St. Joseph’s College coach Rob Sanicola wants, actually, he needs his team to stay composed when it enters a hostile gym for the start of the NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament Thursday.

Luckily for Sanicola, he believes he has the personnel that can keep his keys to beating Bridgewater State College – play defense, rebound and push the ball – foremost in their minds even as a couple of thousand Bridgewater State partisans are trying to get into their heads.

“Having six seniors, it really makes your life as a coach easier, because they stay focused and that urgency of not having another game keeps them focused,” Sanicola said.

The Monks (21-7) earned the NCAA bid, their second overall, by winning their first Great Northeast Atlantic Conference title in their second year in the league. They are one of three Maine teams heading for the tournament, along with the University of New England and Husson College, which are both making their first ever DIII tournament appearance.

One year removed from losing in the semifinals of last year’s conference tourney, St. Joe’s shrugged off being picked to finish fourth in their conference coaches’ preseason poll,

“I think the expectations in that locker room were to get to this point,” Sanicola said. “They dedicated themselves and really worked hard since last February to get to this point.”

Junior forward Ray Eatmon leads the Monks in field goal percentage (60 percent scoring (12.8 ppg) and rebounding (9.2 rpg). Seniors Elbie Murphy and Scot Vachon joined Eatmon on the all-tournament team. Vachon, a 6-foot-2 point guard, was named tournament MVP.

“He’s our emotional leader. He keeps me sane as a three-year starter at the point guard position,” Sanicola said.

Bridgewater State (20-6), the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference champions, is making its fourth tournament appearance led by 6-foot-6 center Roland Millien (16.5 ppg, 9.2 rpg).

The game tips off at 7 p.m. Thursday. The winner plays at Middlebury College on Saturday.

Husson peaked at the right time to earn its first invitation to the DIII dance. The Eagles (16-11) have won six of their last seven, including the North Atlantic Conference championship game, 73-60, over Thomas College. They are led by former Medomak Valley star Matt MacKenzie, who averages 18.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and former Bangor Christian standout Brock Bradford (13.8 ppg), who both received All-NAC first team accolades this season.

Like St. Joe’s, Husson draws a host team in the first round, in this case Worcester Polytechnic Institute (20-5), at 6 p.m. Friday. The winner advances to face the winner of UMass-Dartmouth vs. Baruch.

UNE won its first Commonwealth Coast Conference men’s championship in any sport win a 90-79 win over Colby-Sawyer College last Saturday, completing one of the great turnarounds in recent New England small college history.

Two years ago, the Nor’easters won just five games. Then Jason Mulligan was hired to take over the program in 2007 and immediately bolstered the roster by tapping a pipeline of players from Austin and Dallas, Texas. UNE won 15 games Mulligan’s first season and has already tied a school record with 24 victories this season.

The Nor’easters may be the smallest team in the tournament, with only one player reaching 6-foot-4, senior forward Johnnie Jefferson, their leading scorer (15.4 ppg). They are a run-and-gun squad that relies on a pressure trapping defense to force turnovers and convert those turnovers into layups or 3-pointers. Mulligan practically forbids mid-range jumpers. The Nor’easters converted 267 treys this season at a 37 percent clip.

UNE will meet Farmingdale State College (23-4) at 8 p.m. Friday on the campus of Rhode Island College. The winner meets the winner of Rhode Island College and MIT.