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It’s early morning. Nearly everything is quiet walking through Memorial Gym – only a few people, students, coaches, university employees pass through the halls.
The Field House is virtually empty. But for the last two hours, the University of Maine men’s basketball team has been practicing in the pit, busily preparing for its final home game of the season, focused on its most immediate goal, beating the Northeastern Huskies.
And they expect to win.
“We expect to win Thursday night,” guard Errick Greene said. “We expect to go to the (NCAA) tournament, too.”
The game is just days away.
For Errick Greene, Todd Tibbetts and Jamar Croom, this game might mean a little more than the rest. It’s one last opportunity to hear their names announced in front of the home fans. It’s a chance to win on Senior Night and keep the streak alive.
You see, Croom and Tibbetts, both fifth-year seniors, have never been part of a team that has lost on Senior Night.
“We have a tradition here,” said Croom, a bruising 6-foot- 8-inch center. “We haven’t lost a game on senior day yet.”
Croom is concluding his final season as a Black Bear and his last four seasons on the basketball court have been less than ideal. Jamar, or “Devo” as his teammates like to call him, has overcome many obstacles to continue playing competitive basketball. He has fought through the pain of injuries; injuries that cost him minutes on the court. Injuries that may have helped him gain the highest respect in the locker room.
“Jamar is like the heart, the warrior of this team,” Greene said of his fellow captain. “He comes in here day in and day out, gives us everything he has with a bad back. You can’t do nothing but respect the guy.”
Croom signed on with UMaine in the winter of 1997, as a member of coach John Giannini’s first-recruiting class. Croom came highly touted out of Reading High in Pennsylvania, named one of the top 10 players in the state.
That was before the injury. Croom had signed a letter of intent to play for UMaine and coach Giannini was in Pennsylvania two days before Christmas to see him play. In the game, Croom attempted to save a ball from going out of bounds and tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the process. The rehabilitation process took nearly two years to complete, forcing Croom to red shirt his freshman season.
Giannini said the injury slowed Croom’s development. When he finally became healthy, players like Nate Fox, Julian Dunkley and Carvell Ammons were playing his position.
“He’s a kid who’s had bad circumstances happen to him,” Giannini said. “If they say the true measure of a person is how they deal with adversity, Jamar Croom is one of the best human beings I’ve ever met.”
Shortly after recovering from his ACL injury, Croom began experiencing back pain. Doctors diagnosed him with an arthritic condition, something uncommon in a man his age. A number of tests have been done, but the chronic degeneration will likely be with him the rest of his life. The constant pain has reduced his playing time even more this season.
“It’s been real frustrating, especially this year because I felt that I could have been a big part of the team,” Croom. “But, I just have to be a big part of the team and lead in other ways.”
His coaches and teammates agree that no one works harder in practice and that led to Croom being named a captain this season. It’s a title he takes very seriously and one he did not expect.
“It’s a big responsibility and it’s a big honor. Of course, I was taken back by it.”
Jamar’s success and determination on the court carries over to his success off it. Croom is a two-time member of the America East Academic Honor Roll. Currently, he is pursuing a graduate degree in kinesiology and is planning to continue his education, with his sights set on a Ph.D. As a young boy, his mother Michele embedded in him the importance of a good education and he never forgot.
“I didn’t start playing basketball until late in my life and I was always an honor student. That’s just something that was instilled in me at a very early age.”
Giannini says Croom’s character stands out as much as anything.
“He’s a man’s man. Off the court he’s far more of a man than he is a college type kid,” Giannini said. “He’s in that category of players that a coach hopes his daughter marries someday.”
Greene, Tibbetts and Croom will stride on to the Alfond Arena hardwood Thursday night for the last time with one goal in mind, a win. It will no doubt be emotional, but once the ball is in the air, the X’s and O’s are still the same. Coach Giannini said he hopes Jamar gets his due recognition.
“I hope that any fan who loves University of Maine basketball would come out and support a guy who for five years has busted his gut, as much or more than any player who’s ever been here and is going to go out on Alfond for the last time.”
