The Maine Black Bears men's basketball team is the basketball team that represents

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

Orono, Maine Orono ( ) is a New England town, town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Located on the Penobscot River, Penobscot and Stillwater River (Maine), Stillwater rivers, it was first settled by Province of Maine, American colonists in 1774. ...

, United States. The school's team currently competes in the

America East Conference The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachu ...

, which they joined upon its founding in 1979. Their current head coach is Chris Markwood, who took over in March 2022. The Black Bears are one of 35 eligible Division I programs to have never appeared in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament; their 78 seasons without a postseason bid is sixth most all-time among the teams in the drought. They have never been invited to a postseason tournament of any kind while having made the America East men's basketball tournament final four times; they competed for the championship in 2025.

Coaches

Rivalries

* University of New Hampshire Wildcats – Maine's rivalry with UNH is the longest continuous rivalry between two non-

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

schools, lasting 116 seasons as of 2020.

Team records

Single Season records

Career records

Notable players

Maine has had two players go on to play in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Rick Carlisle Richard Preston Carlisle ( ; born October 27, 1959) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has previously served as head coach of the Detroi ...

(who transferred to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

before being drafted) and Jeff Cross.https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/colleges.cgi?college=maine Other notable players include: * John Rupert, Accomplished 17 shooting records in a single season * Rufus Harris, 1979–80 America East Conference Player of the Year * Noam Laish (born 1993), Israeli basketball player

References

External links

* Basketball teams established in 1904 1904 establishments in Maine {{collegebasketball-team-stub