Black Bears complete season of contradictions

When trying to describe the 2004-05 season of the University of Maine men’s basketball team, it’s difficult to come up with the right word, let alone the right combination of them.

The Black Bears’ recently concluded season was one of extremes, opposites and contradictions. They weren’t quite as successful as the 2003-04 Bears, but these Bears accomplished some things those did not.

Injuries, player defections, and constantly changing lineups (11 over the course of the season) made stability a foreign concept and consistency a nearly impossible goal.

“When we had all of our parts, we had a very good chance to do a lot of good things and we could play against any of the top-flight teams in the league,” said Maine’s Ted Woodward, who just completed his first season as a college head coach.

It was almost four or five seasons in one for the Black Bears, who finished 14-15. They failed to advance to the America East conference tournament championship game for the third time in four years, but did advance to the semifinals for the sixth time in the last seven years. They fell short of the 20-win season they had last year, but accomplished something last season’s Bears couldn’t do: beating each of the top three teams in the conference.

When the Bears were healthy and at full strength, they were 7-4 overall. When missing starters, they were 4-7.

“Last year was a great run for us with 20 wins and only the second team to ever do that, but I’m obviously proud of the team that we had this year. I made a lot of great friends,” said senior tri-captain Chris Markwood of South Portland. “The shot Saturday night [the game-winning 3-pointer against BU] was a big moment for me individually, but it was a frustrating year for us being up and down with the injuries, but that’s part of the business.”

When just healthy (regular reserve swingman Jermaine Jackson left the team in mid-January and freshman guard Fefo Sanchez left due to homesickness earlier in the season), the Bears were 11-8 with wins over two-time defending champ Vermont, No. 2 Northeastern and No. 3 Boston University – a team they were 0-9 against in the last four years.

“We did things this year we haven’t been able to do in awhile,” said Woodward, who served as Maine’s assistant coach the prior eight seasons. “I can’t tell you the last time we beat the number 1, 2, and 3 teams in the league in one season.”

Makes you wonder what these guys could have done if they’d avoided injuries.

“Every team has injuries, so we can’t really cry too much about that,” Woodward said. “And it wasn’t all bad. You wouldn’t have known about guys like Jay Hight or Ammar Harknell, who got some opportunities to help us and develop. Hopefully, those things will help us long term.”

Hight is a walk-on freshman guard from Westbrook who very little was expected from. All he did was step into Markwood’s point-guard role with little warning and start eight games and play in 22 games total. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 21.9 minutes, 3.1 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game.

Harknell, a 6-6 freshman forward from Stockholm, Sweden, played in eight games and scored a career-high 12 points to help Maine beat New Hampshire en route to averaging 2.0 points per game.

Five seniors will graduate, but Maine retains some experience and leadership with the return of redshirt senior guard Freddy Petkus, who missed this season with back problems.

“He’ll certainly be a welcome person back for us. He was our second-best 3-point shooter and best passer on our team a year ago and he’s also one of our best leaders,” Woodward said.

Petkus’ return makes the Bears’ backcourt a particular strength again next season as current juniors Ernest Turner and two-time All-America East second team pick Kevin Reed – the Nos. 1 and 2 scorers, respectively – will also be back. So will backup guard Chris Bruff, a 6-3 sophomore from Bloomfield, Conn., and Hight.

What will not be back in as great a supply is size and height in the frontcourt as 6-10 forward Mark Flavin, 6-7 guard-forward Joe Campbell of Bangor and 6-9 forward David Dubois are all on the way to graduating.

Their collective void will be filled by current 6-10 sophomore forward-center Olli Ahvenniemi, who averaged 10.4 minutes, 2.0 points and 1.7 rebounds in 26 games; and redshirt freshman Christian Cavanaugh, a 6-10 forward from Mill Valley, Calif. What these guys won’t be able to replace is the leadership and maturity Campbell, Flavin and Dubois provided.

“I think they’ll be really good. Olli got a lot of experience this year, probably more than I did my first two years,” Flavin said. “As long as they stay healthy, the sky’s the limit really with that backcourt and Olli and Chris.”

Woodward is also in search of a point guard to try and fill the gaping void created by the graduation of Markwood, who was the team’s unquestioned floor general and leader on the court.

Maine has already received commitments from McDonald’s All-American candidate Junior Bernal, a 6-4 guard at Maine Central Institute, and Tyson Hartnett, a 6-5 guard from Medford, N.J., whose Shawnee High School team had just two losses this season, and Woodward is scouring the country for big guys and point guards.

Less than 24 hours after Maine’s season-ending loss to NU, Woodward was in Indiana scouting potential recruits and is also spending a lot of recruiting time in New England, New York and New Jersey.

All that recruiting time leaves little time to reflect on the season that just ended, but Woodward sees a lot more positives than negatives.

“I look back at the season as a whole and give our guys a lot of credit for fighting through the circumstances they had to,” Woodward said. “I don’t really feel like sitting around and making excuses, and neither did our guys, which is a great credit to them. I couldn’t have asked to work with a better bunch of guys.”