By Ray Curren (@rjcurren.bsky.social)
BURLINGTON, Vt. — There was a time in the not-so-distant past of Maine basketball when a 55-49 loss at Patrick Gym would be cause for plenty of positivity, if not celebration.
Saturday’s heartbreaker that was tied in the final minute was the 28th straight loss for Maine to America East rival Vermont, dating back to 2013. Most have not been close.
Vermont has won eight straight regular season conference titles (although a ninth seems unlikely). Maine has never won a regular season conference championship, not even in the old Yankee Conference in the 1960s. The Black Bears have played seven decades in Division I now and haven’t seen the NCAA Tournament.
It’s no wonder Maine ranks among the toughest Division I coaching positions. Orono, Maine is among the most remote schools in the land, and being in the northeast, there are dozens of other choices for potential recruits and most have won more games in the last two decades.
Third-year head coach Chris Markwood doesn’t want to hear any of that crap, of course, and with good reason. He’s from Maine, played at UMaine, was an assistant at UMaine. His wife is also a Mainer, played for UMaine, and was even Miss Maine (as well as a finalist in Survivor a few years back).
Markwood also knows, despite what its flagship university has accomplished, Maine is a basketball state with one of the most competitive and best supported high school championships in the country, which some kid who will likely be the top pick in the NBA Draft competed in before heading to prep school and now Duke.
Markwood was an assistant on the last Maine teams to have a legitimate shot at the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2011 under mentor Ted Woodward (who now works for UConn). Those were also the last Maine teams to have winning records in the America East, the nine seasons before Markwood arrived saw the Black Bears go 21-85 in conference, and let’s face it, the America East is not exactly the Big East.
In his first season, 2022-23, Markwood got two Canadian guards to come to Maine, Kellen Tynes (who had previously been at Montana State) and Jaden Clayton. The Black Bears finished 13-17, 7-9 in America East play. Not great, but certainly improved. Last season, Markwood added Quion Burns from LIU and A.J. Lopez from conference rival New Hampshire, and had a great non-conference (including a win at South Florida) before its offense stumbled in conference play. The Black Bears—who finished eighth of nine teams in offensive efficiency—still finished strong and ended 15-17, 7-9 in conference.
This season, Markwood added sharpshooter Christopher Mantis from Appalachian State and 6-foot-10 Killian Gribben from Siena (to go with much improved 6-foot-10 Keelan Steele, who has been in Orono since Markwood arrived). The result has been the best season Maine has seen in at least 15 years and a six-game conference win streak coming into Saturday afternoon. Even with the loss, Maine remains one game ahead of Vermont for second in the America East at 6-2 (Bryant, which destroyed Maine 81-55 in the conference opener last month, is 8-0).
“There’s still a lot of basketball to go in this season, but we’ve built around the people,” Markwood said. “I wanted to hire a really good staff that I trust. We’re going to embrace Maine. I know people look at it as one of the toughest jobs, but I think there’s great potential here. I know the national narrative, but I think it’s very similar to Vermont and look where they are. It takes the right group of guys to buy in and get the thing rolling a little. That’s what we’re trying to do. I love the guys in our locker room. They want to put Maine on the map.”
The Black Bears, whose last winning record overall was 2009-10, sit at 14-9 overall, and No. 196 in KenPom. The last Maine team to finish higher than 200 was 2002-03, in Dr. John Giannini’s last season in Orono before going to La Salle.
No one is happier for Markwood’s success than his old mentor, John Becker. After leaving Maine in 2011, Markwood spent a formative three years in Burlington with Vermont before going to Northeastern and finally Boston College. Becker is not surprised Maine is now successful, he just doesn’t want them too successful while playing Vermont.
“I hate this game sometimes,” Becker said. “Chris is a dear, dear friend. I saw his wife and kids in the crowd. We caught up last night. I’m so proud of him. He’s a better man than he is a coach. He’s done an incredible job with that group. When we worked for me, he recruited guys like (former Vermont point guard) Trae Bell-Haynes (currently playing in Spain). He has an unbelievable eye for talent. We talked a lot when we got the job at Maine and he’s building it the right way, taking his time, bringing in good kids.”
Saturday’s game did show what Maine will need to take the next step to finally break its NCAA Tournament drought. Vermont is wounded and has sometimes looked like a shell of its former self this season, but is proud and can still defend with anyone. The Black Bears found it hard to get good looks and finished at 0.83 points per possession, which would have been much lower if it weren’t for Mantis’ 4 three-pointers. They got to the free throw line just seven times (all by Burns) and managed just five offensive rebounds (three by the 6-foot-1 Burns).
For the season, Maine is 272nd offensively nationally (better than the 310th last season) and struggles mightily getting to the free throw line (327th) and offensive rebounding (353rd).
“We knew today was going to be a rockfight,” Markwood said. “This was a short prep game, we played Thursday. We played a lot more zone today than we traditionally play. Our offense has shown signs of being good, we’ve scored 80 in four of our first five in conference play. We faced a really good defensive team today.”
But the Black Bears can certainly turn defense into offense. They are currently the most efficient defense in the America East and do it with aggressiveness, 15th in forcing turnovers (22.2 percent) led by Tynes (whom Becker says, “seems to be everywhere”), who is sixth nationally in steals. Maine played mostly zone Saturday, but has mixed things up against better shooting teams.
They will be a longshot to knock off Bryant this season (and will likely have to do it in March on the road in the America East Tournament). But there doesn’t seem to be much doubt that Maine’s time may be coming. And the only problem at that point might be trying to keep Maine native Chris Markwood from following Cooper Flagg to the riches of BCS world.
“We’ve done some good things up to this point, but you have to keep going,” Markwood said.
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