Nebrasketball: Maine Black Bears Preview

The Nebraska Cornhuskers return to the hardwood at Pinnacle Bank Arena to kick off another season of men’s college basketball Monday night against the Maine Black Bears. The 2022-2023 season marks the 127th for UNL and the 10th at PBA. This season will be the first that allows alcohol sales, however. So win or lose, responsible fans of age who have a plan to get home safe can imbibe adult beverages while watching Husker hoops.

As for this Nebraska team, the squad split a pair of exhibition games the past few weeks ahead of the season tipoff. UNL defeated Chadron State 87-60 on Oct. 23 before falling at Colorado, 72-61.

Head coach Fred Hoiberg is also 1-2 in season openers in Lincoln. His 2019 debut ended in a 47-66 defeat to UC Riverside as did year three’s 74-75 loss to Western Illinois in 2021. The lone victory in season openers came in 2020 in a 102-55 win over McNeese State.

• When: Monday, Nov. 7 at 7:01 p.m. CST/8:01 EST
• Where: Pinnacle Bank Arena - Lincoln, NE
• TV: N/A, streaming on B1G+ only
• Announcers: Jessica Coody (play-by-play), Erick Strickland
• Radio: Huskers Radio Network; Kent Pavelka (play-by-play), Jake Muhleisen (analyst)
• Broadcast Stations: KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln, KKCD (105.9 FM) in Omaha, KHYY (106.9 FM) in Scottsbluff, and KAMI (1580 AM) in Lexington
  Also available on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.
  The pregame broadcast with Pavelka and Muhleisen begins one hour before tipoff.
• Betting Odds: Nebraska is a 21.5-point favorite with the Over/Under set at 144.5 per DraftKings Sportsbook.

Maine will feature a retooled roster under first-year head coach Chris Markwood. A native of Maine, Markwood played collegiately at Notre Dame and at Maine, serving as a captain his senior season with the Black Bears in 2004-05. Following his playing career, he started his coaching career on the Maine staff before stints at Vermont, Northeastern, and Boston College. Markwood returns to Maine after spending the 2021-22 season as an assistant at Boston College. He and his staff have eight new players on the 2022-23 roster while also returning nine players from last year’s squad that finished in 10th place in the America East Conference last season. Maine was picked ninth in this year’s AEC preseason poll.

The Black Bears return two starters in Ja’Shonte Wright-Mcleish (7.4 ppg, 18 starts) and Adefolarin Adetogun (3.9 ppg, 16 starts), but all nine of their returners saw multiple starts in different games in 2021-22.

Senior guard LeChaun Duhart is the team’s top returning scorer at 8.5 points per game, but he played in just 13 games, including 12 starts. Duhart, who was Maine’s leading scorer in 2020-21 (11.0 ppg) had a career-high 22 points against fellow Big Ten member Rutgers last season. The Black Bears fell 64-80 to the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway on Dec. 30.

Monday’s game against Maine is the first meeting between the two schools. Nebraska has played just one opponent and two games among current members of the America East Conference, the fewest of any Division I conference.

Both games against an AEC member came against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (1989, 2008). Nebraska split the series 1-1 with an 86-65 victory in 1989 but a close 64-66 defeat in 2008 with both games being played in Lincoln. More recently, UMBC is the only No. 16 seed in NCAA Tournament history to defeat a No. 1 seed, doing so against Virginia in a 74-54 victory in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

Maine
2021-22 Record: 6-23 (3-15 America East)
Head Coach: Chris Markwood
Record at Maine: 0-0 (1st year)
Career Record: same

Nebraska
2021-22 Record: 10-22 (4-16 Big Ten)
Head Coach: Fred Hoiberg
Record at Nebraska: 25-67 (4th year)
Career Record: 140-123 (9th year)