The University of Maine men’s basketball team will play six teams on its 16-game nonconference basketball schedule that it played a year ago and will be looking to avenge five losses in those six games.
UMaine lost to Drexel, Quinnipiac, Stony Brook, Merrimack and Brown during the 2025-26 campaign and beat Boston University.
None of the 15 Division I teams on its schedule earned a post-season berth beyond its conference tournament, although two of them, BU and Merrimack, came one win away from claiming an NCAA Tournament berth by reaching their conference championship games.
Boston University lost to Lehigh 74-60 in the Patriot League title game, and Merrimack lost to Siena 64-54 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference finale.
Head coach Chris Markwood’s Black Bears, 8-24 overall a year ago and 6-10 in America East, open their season on the road against the Providence College Friars on Nov. 2. Providence went 15-18 last season, 7-13 in the Big East.
Three days later, the Black Bears face Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Connecticut. Sacred Heart finished at 14-19, 9-11 in MAAC regular season play.
UMaine’s first home game will be against Manhattan (12-20, 8-12 in the MAAC) on Nov. 8 followed by a road game at the University of Rhode Island (16-16, 7-11 in Atlantic 10) on Nov. 10 and a home contest against Drexel (17-16, 10-8 in the Coastal Athletic Association) on Nov. 14.
Drexel dealt UMaine a 74-56 setback in Philadelphia a year ago.
The next five games will be on the road beginning with a Nov. 19 date with Quinnipiac (19-13, 12-8 in MAAC). Quininipiac upended UMaine 70-64 on the Skip Chappelle Court in the Memorial Gym.
Then it is on to Amherst, Massachusetts, to face the UMass Minutemen on Nov. 21. UMass was 17-16 in 2025-26 and 7-11 in the Mid-American Conference.
The next three contests will be at the Lafayette Classic in Philadelphia on Nov. 27, 28 and 29. UMaine will first face the host school Lafayette (11-21, 8-10 in the Patriot League) then Le Moyne College (15-17, 10-8 in the Northeast Conference) and, finally, Niagara (8-22, 5-15 in MAAC).
The Black Bears step away from NCAA Division I to entertain the University of Maine at Augusta on Dec. 1. UMA is in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division II and won the national championship last season, concluding a 21-14 campaign.
Stony Brook comes to Orono four days later. The Seawolves were 17-15 a year ago, 9-9 in the CAA. Stony Brook collected a 71-60 home win over UMaine.
UMaine heads to Chicago to battle DePaul (16-16, 8-12 in Big East) on Dec. 8, makes its way back to Orono for games against BU (17-17, 10-8 Patriot League) on Dec. 12 and Merrimack (23-11, 17-3 in MAAC) on Dec. 21 and then winds up its nonconference schedule at Brown (9-18, 3-11 in Ivy League) on Dec. 29.
UMaine beat BU 69-59 and lost to Merrimack by seven (72-65) and to Brown by five (58-53).
Providence, Sacred Heart, Drexel and UMass all won one conference tournament game while BU and Merrimack each won two.