Sunday win could ignite UMaine men Bears seek to limit turnovers, especially during ‘crunch time’

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Some things just defy description.

Take the University of Maine men’s basketball season, for instance.

Perhaps the best way to sum it up as the team heads into the stretch run of its America East Conference schedule is a tale of two teams because depending on what you focus on, the Black Bears are either very good or very bad.

Confused? So is head coach John Giannini and his assistants. Well, not so much confused as they are frustrated.

Despite picking up a big win over Hartford Sunday and leading the conference in many important team and individual categories, the Black Bears are still currently in seventh among the nine America East teams in the conference standings with a 4-5 record.

“We’re a bizarre team,” Giannini said simply. “There’s an old coaches’ clich? that statistics are for losers because when you’re winning, frankly, you don’t look at the stats as much. But when you lose, you look at the stats and try to study why. In our case, we’re one of the best defensive teams in America East and one of the top rebounding teams in America East.”

With apologies to losers everywhere, the statistics bear Giannini out.

Maine currently tops all AE teams in field goal percentage (48.4 percent), defensive rebounds (27 per game) and assists (15.9 per game). Maine is ranked second in scoring offense (74.5 points per game), blocked shots (5.6 per game), and steals (8.8), and third in 3-point field goal percentage (36.3) and rebounding margin (plus 2.3).

“No one in the league can figure out why we’re where we are in terms of our conference record,” said Giannini, whose Bears are 9-12 overall. “We do have a good team and we’re good in a lot of statistical areas, but the margin for error is not very big and we could just as easily be 7-2 as we are 4-5.”

Individually, Maine is no less impressive statistically as senior center Justin Rowe leads the conference in defensive rebounds (127), overall rebounds (10.2 per game), and blocked shots (7.8). Junior guard Eric Dobson is AE’s assist leader with 4.7 per game and freshman guard Kevin Reed leads the league in 3-pointers made with 60.

“Again, stats are for losers, but look at the stats,” Giannini said with a slight chuckle. “We’re pretty good except in one area: the front page of the stats that show the standings.”

So the question remains … Why?

Let’s go back and pore over some more statistics to get an answer.

Maine is dead last among AE teams in another key statistical category: turnover margin. The Bears are at minus 3.71 compared to fellow AE teams with 389 turnovers in 21 games. That averages out to 18.5 per game.

There’s also another big reason for Maine getting mired near the bottom of the conference standings, according to Giannini, and it’s not something that’s readily analyzed statistically.

“This is a team that doesn’t quit and works hard, but just doesn’t know how to win basketball games,” Giannini said frankly. “It’s no lack of will, no lack of heart, no lack of character. It’s just trying to do too much and not understanding what needs to be done at crunch time.”

That applies both offensively and defensively, even though the Bears are one of the best defensive teams in the conference.

“Let’s just say we don’t execute real well at crunch time,” Giannini said. “If there’s 80 to 90 plays in a game, the games we’ve lost have been based on five plays or less.”

Giannini, whose victory over Hartford Sunday gave him his 100th in seven seasons with the Bears, says the root cause of the bad execution during crunch time is too much freelance, or “one-on-one” play.

That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom on the horizon for the Bears. Maine obviously has talent as Sunday’s win shows. The Bears also have plenty of time to get all the kinks ironed out by the time the league tourney begins.

“The good thing is it’s February and we have a chance to finish strong,” Giannini said. “We’re in a good stretch of our schedule with some home games and we have a chance to do some really good things.”

UMaine women remain on top

The UMaine women’s basketball team got a bit of a scare Saturday against Hartford, but the Black Bears pulled out an overtime victory to remain firmly in control of the America East standings.

Coach Sharon Versyp’s 14-4 Bears extended their winning streak to 10 games while boosting their league record to 7-0. UMaine goes into Wednesday’s contest at New Hampshire holding a 21/2-game edge over second-place Northeastern.

The Bears lead third-place Vermont and Boston University, both 4-3 in America East, by 31/2 games. However, only 21/2 games separate the teams in the Nos. 2-9 positions, which points to the parity in the conference.

“The conference is so tight and the race is so strong and competitive than anything can happen at the end of the season,” said Hartford coach Jennifer Rizzotti, whose Hawks have knocked off UMaine in the first round of the tournament the last two years.

The Bears will have to win the league title on Hartford’s home court next month as the America East Championship is being held at Chase Family Arena.

While UMaine’s recent success bodes well for its quest to win the America East championship, the Bears aren’t likely to reach the NCAA Tournament by any other means.

The Bears were ranked No. 116 and No. 118 Monday in two of the Rating Percentage Index listings available on the Internet. By comparison UMaine was among the top 50 or 60 teams in the nation when it earned NCAA at-large bids in 1999 and 2000.

Further, America East has slipped on the national scene. The conference ranks 22nd among the 31 Division I leagues, behind the likes of the Missouri Valley, Mid-American, Southern, Colonial, Mid-Continent, Big Sky, Metro Atlantic, Ivy and Ohio Valley conferences.