NCAA hopes rest on competing every minute

ORONO – A year ago, the University of Maine men’s basketball team was a talented team coming down the stretch of a tumultuous season.

The tumult ended with a resounding thud when No. 5 Northeastern dealt the No. 4 Bears a tough 71-68 loss in the America East conference quarterfinals. A 3-pointer at the buzzer snapped Maine’s four-year streak of advancing at least to the semifinals.

It was a bitter way to end a frustrating season in which Maine was at or near the top of AE’s list in nearly every statistic.

This season, the Bears have once again climbed to the top of the statistical heap in almost every AE category, and they have again lost some close games in frustrating fashion, but there’s a difference.

“This team knows they can beat anyone and they also know they can lose to anyone,” said coach John Giannini. “They also know what the small difference is between winning and losing. There’s no substitute for experience, and they learned a lot from losing a lot of close games.”

Despite wholesale changes in Maine’s frontcourt, the Bears have improved on last season’s 18-11 overall mark and 10-8 conference record. Maine finished the regular season 18-9 overall and – more importantly – 12-6 in AE play.

“Last year, we had a great team and I think we just thought we could win some of our games as long as we just showed up,” said senior point guard Eric Dobson. “This year, we know we have to come and play hard every minute of every game.”

Still, this season’s stretch run is eerily reminiscent of last year’s in that the Bears narrowly missed a chance to be the No. 3 seed due to a tough loss in the regular season’s final week. Maine is once again the No. 4 seed, which doesn’t seem like a major difference unless you factor in potential first- and second-round foes.

Finishing third would have meant playing No. 6 Hartford, which has been struggling most of the season and is not as tough a physical matchup for Maine as No. 5 Binghamton. And should Maine win in the quarterfinals, it will likely face top-seeded Boston University, arguably the league’s most experienced and fundamentally sound team, in the semis on BU’s home court.

“BU is clearly the best team in the league right now with Vermont losing [2002-03 AE player of the year Taylor] Coppenrath, and they were already headed that way,” said Giannini.

To make matters worse, BU has won seven straight against the Black Bears. Still, the Black Bears aren’t about to back down.

“In a way, we’re 2-2 against them this year because we outplayed them in two halves, but we haven’t been able to put two halves together against them, yet,” Giannini said.

Another reason for optimism is Maine’s mental makeup.

“It’s a more mature team and they understand the things they need to do and the things they need to avoid to win games,” said Giannini. “They understand better because they’ve been through it. This team has done all the little things that we weren’t doing last year.”

Last season, the Bears averaged 18.1 turnovers a game. This year, that number is down to 15.2. Even better is Maine’s free throw percentage, which is up from 64.7 to 70.9.

Despite switching from a traditional two-guard, two-forward, center system to a four-guard lineup this year, Maine is still ranked in the top three in 13 of 19 categories and fifth or better in three of those six “subpar” ones.

One of the main reasons Maine has more than held its own after losing a significant physical frontcourt presence is the play of its backcourt.

Sophomore guard Kevin Reed leads the way. He is currently the nation’s leading rebounder among players 6-foot-2 or shorter. The 6-2 guard leads the Bears in points (14.6 per game) and rebounds (7.2) even though 6-10 forward Mark Flavin is having a standout year with 12.5 and 6.8, respectively.

“Right now, in my mind, Mark is an all-conference player. He’s taken his play to another level and become the type of post presence we’re used to,” Giannini said. “But Kevin gets the ball better than anyone I’ve ever coached, especially loose balls.

“I don’t know how he doesn’t end up with significant injuries the way I’ve seen him go after loose balls in practice. He goes a million miles an hour into brick walls and gets back up.”

When the AE playoffs begin at BU’s Case Gymnasium today, Reed and Co. will do all they can to make sure the Bears avoid running into any season-ending brick walls.