One week ago, UMBC saw its regular season draw to a close with a resounding 76-61 loss to the America East conference-leading Albany Great Danes. Fast-forward to the present, and the Retrievers again find themselves ending the season—this time, the postseason—at the hands of their conference foe. A 79-65 loss, headlined by the Danes’ Lucious Jordan scoring a game-high 22 points, officially ended UMBC men’s basketball for the 2005-06 season.

One day earlier, the Retrievers had been given a glimmer of hope in the form of an 88-70 win over ninth seeded Stony Brook in the America East conference tournament’s first round. Sophomore Brian Hodges had a banner day in the win, scoring a career-high 33 points for the Retrievers, who advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals with the win Friday evening.

With little time to celebrate their victory, the Retrievers found themselves again matched up against number one seeded Albany, and the result was a familiar one. UMBC clawed its way to a 39-30 halftime deficit, but was held to only eight field goals in the second half against an adjusting Great Danes defense.

Outstanding free throw shooting would keep the Retrievers in the game with the Danes leading only 66-56 with 6:38 remaining, but a series of missed shots and scoring opportunities took UMBC out of the game as time wound down. For the game, the Retrievers hit 24 of 29 from the charity stripe, but only 36 percent from the floor.

Despite the loss, UMBC basketball had a season to build upon. The Retrievers finished with a 10-19 record, but for the first time in its brief three-year run as a member of the America East Conference, two players were chosen for postseason conference awards. Senior John Zito was voted Second Team All America East Conference. In Zito’s final year at UMBC, he led the team in scoring (14.2 ppg) and rebounding (7.1 rpg). Meanwhile, freshman Jay Greene was named to the league’s All Rookie team after averaging 3.7 assists per game and hitting on 37 percent of attempted three-point field goals.

Greene, who started the final 18 of UMBC’s games, represents what could be the beginning of a change in UMBC’s competitive fortunes. Along with the freshman point guard, the emergence of Hodges as a serious scoring threat bodes well for a Retriever offense that slumped at times in 2005-06. While the loss of Zito will be a difficult challenge to overcome, the two guards compose a core of young talent for UMBC head coach Randy Monroe to build around in the coming seasons.

Yet despite the positives that can be taken away from individual player’s achievement, the season was often a tumultuous one for the first year head coach. Monroe saw his team take advantage of a slow-start by all nine members of the conference and remain the upper tier of the conference well into January. However, after a losing streak over students’ winter break, Monroe temporarily banned his team from wearing Retriever athletics apparel, and even went so far as to lock the team out of its locker room. Claiming the team had seemed to lose focus and determination during the slide, Monroe achieved his desired result as the team’s quality of play almost immediately was raised. Still, the Retrievers were never really able to bounce back into contention in the America East.

In order to become more competitive, the Retrievers must first learn how to win away from the friendly confines of the RAC Arena, where the team compiled an 8-4 record during the regular season. Away from UMBC’s suburban Baltimore campus, the Retrievers went an abysmal 2-15. That many of those losses came by single digits suggests that the talent is there, but that UMBC has simply not been able to concoct a winning formula in hostile territory. With a long off-season ahead for Monroe, the hope is that he can find the right combination of players and scheme to bring more wins to Baltimore in 2006-07.