Wildcats headed to tourney

Another regular season has come and gone for the UNH men's basketball team, and the start of win-or-go-home season begins this Saturday as the Wildcats battle Maine at Chase Arena in Hartford in first round of the America East tournament.

The Wildcats finished up the season at 12-16 overall, with a 6-10 mark in the conference. This past Sunday, UNH hosted conference-leader Stony Brook in the regular season finale and defeated the Seawolves, 77-55, showing that they are a team that should not be overlooked come Saturday as the Black Bears and Wildcats meet for the third time this year.

The last meeting with Maine was at the Lundholm Gymnasium, when Gerald McLemore and the Bears went on a scoring tear to crush the Wildcats, 72-53. But it's a new season now, and with the shadow of elimination looming over every team, UNH looks to make a run deep into the postseason.

UNH head coach Bill Herrion said on Thursday that in the first two meetings, Maine out-toughed the ‘Cats, but it was the all-around game that hurt them the most.

"The first game up at Maine we were good enough defensively," Herrion said. "But we couldn't score. And the second game here at home a couple weeks ago, what was disappointing about that game was we had a couple of kids that started the game that didn't really pay attention to the game plan. The game plan was not to let McLemore get open and make threes. We lost him real early in that game."

Herrion said that McLemore is a good enough player that once he makes a couple of 3-pointers and gets in a rhythm he can seriously do some damage.

But the idea for UNH isn't to worry about what happened in the past few games. As Herrion has told his club all year long, the idea is to move forward and take it one game at a time. 

UNH is strongest in two specific areas: defense and perimeter shooting. The Wildcats are near the top of the league this year in points allowed per game (62.8), but still found it hard to contain the shooting threat McLemore possesses, along with the physicality of the big men for Maine in the low post. 

When the Wildcats were making their shots this season, they were a deadly team. In the final game against Stony Brook, UNH shot 50 percent from the floor, including 45 percent from three-point range (9-20). If both the offense and defense are clicking, the Wildcats are a dangerous squad.

But as coach Herrion has said many times, they have had problems with consistency. This week of preparation before Saturday aimed to fix those erratic aspects of their game and change their mentality for an elimination game.

"There are no stones unturned, you don't get a redo," Herrion said. "If you don't play well and you lose it's not ‘Oh well, we'll fix it for the next game.' You can't fix it until next year. I think our kids will be really focused; I think [they'll be] really locked into the game preparation, to the scouting report, to the things that we need to do to have a chance to win."

Maine's defense is right there with New Hampshire's, allowing 61.9 points per game. The last two times the Bears and Wildcats met, UNH had trouble scoring against the physicality of the Bears' defense. That will have to change Saturday in order for the Wildcats to pull off the upset.

But according to Herrion, every team in America East has a shot to win the title, because the gap this season between the top teams and the bottom half of the league is smaller than it was last season. 

"When it's one-and-done, you play well, you win and you move on," Herrion said. "If you don't play well, you lose and you're done. Our guys will be ready, and we should have built-in motivation. I think the tournament this year is truly, absolutely wide open. And if you play well for three games, anybody could win it. But we only have to be concerned with Saturday night."

  Game time for Saturday is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. in Hartford. The game will be broadcast live on the Wildcat Sports Radio Network (internet only) and also streamed live at AmericaEast.tv. Links to live audio and video, as well as live stats, will be available at www.UNHWildcats.com.