With the University of Maine men’s basketball team expected to be one of the toughest teams in the America East conference this season, the Black Bears figured it was a good time to play one of their toughest schedules as well.

Adding a road game against Providence College to a 26-game schedule that already included road games against Boston College, another top Big East program; Rhode Island of the Atlantic 10, and Morgan State University of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference makes Maine’s nonconference opposition as tough or tougher than its conference competition.

“This is probably the most difficult schedule we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said first-year head coach Ted Woodward, who has been the Bears’ top assistant coach the last eight seasons. “With a younger, less-experienced team, this would be a tough schedule, but this is a mature team and a group that wants to be challenged.”

The addition of the Friars, who finished third in the Big East last season and are again expected to be a conference title contender, should significantly boost Maine’s RPI (Rating Percentage Index), a statistic which is a big factor in determining a team’s worthiness for an NCAA Tournament bid.

“We’re anxious to strengthen our schedule and they’re an awfully good team,” Woodward said. “They happened to have an open date and we’re always looking for the best possible opponents and this fills out our schedule very well.”

The Bears, who are coming off two straight 20-win seasons and their second appearance in the AE conference title game in the last three years, open their exhibition season Oct. 28 with a Blue-White scrimmage and their regular season at Chestnut Hill, Mass., against Boston College Nov. 19.