UMaine men’s basketball will play most of its games at The Pit this season
The University of Maine men’s basketball team will play most of its home games at the Memorial Gym this season after splitting last year’s games between the venue, which is known as The Pit, and the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
The UMaine women’s basketball team played all 14 of their home games at The Pit last season after leaving the Cross Insurance Center due primarily to scheduling conflicts.
The UMaine men played six games at the Cross Insurance Center and five at The Pit a season ago.
During the 2021-22 season, each team played 11 games at the Cross Insurance Center. The women also played six games at The Pit while the men played four.
UMaine Athletic Director Jude Killy said the move to The Pit has been prompted by a desire to “try to play as many games on campus as we can to make it easier for our students and our student-athletes.”
UMaine men’s basketball coach Chris Markwood said The Pit has a “lot of history” but he also feels it is important to still play games at the Cross Insurance Center.
“There are advantages to both,” Markwood said. “The Cross Center is a great venue and we want the Bangor community to be able to watch us play.”
Killy agreed.
“The Bangor community is part of the area and region we represent,” Killy said. “We will always have open dialogue with [Cross Center general manager] Chris McGrail and the Cross Center. Chris has been wonderful to work with.”
Markwood echoed the same sentiment about McGrail, saying the new general manager has always been very accommodating and has graciously allowed him to bring recruits to the facility in order to show them around.
Markwood said it is now up to him and his team to “do our jobs and put a good product out there so [the fans] will get behind us.”
Markwood led the Black Bears to a 13-17 campaign in his first season last winter, which was the most wins since the 2011-12 season.
All four of Markwood’s non-conference home games will be at the Memorial Gym and Killy
said they are currently waiting for America East to release the conference schedule to determine which games will be played in Orono and the few that will be played in Bangor.
The change will also save UMaine money.
Killy estimated the cost of holding a game at the Cross Center at $10,000 to $12,000 per game, and that includes transportation for the team going from Orono to Bangor and other various expenses, in addition to the cost of renting the facility.
A new on-campus arena is part of the facilities upgrade made possible by the $90 million Harold Alfond Foundation gift for the athletic programs at UMaine.
It has yet to be determined when the school will start building the new basketball arena.
Markwood said playing games at The Pit will serve as a “bridge” to the new facility as they try to create a solid on-campus fan base for the future.
“It’s better for the students to have a facility on campus,” Markwood said.