And then offensively, we’ve got to find some identity and flow, which we had started to do.”
He said the team showed signs of improvement offensively last week against perennial American East contender Vermont, notching 13 assists while only turning the ball over twice. But the Black Bear offense still went cold for a significant portion of the second half in that game, allowing a 20-1 run that Vermont used to come back and win.
Those big scoring droughts have been frequent for UMaine this season, and have factored heavily into several of the team’s losses.
“It’s not like we’re not getting open shots,” Markwood said. “We’ve got to get to a point where we’re shooting every day. We’ve got to get to a point to kind of stymie some of those runs. You have to be able to put the ball in the basket here and there.”
The coach stressed that his team passed the ball well in its lone conference win so far over NJIT, which is currently leading the conference standings.
“So that’s gotta be our identity. We gotta make the game easy for each other,” Markwood said. “We’re not a team that can just go out and make plays all by ourselves.”
He thought UMaine players tried to go it alone offensively too much on Monday against UNH. And that cost the Black Bears, he said.
“We’re not going to be able to beat teams doing that. We’re not built that way this year,” Markwood said. “So it starts with that offensively. We have to find a better flow. We have to make the game easy for each other. It comes with sharing it. It comes with execution.”
The Black Bears need to buckle down defensively and be one of the best teams in the league on that side of the ball, Markwood said, and they need to consistently show up shooting from the floor and from the free-throw line.
“We’ve yet to kind of put all phases together,” he added.
Despite the struggles so far this season, Markwood isn’t worried — even though he’s frustrated with the Black Bears’ record.
“It’s a restart a little bit in a lot of ways, and then we’ve had the other stuff on top of it injury-wise,” Markwood said. “But I think we’ve proven that if we play our brand of basketball and we play it well, you’re gonna be right in the game with every team.”
The Black Bears will need to find ways to grind out some ugly wins, he said.
“We’re working hard every day, every night, as a staff to figure it out,” Markwood said. “The guys are working hard, too. I give them credit. They’re showing up every day with a smile on their face and working. And we’ll get there.”