Bears face unfamiliar opposition> Maine men host Boston Amateur hoops team

After eight weeks of facing off against the same supposedly friendly faces, the University of Maine men’s basketball team will face an unfamiliar foe for the first time tonight when it takes on the Boston Amateur Basketball Club.

Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. at Alfond Arena in Orono.

“I think that every team and coach is eager to see how they will do against outside competition and we’re no exception,” Maine coach John Giannini said.

Giannini said the game will be as much of a workout for him and his coaches as it is for the players.

“I think that we still have to make some decisions about our substitution patterns, what the best combinations of players are for us, what individual players’ best positions are,” Giannini said.

Giannini said the exhibition should serve as a yardstick for the Black Bears.

“The task for us for us is not only teaching a team how to win, but also making some personnel decisions. I think the next two exhibition games [BABC and a Nov. 12 tilt against the Citizens Bank All-Stars] are going to help us accomplish both those things, and most importantly tell us how far we’ve progressed so far in the preseason.”

The injury bug has hit the Black Bears, as both Tommy Waterman and Clayton Brown were sidelined for the Blue-White game.

Waterman, a redshirt freshman point guard from Bangor, sustained a concussion last Tuesday and has returned to action.

Brown, a freshman transfer from James Madison University who is sitting out his NCAA-mandated year while practicing with the team, is expected to miss two to four weeks with a leg stress fracture.