Progress is not always measured with big steps, something that is true in regard to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County men?s basketball team.
The Retrievers won five road games this year after winning just once away from RAC Arena last season. Also, UMBC (11-18, 7-9 America East) won two more conference games this season, which propelled it to fifth place in the nine-team league.
That improvement was enough to keep the Retrievers out of the play-in game for the first time in its four years in the America East. UMBC will play fourth-seeded Maine (12-17, 7-9).
The teams spilt the regular-season series with each winning at home. Maine won its game, 70-57 in January. UMBC won its game, 80-77, last Thursday.
“This is a new season for us,” UMBC coach Randy Monroe said. “It?s every person?s dream coaching college basketball to get to the NCAA tournament, and right now we have an opportunity to do just that.”
For UMBC to get through the America East tournament, it will have to shoot better than it did in its 64-51 season-finale loss at New Hampshire. There, the Retrievers shot just 18-for-50 from the field and got out-rebounded, 39-24.
Also, UMBC can?t afford to let Maine shoot as well as it did in its January win when theBlack Bears shot 51.9 percent from the field and connected on 10 of 19 three-point shot attempts. Senior guard Kevin Reed is one of three Black Bears that averages at least 10 points a game and leads the team in that category (14.1).
Retriever guard Chris Pugh said his team has learned from its losses to New Hampshire and Maine and is confident going into the tournament. Pugh, who is averaging 8.8 points and 3.9 rebounds a game, scored 20 points in UMBC?s win over Maine.
“We?re in a pretty good position right now,” Pugh said. “Beating Maine last week was big because now we know what we have to do to be successful against them. We?ve definitely made some progress this year with what is still a pretty young team that took some time to figure each other out.”
AMERICA EAST TOURNEY
at Agganis Arena
(Boston, Mass.)
First Round (Friday):
» No. 8 Hartford vs. No. 9 Stony Brook, 7 p.m.
Quarterfinals (Saturday):
» Hartford/Vermont-winner vs. No. 1 Vermont, Noon
» No. 5 UMBC vs. No. 4 Maine, 2:30
» No. 7 New Hampshire vs. No. 2 Albany, 6
» No. 6 Binghamton vs. No. 3 Boston University, 8:30 p.m.
Semifinals (Sunday):
» Noon/2:30 p.m.
Finals (March 10):
» Finals at highest remaining seed, noon (ESPN2)
