ORONO, Maine — A pivotal year for the University of Maine men’s basketball program won’t be without considerable challenges from both within the America East and beyond.
The Black Bears’ 2017-18 regular-season schedule was released Tuesday, beginning with a nonconference slate that includes opponents from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big East as well as with three opponents from the Atlantic 10.
The 15-game nonconference slate, which includes home games against Boston University (Nov. 22), the University of Maine at Presque Isle (Dec. 5), Dartmouth (Dec. 8) and the University of Maine at Machias (Dec. 10) leads up to the team’s America East opener at Stony Brook on Jan. 3, 2018.
UMaine’s America East home opener is Jan. 10 against Maryland-Baltimore County.
“Our goal with our nonconference schedule is to prepare us for the America East, and obviously the challenges we’ll face playing some big schools and a lot of travel is going to put us to the test early so we’re going to have to prepare at a high level from day one,” said Bob Walsh, who will be entering the final season of his initial four-year contract as head coach of the Black Bears.
“We’ve got a mature group of guys that I think will be excited about the challenge.”
Six of the nonconference matchups are so-called “guarantee games”, with UMaine being paid a guaranteed sum to play on an opponent’s home court. Guarantee games this year are at Boston College, Texas Tech, Georgetown, St. Joseph’s of Pennsylvania, Fordham and UMass.
UMaine played four guarantee games last year, at Virginia Tech, Providence, Buffalo and Duke, that generated a total of $325,000 minus expenses for the school’s athletic department.
“We certainly face financial challenges and we have an opportunity to help out in a way that other sports can’t,” said Walsh. “That’s part of our challenge, there’s certainly a financial component to it.”
UMaine will host exhibition games against Husson University of Bangor on Oct. 28 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor and against Saint Joseph’s College of Standish on Nov. 5 at Memorial Gymnasium on the Orono campus before opening its regular season on Nov. 10 at Boston College of the ACC in the first round of the 2017 Hall of Fame Tip-off Tournament.
That event features eight teams in two brackets, with UMaine joined by Sacred Heart, Saint Peter’s and South Alabama in the Springfield Bracket and Boston College, LaSalle, Northwestern and Texas Tech in the Naismith Bracket.
After visiting BC, UMaine will continue tournament play in Lubbock, Texas, on Nov. 14 against Texas Tech of the Big 12.
The tournament then shifts to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, with the Black Bears matched against South Alabama on Nov. 18. The UMaine-South Alabama winner advances to the championship round the following day against the Sacred Heart-Saint Peter’s winner.
UMaine then hosts Boston University in the regular-season home opener at the Cross Insurance Center before playing consecutive road games at Quinnipiac (Nov. 26), Big East staple Georgetown (Nov. 28), and Fordham from the Atlantic 10 (Dec. 2).
Home games follow against UMPI, Dartmouth and UMM before UMaine faces a season-long six-game streak of road games beginning with nonconference matchups at A10 foe Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia (Dec. 17), Central Connecticut State (Dec. 20), UMass of the A10 (Dec. 22), and Columbia (Dec. 30).
After opening its AE schedule at Stony Brook, the Black Bears conclude their road swing at Binghamton on Jan. 6 before back-to-back home games against UMBC and the University of Albany (Jan. 13). UMaine then hits the road again to visit reigning conference champion Vermont on Jan. 15.
UMaine concludes its regular season at home against Vermont on Feb. 27, with the 2018 America East tournament set to begin Saturday, March 3. All conference tournament games will be played on the home court of the higher seed, with the championship game set for Saturday, March 10, on ESPN2.
UMaine, coming off a 7-25 season last winter, will begin practices in early October.
