League looks for bounce in men’s tourney

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Will America East follow Hockey East’s lead and move its men’s basketball tournament permanently to Boston? It is being considered among several other possibilities.

Hockey East holds its conference semifinals and final at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden.

The America East men’s basketball tournament is held at a campus site, determined by a bid process, up until the championship game, which is played at the home court of the highest seeded finalist.

AE associate commissioner Matt Bourque said developing more parity in men’s basketball was the primary topic of discussion at the recent America East meetings and one of the ways to do so is to have an attractive tournament that creates excitement among the players and fans.

“We want to make it a fun weekend destination,” said Bourque.

He said it would also be a valuable recruiting tool.

“If you know you’re going to play a tournament in a first-class facility in a major market and it’s going to be well-attended, it certainly helps,” said Bourque.

Just two of the men’s teams finished with overall records above .500 last season.

He said if anybody except league champion Albany (21-11) had won the AE tourney, that team may have had to participate in the NCAA Tournament’s play-in game between the Nos. 64 and 65 seeds.

“We need to get back to where we were two years ago when Vermont went on its run [league title and upset of Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament],” said Bourque.

America East slipped to 27th among 31 conferences in the Ratings Percentage Index last season. It was 16th two years ago.

“Part of that is cyclical but we can’t afford to have these down cycles. Our challenge is to get the teams at the bottom of the league more competitive. Not only were they the bottom teams in our league, they were among the bottom teams in the country,” said Bourque. “The women’s league has done a great job that way.”

Four men’s teams were rated 270 or lower in the RPI. Just one women’s team was lower than 215.

Boston University’s Agganis Arena will host the men’s tournament next season after it was held in Binghamton last year.

He said league administrators intend to work with the city, a hotel partner and transportation companies “to make it as easy as possible for fans to enjoy basketball and the city of Boston.”

He said Binghamton was a quality host with great fan support as an average of 4,426 turned out for the two games Binghamton participated in.

But he said “we didn’t have great crowds from the other schools” due to Binghamton’s geographic location.

That could be remedied if it was held at a central location every year.

“We want a packed house but we want it packed equally with people from all the schools,” said Bourque.

He said another possibility is rotating the tournament yearly between a New England site and a non-New England site.

Bourque said the conference needs to do a better job marketing its programs and that requires more money.

“It’s up to the nine athletic directors and it seems like they’re willing to make that investment,” said Bourque.

Some of the money will be spent on improving its TV package.

The league produced 19 TV games between the men’s and women’s teams last season and Bourque said “we’re hoping to be up near 40 next year to be in line with some of the conferences we’re competing with.”

Ashby accepts UMFK post

Bill Ashby is returning to his native Maine.

The Lubec native will be the athletic director and men’s soccer coach at the University of Maine-Fort Kent.

Ashby has spent the past four years at Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky. where he went 50-29-6 as the men’s soccer coach and 20-20-1 in two years as the women’s coach.

He was also the AD.

He was a two-time Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference coach of the year in men’s soccer and once in women’s soccer. He was also named an NAIA regional coach of the year in men’s soccer in 2003.

Prior to his tenure at Brescia, he was the head men’s soccer coach at the University of Mary (N.D.) from 1998-2002, the men’s and women’s soccer coach at Maine Maritime Academy (’92-’97) and the men’s coach at Husson College (’89-’92) and the University of Maine-Machias (’84-87).

In a press release produced by Brescia University’s sports information department, Ashby said, “I’m from Maine, I grew up in Maine and I coached in Maine for 13 years. I love Brecia, I love Owensboro and I loved my time in Kentucky. But Kentucky is not home.”

MMA coaching couple gives birth

Maine Maritime Academy volleyball, softball and assistant women’s basketball coach Katrina Dagan gave birth to a boy, Patrick Oliver Dagan, on June 21.

Katrina Dagan, who is married to head women’s basketball and women’s soccer coach Craig Dagan, is a native of Scarborough. Craig Dagan is from South Berwick.

Katrina Dagan also serves as the senior women’s administrator at MMA.

Patrick Dagan was born at 5:17 a.m. and weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces.

UM second in Academic Cup

The University of Maine finished second in the 2005-2006 America East Academic Cup standings for the second straight year. Maine won it in 2003-2004.

Maine’s student-athletes compiled a 3.11 grade point average. Vermont had a 3.14 GPA.

Maine’s softball team had a conference-leading 3.35 GPA while six other women’s teams had the league’s second-best GPA: indoor track and field (3.33), outdoor track and field (3.32), volleyball (3.3), swimming (3.25), field hockey (3.24) and basketball (3.18).