His former AAU coach calls him “probably the top shooter in the country.”

When pressed, he unabashedly – but politely – calls himself “the top 3-point shooter in the Class of ’96.”

After he sits out a year, University of Maine fans will call him a Black Bear.

Julian Dunkley, a 6-foot-10, 220-pound small forward from Cherry Hill, N.J., will transfer from Temple University and attend UMaine in the fall.

Dunkley was one of the top recruits in the nation in ’96 and played two years at Temple. He will have two years of eligibility left at Maine after he sits out the year required by the NCAA.

Dunkley said after talking with former players of Maine coach John Giannini, then visiting Maine, he decided Orono was the place he wanted to be.

“He’s always treated the players fairly,” Dunkley said of his new coach Monday night. “I’m looking for a head coach that I could have a good player-coach relationship with, and everywhere he’s been, he’s brought in good players, he’s won, and he’s put the players first.”

Coach Rick Barrett of the Adidas Gym Rats said Dunkley was recruited to play the off-guard slot at Temple, but will play small forward at Maine.

Dunkley is a native of Jamaica but moved to the U.S. in grade school and played for the Gym Rats from eighth grade on.

NCAA rules prohibit Giannini from commenting on Dunkley. Barrett said several former Gym Rats players played for Giannini at Rowan College in Glassboro, N.J., where the coach won an NCAA Division III national title.

Dunkley chose UMaine after visiting Rutgers, Boston College and Penn State, Barrett said.

Dunkley averaged 4.7 points per game for the Owls as a sophomore, starting 27 of 29 games and playing 16 minutes a contest.

He said that while he got along fine with coach John Chaney, he struggled under the restrictive Owls offense. In addition, Dunkley felt stranded in Philadelphia from the start after the assistant coach who recruited him died shortly before the start of his freshman year.

Barrett said Dunkley’s skills could make him a star in America East.

“There’s nobody in that conference who should be able to stop this kid,” Barrett said.

The social work major relishes the challenge of being a key cog in a developing program.

“I’m not here to lollygag. I’m here to help the team, and to help Coach G win. And I’m definitely here to get my degree,” Dunkley said.

Dunkley is the third high-level transfer to choose Maine since Giannini took over in 1996.

Andy Bedard and Nate Fox transferred from Boston College last summer and will be eligible to play in the fall.

Former UMaine field hockey player and coach Margaret Henrick has joined the staff at Brown University.

Henrick, an Oakland native, captained the Black Bears in 1995 and was named a CFHCA Northeast Regional All-America that season.

She was an all-North Atlantic Conference pick for three straight years and led the Bears to the ECAC championship in 1994, when she was the tourney MVP.

Henrick has a master’s degree in business from Maine.

Bowdoin College has named Kara Silberg its assistant coach of field hockey and women’s lacrosse.

Silberg, a native of Baltimore, played four years of lacrosse and two years of field hockey at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.