The women’s basketball team will renew their rivalry with national power University of Maryland and exciting for UMBC fans, they will host them on November 19. They will also host reigning Ivy League Champion Princeton, which went 24-5 last season.

On December 28 and 29 UMBC will take part in the Virginia Tech Tournament, opening against High Point before playing either Cincinnati or Virginia Tech the next day.

UMBC will open the 2011-12 season on November 11 against Morgan State and will host New Hampshire on January 2 in their conference opener.

Friday, Nov. 11 – Morgan State – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 13 – @ Monmouth – 3:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 16 – @ Coppin State – 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 19 – Maryland – 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 22 – @ Loyola – 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 27 – @ Towson – 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 3 – Princeton – 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 6 – UMES – 7:00 p.m.
Thursay, Dec. 8 – George Mason – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 10 – @ Hampton – 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 20 – @ Navy – 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 28 – vs. High Points (Virginia Tech Tournament) – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 29 – vs. Cincinnati/Virginia Tech (Virginia Tech Tournament) – 5:00/7:00 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 2 – New Hampshire – 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 4 – @ Albany – TBA
Saturday, Jan. 7 – @ Maine – TBA
Thursday, Jan. 12 – Stony Brook – 7:00 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 16 – Hartford – 2:00 p.m.
Thursday, Jan 19 – @ Binghamton – TBA
Sunday, Jan 22 – @ Vermont – 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan 25 – Boston U (Midday Madness) – 12:00 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 28 – @ New Hampshire – 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 1 – Albany – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 4 – Maine (Hall of Fame Day) – 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 8 – @ Stony Brook – TBA
Wednesday, Feb. 15 – Binghamton (Pink Zone) – 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 19 – @ Hartford – TBA
Wednesday, Feb. 22 – @ Boston U – TBA
Saturday, Feb. 25 – Vermont (Senior Day) – 1:00 p.m.
March 1-4 – America East Championships (U. Hartford)

On November 11 UMBC will open the 2011-12 campaign against Ivy League rival University of Pennsylvania but fans will be able to get their first look at the squad on November 4 when they take on Division III opponent College of New Jersey.

As always the Retrievers will be faced with more road games than home games and this season they will have five-straight road game from the middle of November to the beginning of December.

While UMBC has three games against major conference programs none of them are completely unbeatable like Notre Dame and Connecticut may have been last season. UMBC certainly has to play at a much higher level than they have the past two seasons to keep close them but St. Johns’, which went to the NCAA tournament last season, was a senior laden squad in 2010-11 while Rutgers and Indiana continued on their recent trends of losing.

One thing that is nice to see is UMBC’s return to the ESPNU Bracket Busters challenge, where they will get to face one of the nation’s top mid-major programs.

UMBC will begin non-conference play on Monday, January 2 on the road against New Hampshire and will play their first home conference game three days later when they host Albany.

Friday, Nov. 4 – College of New Jersey (exhibition) – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 11 – Pennsylvania – 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 13 – @ St. Johns – 2:00 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 17 – Loyola (Md.) – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 19 – @ VMI – 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 22 – @ Central Connecticut St. – 7:00 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 28 – @ Rutgers – 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 1 – @ American – 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 10 – @ Towson – TBD
Wednesday, Dec. 14 – Morgan State – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 17 – Rider – 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 22 – @ Indiana – TBA
Wednesday, Dec. 28 – @ Niagara – 7:00 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 2 – @ New Hampshire – TBD
Thursday, Jan. 5 – Albany – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 7 – @ Maine – TBD
Wednesday, Jan. 11 – Stony Brook – 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 17 – @ Hartford – TBD
Thursday, Jan. 19 – Binghamton – 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 22 – Vermont – 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan, 25 – @ Boston U – TBD
Wednesday, Feb. 1 – @ Albany – TBD
Saturday, Feb. 4 – Maine (Hall of Fame Day) – 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 7 – Hartford – 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 9 – @ Stony Brook – TBD
Sunday, Feb. 12 – New Hampshire – 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 15 – @ Binghamton – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 18. – @ ESPN U Bracket Buster – TBD
Wednesday, Feb. 22 – Boston U – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 25 – @ Vermont – TBD
Friday, March 2-4 – America East Conference Tournament (U. Hartford)
Saturday, March 10 – America East Championship Game

Also in the Q&A Monroe discusses the additions of Division II transfer Ryan Cook and six freshman to the roster and what kind of expectations he has for this season.

Ray Martin has coached more than 10 NBA professional athletes in his more than 30 years of coaching.

Men’s basketball coach Randy Monroe has announced the hiring of Ray Martin as an assistant basketball coach at UMBC today.

For the last three decades Martin, who had a very successful college career at Notre Dame in the 1970’s under Digger Phelps, has been coaching basketball and spent the last four as an assistant coach and assistant head coach at North Carolina Central University.

In 1973 Martin, a native of Long Island City, Queens, N.Y., was an All-American at Mater Christi High School (now St. John’s Preparatory High School) in Astoria, Queens, N.Y. and was voted as the Best High School Basketball Player in New York City. He then went to Notre Dame where he was apart of the team that ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak on Jan. 19, 1974. Martin became the team’s starting point guard midway through his career and was a team captain by his senior season.

After he graduated in with a bachelors degree in economics from Notre Dame in 1977 Martin became the head freshman coach at Harvard University for the 1977-1978 season. He then went on to spend eight seasons as an assistant coach at North Carolina State University under the late Jim Valvano.

While at N.C. State from 1980-1988, the Wolfpack won two ACC Championships (1983, 1987) and made six trips to the NCAA tournament, including a National Championship in 1983. Following his stint with the Wolfpack Martin served as an assistant coach at Southern Methodist (1988-1989), the University of Tennessee (1989-1993), Shaw University (1994-1995, 2002-2003, 2004-2005), Florida Atlantic University (1995-1996), Miami (Ohio) University (1996-1998), Fordham University (2003-2004), and South Carolina State University (2006-2007). Martin was the head basketball coach at Long Island University from 1998-2001. In 1988 Martin was an assistant coach for John Thompson during the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials in Colorado Springs.

In his career Martin has coached many NBA professional athletes, including Allan Houston, Spud Webb, Sidney Lowe, Wally Szczerbiak, Nate McMillian, Vinny Del Negro, Thurl Bailey, and Tom Gugliotta.

Nate Stewart

After five seasons of serving as an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team Nate Stewart has been named the head coach of Eastern University in St. David’s, Pa., announced Eastern’s Director of Athletics Brad Fields.

Stewart started at UMBC in 2006 and was the longest-tenured assistant under Randy Monroe.

In Stewart’s second season the Retrievers won the America East championship and returned to the championship game the following year.

Eastern University is a Division III athletic program in the Freedom Conference and recorded a 12-12 record last season.

Erin Brown made five 3-pointers against the Florida Gators. (Courtesy Harish Trivedi)

For 22 minutes the UMBC women’s basketball team completely outplayed Florida in the WNIT, taking an eight-point lead two minutes after halftime but Florida eventually got going and used their athleticism to shut down the Retrievers, ending their season in the WNIT, 59-47.

UMBC shot 53.8 percent from the field in the first half and took a 32-31 lead into the break. But teams that rely on outside shots go through a lot of streaks, good and bad. In the second half the Retrievers had one of those bad stretches as they shot only 15.4 percent from the floor and made only two of their 12 three-pointers in the final 20 minutes.

Tope Obajolu scored 16 points while Erin Brown scored 15 with five points. Meghan Colabella scored nine points and had a game-high 13 rebounds with four assists.

After UMBC took an eight point lead with 18:02 the Gatos went on a 20-3 run over the next 6:20 to take a 51-42 lead at the 11:43 mark. UMBC cut the lead to five points with 6:25 remaining but UMBC could not find a way to score again for the rest of the game.

Even though UMBC finished the season with back-to-back losses, UMBC had a remarkable season, posting a school record 20 victories while earning their second-ever postseason berth. Their 13-3 conference record won them their first-ever regular-season championship and for the first time ever the Retrievers had three all-conference players, two of whom were on the All-America East first-team. Michelle Kurowski, Erin Brown, and Tope Obajolu, will all return next season.

Featured Image Courtesy Harish Trivedi

Michelle Kurowski has been stellar this season for UMBC. (Courtesy Harish Trivedi)

The UMBC women’s basketball team (20-11) will play the University of Florida (18-14) on Firday in Gainsville, Fla in the first round of the WNIT.

UMBC earned an automatic berth to the tournament after winning the regular season championship before falling to eventually tournament champion Hartford in the AE semi-finals. Florida earned an at-large bid to the WNIT after finishing 18-14 and being knocked out of the SEC tournament in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Tennessee.

The only other time UMBC and Florida’s women’s basketball team’s have met before was on Dec. 31, 1986. Florida won that game, 71-52, at the Florida International Holiday Classic.

Florida, like UMBC, is a very guard oriented team. Jordan Jones (10.0 ppg), Jaterra Bonds (9.0 ppg), and Lanita Bartley (8.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.4 apg) are the team’s top three scorers but it was their defense that got the job done for them, for the most part, this year.

UMBC’s only common opponent with Florida is Brown. UMBC beat Brown 75-55 and a week later Florida actually lost to the Bears, 56-50. Florida has lost nine of their last 15 games.

Featured Image Courtesy Harish Trivedi.

UMBC had a tough test of facing fourth-seeded Hartford, in Hartford, and their pressuring defense was simply too much for UMBC as they lost, 66-48.

As the top seed, UMBC had a tough schedule in the tournament, playing Stony Brook, which they do not match-up well against, in the quarterfinals, and then the host team in the semifinals.

UMBC got out to a bad start, falling behind by 13 points in nine minutes, and went into the break training, 31-18.

The Retrievers shot only 4-for-25 from the field and were clearly hindered by the league’s top defense.

The second half was not much better for UMBC. With his team trailing by 15 points at 6:36, Stern received his second technical foul of the game, forcing his ejection from the game and eventually his team was ousted from the tournament.

While UMBC is out of the America East tournament, they will be playing in the WNIT as a result of winning the regular season championship.

Meghan Coleballa scored 12 points and played stellar defense against all-conference forward Kirsten Jeter.

Teams were able to limit Michelle Kurowski late in the regular season, but Stony Brook had trouble containing her as she scored 23 points with 13 rebounds and three steals, all of which were game-highs.

Stony Brook made UMBC work for their first tournament victory since they won the 2007 championship but eventually UMBC was able to get out of the game with a 74-65 victory.

Joining Kurowski in double figures on the scoreboard were Erin Brown, Meghan Colabella, and Tope Obajolu, who scored 17, 12, and 11 points, respectfully. Surprisingly, Colabella and Obajolu led the Retrievers in assists, recording six and five, respectfully.

While UMBC had plenty of people score, their defense really limited the Seawolves offense. Kirsten Jeter got her usual double-double against UMBC as she scored 17 points with 11 rebounds, but she did not have a good shooting game, making only 6-of-14 shots. Colabella and Kristen Coles switched off Jeter all game and never really let her get in a rhythm. Juanita Cochran and Sam Landers scored 15 and 10 points, respectfully, for SBU.

The Retrievers, who won their 20th game of the year, will play host team Hartford on Sunday at 1:34 p.m.

Chris De La Rosa led the conference in points and finished second in assists this season.

After a rough season Chris De La Rosa was UMBC’s lone all-conference representative. In his second season with the Retrievers De La Rosa averaged 15.9 points per game, which was the second most in the league, and lead the conference with 6.0 assists per game. He is the 11th Retrievers to earn AE All-Conference honors and was the fifth to be named to the second-team.

Even though his statistics should have made him a candidate for Player of the Year, the team’s record likely kept him out of contention for the award, but, it’s hard to think there are five players in the conference better than him. John Holland, the Player of the Year, was joined on the first team by Tim Ambrose, Evan Fjeld, and Troy Barnies, all of whom were locks, as well as Darryl Partin, who was very good but really benefited from so many weapons around him, a luxury that De La Rosa was successful without.