Men’s basketball’s full schedule is released
By: Corey Johns -

*Note- Times of conference games have not been released, also the time of the non-conference game against James Madison has not been released either.

Sun, Nov. 15- Morgan State- 3:30 pm
Wed, Nov. 18- Loyola- 7:00 pm
Sat, Nov. 21- @ George Washington- 2:00pm
Tue, Nov. 24- Coppin State- 7:00 pm
Sat, Nov. 28- @ James Madison- TBA
Wed, Dec. 2- @ Towson- 7:00 pm
Sat, Dec. 5- @ Toledo- 2:00 pm
Tue, Dec. 8- @ Penn State- 6:30 pm
Sat, Dec 12- Rider- 7:00 pm
Sat, Dec 19- @ American- 2:00 pm
Tue, Dec 22- @ Virginia Tech- 7:00 pm
Wed, Dec 30- @ Central Connecticut State- 7:30 pm
Sat, Jan 2- @ Vermont- TBA (AEC)
Wed, Jan 6- Pennsylvania- 7:00 pm
Tue, Jan 12- @ Boston U- TBA (AEC)
Thu, Jan 14- Hartford- TBA (AEC)
Sat, Jan 16- @ Albany- TBA (AEC)
Mon, Jan 18- @ Stony Brook- TBA (AEC)
Thu, Jan 21- New Hampshire- TBA (AEC)
Sun, Jan 24- Boston U- TBA (AEC)
Wed, Jan 27- Binghamton- TBA (AEC)
Sat, Jan 30- @ Maine- TBA (AEC)
Sat, Feb 6- Vermont- TBA (AEC)
Mon, Feb 8- Maine- TBA (AEC)
Thu, Feb 11- @ Hartford- TBA (AEC)
Sat, Feb 13- Albany- TBA (AEC)
Tue, Feb 16- Stony Brook- TBA (AEC)
Sun, Feb 21- @ Binghamton- TBA (AEC)
Wed, Feb 24- @ New Hampshire- TBA (AEC)

The men’s basketball team will definitely have their work cut out for them this winter. With just five non-conference home games, highlighted by road games at Penn State and Virginia Tech, there will have to be a lot of things that go right to come out with a winning record, but they will definitely be road tested, which will be a big advantage come conference play.

It is also nice to see so many games against local teams. While there is no game against Mount Saint Mary’s, the team will get to battle for local bragging rights against NCAA tournament team Morgan State to start the season, Loyola, Coppin State, and Towson.

But the most intriguing non-conference games is the finale, meeting Pennsylvania in the RAC. While Pennsylvania is an Ivy league team that has missed the tournament the past two years, they are consistently in the hunt and a very well coached team that will provide UMBC with a good game against a team comparable to the talent seen in the America East.

With Chauncey Gilliam out until at lest December 22, the team may struggle in the early non-conference games. Going 6-6 would be an impressive feat, with a 4-9 record being a fair estimate.

But when Gilliam returns for conference play there will be a big boost on the team. But they will be challenged early with arguably the most difficult start to conference play with four of five road games to Vermont, Boston, Albany, and Stony Brook, which is four of the projected top five teams in the conference.

Also, the end of their schedule is not easy either, with two straight road games to Binghamton and New Hampshire. While Binghamton is not expected to do very well, New Hampshire has been in the conversation for conference champions.

With that lineup of non-conference games 9-6 wins would be a fair range to guess. Assuming they take eight and go .500 that would put the Retrievers at 12-17 for the year. But as seen last year it does not matter what your overall or conference record is, one good weekend of basketball could put the team in the America East Conference championship game for a third straight year.

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I defintley agree that the Mens Basketball team has their work cut out for them this season. Although UMBC does not have a lot of experience in regards to seniors on this years roster I believe that the incoming freshman class will defintley have a major impact and at least contribute to the basketball squad being competitve. Don’t count UMBC out even in their first couple of games I mean a win against Morgan an NCAA team as was written in the article, Layola a very competive team that I believe beat the University of Maryland 2 years ago in College Park and George Washington another great team that made the tournment in the 2006- 2007 season where they lost in the first round and their coach karl Hobbs has only won 124-83 guiding the team to 2 Alantic 10 Championships, and finally if they beat Virgina Tech in Blacksburg, that could spell earlier season aspirations for an NCAA tournment consideration, considering the Hokies coached by Seth Greenberg went 19-15 last year with a 7-9 record in the very competitve ACC and had a pretty good RPI.

In conclusion there is reason to be for this years basketball they are young, taltented and I believe coach Monroe will get his players prepared to do the little things that will lead to getting some key wins, also winning in Confrence play against Vermont BU and Newhampshire should almost assure a good seed in the America East Tournment and having an overall winning confrence record. If this team does not make the tournment this year which may not happen look for 2010-211 for that to happen. or the next year its gonna happen with the talent this team has espeically with the upperclassmen.

Edward K. Featherson - October 13, 2009, 9:37 pm

Hi, loved the post but quick question…I had a little difficulty loading your page – I use firefox, do you think this was the problem…Bookmarked :-)

Jess Longe - October 29, 2009, 11:02 am