Orono, ME – The University of Maine men's basketball team begins the 2024-25 season on Monday night against #7 Duke.

GAME INFORMATION:

DATE: Monday, November 4th

TIME: 7:00 p.m

WEBSITE: Durham, NC | Cameron Indoor Stadium

2023-24 RECORDS: Maine 15-17, 7-9 AE | Duke 27-9, 15-5 ACC

VIDEO: ACCN

HEAR: goblackbears.com | 92.9 The Ticket

LIVE STATISTICS

TWITTER: @maineMBB
GAME NOTES

 

– Two-time Defensive Player of the Year –

Kellen Tynes is the reigning Eastern American Defensive Player of the Year, an award he won in two consecutive seasons at the University of Maine. He is the only player in program history to win the award, which in turn led to him being named a Left Driesell Award finalist in two consecutive seasons. He led the entire NCAA with 98 steals during the 2022-23 season. He has 168 steals in his two seasons at Maine.

In addition to his two DPOY awards, Tynes was the Black Bears' second-leading scorer in his two seasons at Maine. He averaged 14.3 PPG in the 2022-23 season and 12.6 PPG last season, leading to back-to-back America East All-Conference third team selections. Tynes enters the 2024-25 season with 938 career points.

– Conference management assistants –

Jaden Clayton made an immediate impact on the Black Bears when he stepped onto campus in the fall of 2022 and secured the title of the Black Bears' starting point guard. Since his first game, he leads the entire America East in assists with 247, a career average of 4.0 in his 62 games started.

In addition to his assist numbers, Clayton has made strides in improving his scoring and shooting percentages over the past two seasons in Maine. His scoring increased from 6.9 PPG to 9.2 PPG from his first to second seasons, while he shot at a higher percentage from the field (38.8% – 41.2%), from three-point range ( 26.2% – 30.0%) and shooting at the free throw line (72.9% – 79.7%).

– 28 and more –

Since taking over the management of the Black Bears in the summer of 2022, Chris Markwood has developed the Black Bears into a top-60 defensive program, producing more wins per season than Maine has seen in over a decade. His 28 wins in the first two seasons are the most wins in a two-year span since the 2009-11 Black Bears, who won 34 games.

– Transfers with immediate effect –

Transfers have had an immediate impact Chris Markwood Epoch. Starting with Tynes, who has asserted himself as one of the top players in the American East, Coach Markwood has brought in a number of highly influential players to form the core of the 2024-25 Black Bears.

AJ Lopez (UNH) and Quion Burns (LIU) made an impact from the start last season as they quickly became an integral part of Markwood's system. Lopez ranked fourth for the Black Bears a season ago, while Burns finished seventh. Burns

finished the 2023-24 campaign averaging 11.4 PPG in his final five contests.

Killian Gribben (Siena), Christopher Mantis (Appalachian St.) and Ridvan Tutic (UNH) are among the players looking to compete for significant minutes and become key contributors to a Black Bear team looking to continue its winning streak of recent seasons.

– Fourth in preseason poll for America East –

Maine was picked fourth in the America East preseason poll after posting a 7-9 conference record last season, making it a three-way tie for fourth place. Due to tiebreakers, Maine was ultimately the sixth seed in the conference tournament.

The Black Bears' fourth-place finish in the preseason poll is their highest since the 2010-11 season. Maine is looking to host its first-ever playoff game since the America East switched to a higher-tier format in 2015 and its first postseason win since the Black Bears in 2004.

– Program history vs. Duke –

Maine and Duke met only once during the 2016-17 season, a 94-55 win for the Blue Devils.

-UMaine-