Sports

Men’s Basketball: Young Bears hope to improve next season

Men's Basketball loses one senior, McLemore, McNally lead UMaine returnees

By Michael Pare

Posted on March 29, 2010, at 1:34 a.m.

Amy Brooks | The Maine Campus

Murphy Burnatowski throws down a dunk in a home game earlier this season. Burnatowski had a great freshmen season and was named to the America East All-Rookie Team. The men’s basketball team loses only one senior and is expected to contend for a conference title next season.

After being picked to finish eighth out of nine teams in the America East Conference, the University of Maine men’s basketball team made a powerful statement by finishing the year with a record of 19-11 – good for third place in the conference.

Although Maine’s resurgent 2009-2010 campaign was tempered by a disappointing quarterfinal loss to the University of New Hampshire in the America East Conference tournament, coach Ted Woodward remains optimistic about his team’s future.

“We were disappointed in the game we played against UNH,” he said. “But we played very consistently all season long and we only had one loss against teams under .500 in the second half of the season.”

“That one game doesn’t make our season,” the fifth-year coach added. “You always want to win at the end of the season, but every year eight of nine teams don’t.”

The team that did win this year — the University of Vermont — will be depleted next season after losing a potential NBA player in small forward Marqus Blakely, while regular season champion Stony Brook University will also feel the loss of Ken Roberson Player of the Year award winner Muhammed El-Amin.

The only other America East team to make a postseason tournament — Boston University in the College Basketball Invitational — will also be losing eight seniors, so the door will be wide open for what will be a veteran-laden Black Bears squad next year.

Junior Bernal, UMaine’s starting point guard for parts of the past four seasons will be the Black Bears’ only loss to graduation. Woodward has spoken glowingly of the three-time All Academic Team honoree in the past, but has high hopes the team will be able to step up their contributions once he is gone.

“Junior had another great year for us,” he said. “He has been a great leader for us but we have a number of other guys that have leadership qualities, and we will continue to improve upon those with experience and maturity with the group of juniors and seniors we have next year.”

Headlining that group of upperclassmen is guard Gerald McLemore, who in his sophomore season raised his scoring average from 12.1 to 14.6 points per game and earned a spot on the America East First Team. Also back next year will be forward Sean McNally, whose performance in the paint this year (10.4 ppg, 7.4 rebounds per game, 1.2 blocks per game) made him a third team selection in the conference.

In addition, UMaine will return starters Terrance Mitchell, Troy Barnies, Murphy Burnatowski, and key reserves Mike Alison and Andrew Rogers. Mitchell was the Black Bears’ third-leading scorer this year at just under 10 points per game, while Murphy Burnatowski exceeded expectations in his first year being named to the America East All-Rookie Team.

Troy Barnies played a versatile role for UMaine last year, starting some games or bringing intensity off the bench when matchups called for it, and the long and athletic Mike Alison tipped in a buzzer-beating layup to give UMaine a win over Boston University in one of their best wins of the year.

Andrew Rogers backed up Bernal for much of the year and appears to be the logical successor at point guard next year.

“You always look at addressing things internally and then you look at recruiting,” Woodward said. “And we have a lot of confidence with the team we have right now. [Rogers] is a guy that plays a key role and has played every single game since he has been here, and we have guys we feel we can push through that spot for a short time and can fill that role.”

Woodward was honored this year as one of 15 finalists for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award for his work on and off the basketball court and will be further honored next season with the first truly experienced team he has had the pleasure of coaching at the University of Maine.

“Experienced basketball teams are the ones that are aimed for success,” Woodward said.

But he won’t be worrying about external expectations next year, just as he ignored the doubters this season.

“Our expectations will be ones that we dictate from within our basketball game and understanding realistically what we can achieve,” he said. “With experienced teams you can build on a lot of things you have done in the past.”

And next year his team will have plenty to build on.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010, 1:34 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.