ORONO – For the contingent of administrators, support staff, parents, fans and media traveling to Montana today with the University of Maine women’s basketball team, thoughts the last few days have centered around taking a trip.

For the Black Bears’ players and coaches, the fact travel arrangements weren’t finalized until late Tuesday afternoon wasn’t an issue. Coach Sharon Versyp and her ballclub were in Memorial Gym concentrating on the purpose of the trip – basketball.

Versyp gave the players Sunday and Monday to savor Saturday’s America East championship victory over Boston University, but they quickly began preparing for Saturday’s 9 p.m. NCAA Tournament game against 14th-ranked Texas Tech.

“They’re already focused,” Versyp said. “That’s one thing that’s been really good with this group of young ladies is that focus is always there. They knew that they needed to go back to work, but they’re still very happy and they’re flying high.”

Travel, and to much more exotic places than Missoula, Mont., is nothing new to the Bears. In November, UMaine took a season-opening journey to Hawaii and also played in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana, among other places.

Perhaps surprisingly, the statistics bear out that the Bears perform better on the road, in environments both hostile and neutral, than they do in the supportive surroundings of Alfond Arena.

“We like new areas. It’s just a little hop, skip, and a jump,” senior Heather Ernest said of heading to Montana.

“On the road, everything we do is kind of already mapped out for us,” Ernest said. “When we’re home, we obviously have class and other things that are going on. I think we just like playing away.”

The Bears have already watched plenty of video on Texas Tech and they know it will take a complete and determined effort to beat the Lady Raiders, regardless of the neutral road venue.

No matter what the location, UMaine wants to win.

“It’s a very big game, the biggest of the season, so we don’t just want to be enjoying it and be content where we are,” said senior Julie Veilleux. “We’re excited to get back out there.”

Because Texas Tech appears on TV fairly often, it wasn’t difficult for the UMaine coaching staff to acquire game tapes of the Raiders. Versyp said she was able to watch three tapes Monday.

The Bears spent a considerable amount of time during Wednesday’s practice preparing to defend Texas Tech. Versyp went through several of the Raiders’ offensive patterns and tried to familiarize her players with the strengths and tendencies of the TTU players.

UMaine is aware the Lady Raiders have played a different brand of basketball during a grueling Big 12 season.

“They’re extremely talented, they’re very physical. They have big bodies,” Ernest said.

“They’re obviously a very good basketball team,” Versyp said. “I think we have some strengths in areas where they have weaknesses and vice versa and we just need to exploit those.”