Bears poised for run at NAC title

It wasn’t the dominant run to first place predicted by some of the preseason publications, but University of Maine men’s basketball coach Rudy Keeling will take the Black Bears’ third-place finish in the North Atlantic Conference.

“Finishing third after finishing second last year shows we’re right there at the top of the league vying for the championship,” said Keeling, after Maine closed out a 16-14 regular season (8-6 NAC) with a 55-39 win at New Hampshire Wednesday night.

Now, the Black Bears can concentrate on making the prognosticators look good in the second season – the NAC Tournament. As the No. 3 seed in the eight-team tourney, which opens Saturday, Maine draws No. 6 Boston University (10-17, 5-9 NAC). The game is at 1 p.m., at Alfond Arena.

Other first-round matchups will have No. 8 Hartford (6-20, 3-11) at No. 1 Delaware (24-3, 14-0); No. 7 UNH (7-20, 5-9) at No. 2 Drexel of Philadelphia (14-13, 9-5); and No. 5 Northeastern of Boston (9-18, 5-9) at No. 4 Vermont (15-12, 7-7).

Saturday’s winners advance to Monday’s second round at the court of the higher surviving seeds. (The Maine-BU winner draws the Drexel-UNH winner).

Monday’s winners play for the title next Wednesday at the highest remaining seed. That game will be televised at 7:30 p.m. by ESPN. The champion advances to the NCAA Tournament which opens March 19.

The dominant run some predicted for Maine this season was made by NAC-newcomer Delaware, which won its last 17 games of the regular season. That’s the second-longest win streak in the nation, trailing only UNLV (23 straight).

Keeling said the difference between the Blue Hens and the Bears boils down to experience. Delaware boasts three seniors and a junior among its five starters. Maine starts two seniors and one junior, but relies heavily on seven sophomores.

“What made them (Delaware) so tough is having those seniors out there,” said Keeling, who led the UM program to its first winning season in eight years in his fourth year as Maine’s coach. “We got up 10 on them in our game here and they never even blinked. They don’t panic. They just keep playing. Our young guys tend to get upset if we get behind.”

Even though Maine defeated former University of Southern Maine coach Bob Brown’s BU team twice in the regular season (by margins of 33 and 16), Keeling said he respects the Terriers.

“They scare me, because they’re a Boston team and because it’s hard to beat any team three times,” said Keeling.

The Maine coach said he doesn’t want the Bears to make the mistake of entering the tournament looking beyond BU.

“We’ve got to keep our eyes on the game in front of us. We can’t be looking ahead to getting back to the final,” said Keeling, noting Maine’s loss to Northeastern in last year’s tournament finale.