Last year’s first round playoff exit was a wake-up call for the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
The No. 3 Bryant Bulldogs packed the paint and let No. 6 UMaine dig its own grave with a 19-for-59 shooting performance (6-for-22 from distance), culminating in the Black Bears’ 18th straight America East playoff loss, 84-58.
UMaine (15-17) finished the 2023-24 season last in America East in 3-point shooting (29.5 percent) and scoring (67.6 ppg), squandering its capabilities on the defensive end — 67.5 points allowed per game was second-best in the conference.
“It’s a make or miss league,” third-year head coach Chris Markwood has said. “It’s a question of can we do it consistently enough.”
To fix his team’s shooting woes, Markwood isn’t going to change things up in the backcourt. Guards Kellen Tynes and Jaden Clayton are the team’s two best ball handlers and defenders, combining for 120 steals, 240 assists and 684 points last season. Meanwhile, winger AJ Lopez was UMaine’s best 3-point shooter (34.2 percent) — Lopez and alumnus Ja’Shonte Wright-McLeish were its only two players to eclipse 30 percent — and winger Quion Burns cemented himself as a key role player down the stretch.
Instead, UMaine will sacrifice muscle and physicality for mobility and marksmanship in the frontcourt to try and win its first playoff game since 2004-05, when Markwood himself was captaining the team as a senior.
Exiting Orono this offseason were forwards Peter Filipovity, Adam Cisse and Kristians Feierbergs, who averaged out at 6-foot-8.5 and 217 pounds. As a trio, they logged 3.8 3-point attempts and 1.9 blocks per game.
Entering Orono via the transfer portal are forwards Chris Mantis of Appalachian State, Killian Gribben of Siena University and Ridvan Tutic of New Hampshire, who average out at a slightly lankier 6-foot-9 and 210 pounds. As a trio, they are coming off seasons in which they recorded 5.7 3-point attempts and 1.6 blocks per game.
“We have more perimeter skill in that spot than we have had, and we’re not much smaller,” Markwood said. “Peter and Cisse were thicker and stronger, but Killian and Ridvan are both excellent defenders. These guys fit how we play — four or five out on the perimeter, with pro-style motion and hand-offs.”
While Mantis will account for most of the additional 3-point shooting (33.3 percent on 4.3 attempts last year), Markwood believes the overall boost in fleetfootedness will provide the necessary floor spacing and versatility UMaine so desperately needed last year.
Markwood didn’t find much offensive success in his first season either, as the Black Bears finished seventh of nine America East teams in 3-point shooting, and sixth in scoring.
“I like our dynamic. I liked it last year,” Markwood said. “We were close to making the next jump. The guys know what we’re looking for — our base identity will be similar.”
