The University of Maine athletic department is expected to announce its next women’s basketball coach later this week, possibly as early as Thursday.

UMaine athletic director Patrick Nero said he is close to choosing a successor to former Black Bears coach Sharon Versyp, who resigned April 8 after five seasons with the program to take the head coaching position at Indiana University.

Nero declined to provide any details about the selection process or his deliberations. However, he reportedly is planning to submit a name for approval sometime today.

Nero on April 8 convened a small committee made up of members of the UMaine faculty and the local community to begin researching an initial list of some 40 candidates he had compiled in anticipation of a possible coaching change.

He said UMaine received an impressive list of resumes from coaches seeking the job in addition to those whom he had preselected for consideration.

Upon announcing Versyp’s resignation, Nero explained UMaine would seek a coach who fit the school’s style. That was to include an emphasis on academics and someone who was a great teacher, an outstanding leader and an excellent coach who would fit into the community.

However, previous coaching experience was Nero’s top priority in hiring a new coach.

“This is a great job, so I really believe we can attract someone with good experience,” he said recently.

UMaine’s reputation for success was expected to make that task much easier.

“This is not a rebuilding program,” he added. This is a proven commodity. This is the best program in the America East.”

St. Joseph’s host for NAC tourney

The top-seeded Saint Joseph’s College Monks of Standish will host the North Atlantic Conference Baseball Tournament beginning Friday with Husson College’s Eagles, Becker College (Mass.) and Castleton State (Vt.) rounding out the four-team field.

The tentative schedule will have Saint Joseph’s, 28-9 overall and 11-1 in NAC play, facing No. 4 Castleton State (18-19, 7-5) to open the double-elimination tourney at 2 p.m. with No. 2 Husson (23-15, 9-3) and No. 3 Becker (22-15, 7-5) squaring off at 6.

“I think it should be a pretty tough tournament because we’ve all beaten up on each other,” said Husson coach John Winkin. “There isn’t anybody who went through unbeaten.

The losers play at 10 a.m. Saturday; the winners will meet at 2 p.m. and the survivors with one loss play at 6.

Sunday’s championship round begins at noon.

“Pitching is going to make the difference in the tournament,” Winkin said. “Saint Joseph’s has the two great pitchers [lefties Charlie Furbush and Greg Kimball]. The rest of their staff is their problem.

“We’ve had four consistent starters [Mike Cowperthwaite, Bob Webber, Chris Sargent, Travis Tripp], even a fifth one with Barrett [Dionne],” Winkin added. “That and our defense are our strong suits.”

“Our pitching depth is very key for us, especially the way people have been pitching lately. They’ve been a lot more consistent, hitting better spots with all of their pitches and not walking many people,” said Husson senior catcher Billy Kane.

The Eagles open with a Becker team that swept them 9-8 and 11-4 on April 17.

“Becker is a good team. We just have to come out and play our best ball and we usually do during tournament time,” said Husson junior center fielder Justin Spencer.