By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

ORONO- It took just one moment in practice to alter everything.

When Kevin Reed injured his foot during preseason, the University of Maine men’s basketball team had some rearranging to do.

The Black Bears open the season Friday in Virginia against William & Mary, with Reed likely to miss as much a month, putting the onus on a young squad to find success without him.

“More than anything else, we were hoping to get off to a good start,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “You get off to a good start with your mature players of which his is one of the most mature. So now we’re a little more young going into the early portion of our schedule.”

Maine, which went 14-15 overall last year, was picked to finish third behind Albany and Boston University in the America East preseason coaches poll. The Black Bears were already trying to replace 50 percent of their scoring and rebounding after graduating starters Mark Flavin, Joe Campbell and Chris Markwood.

Reed was an America East Preseason All-Conference player after averaging 12.8 points and 6.9 rebounds last season. The senior guard is one of just 12 players in Maine history to have over 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. He ranks 14th and 20th all-time respectively.

Maine suffered a key injury last year when Markwood was lost for the bulk of the season. Woodward says losing a talent like Reed is tough to replace, but he feels the Black Bears have more depth than last year.

“Kevin is a dynamic player, a scorer, a leader, experienced, a rebounder, leading the league in steals, it takes more than one guy to make up what he means to a basketball team,” said Woodward. “He’s a potential player of the year candidate, but it’s also going to create some playing time. We obviously have to try to find ways to make up for it.”

Ernest Turner, Freddy Petkus and Chris Bruff are all returning players expected to help fill the void. Turner led the Black Bears in scoring last year with 13.7 points per game. He and Reed are only two of the top seven scorers back.

“Losing Kevin was definitely a big loss,” said Turner. “So I guess I’ve got to step it up. We’ve got to do whatever we’ve got to do.”

Petkus, a senior guard, was red-shirted last year after playing in 30 games with eight starts the previous season. Bruff, a junior guard, played in 28 games last year.

Woodward says newcomers Rashard Turner and Jon Sheets could help out as well. With just five returning players and seven newcomers in the program, the young talent will determine much of what the Black Bears achieve.

“We certainly have a huge learning gap,” said Woodward. “We’re very excited about our new guys, but they’re young. We know we’re going to have to have some patience, but it’s just part of basketball. It’s always cyclical when you have a senior class of five guys that leave, especially guys that played a lot of minutes for you.”

Sophomore guard Jason Hight, a Bridgton Academy product, junior post player Olli Ahvenniemi and sophomore forward Ammar Harknell are the only other returnees.

“Right now, we’re just giving a lot of guys a chance to step up,” said Hight.

“I think we’re deeper than we were last year. We have a lot of guys that can play.”

In two exhibition games, the Black Bears have shown balance and gotten multiple contributions. Red-shirted freshman forward Christian Cavanaugh led the club with 17 points in a win over the University of Quebec at Montreal.

“I think we have a lot of upside,” said Turner. “We’re starting to play decent basketball. We’re playing good now. So by the end of December, we can only get better.”

Woodward is excited about the future of his young players. They may be pressed into action more than he’d like to see at this point but could benefit.

“This team really has a chance to grow just because there are lots of guys who have a chance to play some minutes that haven’t had minutes before,” said Woodward. “If they do continue to grow the right way, I would certainly hope the second half of our season would be positive.”