It's been a swift decline for UMBC since it's 2008 America East championship season. In the last three seasons the Retrievers win totals have dropped from 24 to 15 and have bottomed out each of the last two seasons at 4 and 5 wins respectively. Head coach Randy Monroe is entering his 8th season as head coach of the program and has been on the program's staff since 1994. Unfortunately for the 2008 conference coach of the year his record has plummeted in recent years as well and now stands at 81-124.

UMBC is in a tough environment to succeed as a basketball program to say the least. In a fertile recruiting ground the Retrievers have to contend with schools such as Maryland and Georgetown to the south, with the Big 5 of Philadelphia to the north. Yet, there is reason for optimism in 2012, that this could be the season that the team begins its climb out of the America East cellar. UMBC returns several key pieces from a year ago and welcome a promising freshman class to campus in the fall. While the Retrievers almost certainly won't contend for a postseason berth beyond the conference tournament, this could be the kind of year that fans look back to as the start of something good.

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Binghamton's current role in college basketball is to serve as the a sad reminder of how quickly things can turn on a program. Just two seasons ago the Bearcats were on top of the America East, winning both the regular season and tournament championships to advance to the school's first ever NCAA Tournament - pretty remarkable for a program that had just transferred to Division 1 in 2001. 

Today, under the guise of second-year head coach Mark Macon, Binghamton is at the other end of the spectrum, due largely to the scandal that rocked the program in the 2009-10 season that ultimately saw six players kicked off the team. An abysmal 8-23 record in 2011 (4-12 in conference) has been the low point to date, but 2012 could easily yield an even worse record given the sheer number of losses the program suffers due to graduation.

If nothing else though, credit the Bearcat faithful for sticking with their team. Binghamton led the conference in attendance for the 8th straight season in 2011, drawing 900 more fans per game than the next closest team.

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The six years of the Bill Herrion era have hardly featured much degree of variance. New Hampshire has won as few as nine games and as many as 14, going 3-6 in the America East in that stretch, never advancing beyond the second round. Is this the season the Wildcats make the jump and break .500 for the first time since 1995 and just the second time in the last 25 years? Barring a sudden offensive revelation, probably not.

UNH certainly brings some pieces to the table, including senior Alvin Abreu who is back after receiving a medical redshirt last season, but much as was the case last season, offensive ineptitude will be this teams undoing. The 'Cats simply struggle too much shooting the basketball to be taken seriously as an early season threat, but with a relatively experienced group returning perhaps New Hampshire catches fire in conference play when it counts the most.

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Year one of the John Gallagher coaching regime certainly bred a degree of optimism for Hartford fans as the team's 11 wins were the most since a school-record 18 during the 2007-08 season. The Hawks finished just a game below .500 in the America East and recorded wins over Maine and Boston during the regular season, then upset the Black Bears in the opening round of the conference tournament. Yes, 2011 was a good year for Hartford. The future could be anyone's guess.

Gallagher will enter his second season coaching the program with just six returning players on the roster, including senior Andres Torres who missed all of last year with an injury. This unquestionably will be a young team as the Hawks have already received commitments from five players and have two more scholarships to hand out for the class of 2011. At this early juncture it seems appropriate to label 2012 as a rebuilding year, which is a four-letter word for fans, but given the youth and inexperience that will be omnipresent this season, how can it be anything else?

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A year from now Maine fans may look back on 2011 as the the hardship that polarized their team and made achieving postseason success possible. Until that hope becomes a reality however, last season will stand as a monument to failed expectations, a nearly inconceivable collapse that crushed Black Bear Nation.

On the morning of February 1st the Bears were proud owners of a 14-7 record, with an 8-1 standing in the America East. Their blossoming resume featured wins over Penn State and UMass, they had waltzed into Roy L Patrick Gymnasium and defeated Vermont by 14, the sky was the limit. But it was short lived bliss. The next month produced just one win and the season ended with yet another opening round loss in the conference tournament. 

Frustration is omnipresent around the program, with most of it aimed at head coach Ted Woodward who will be entering his eighth season at Maine where he has produced a record of 88-119. The temperature will be turned up on the coach's chair this season and Woodward will be tasked with leading a team that is losing more production than he is returning. It's a bleak situation to be sure, but maybe, just maybe, there are the pieces necessary to create a product capable of winning a tournament game. 

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For many programs, a three-year record of 53-41 would hardly qualify as anything above average. In fact, it would lean heavily towards mediocre. In Stony Brook, New York it's the best of times as the Seawolves are in the midst of their best run in 20 years and best ever since transitioning to Division 1 a dozen years ago. 

Six-year head coach Steve Pikiell has presided over the low points (4-24 in 2006) and the highest (22-10 in 2010). Now he stands on the precipice of what could go down as the biggest year in the history of the program. Stony Brook returns a wealth of experience, but more importantly, a wealth of size. Things chance, narratives develop over the course of a long season, so on and so forth, but if there's a better frontcourt in the America East entering the season point it out. This interior game - should its potential be realized - will be the foundation on which the Seawolves could build their first conference championship on.

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Will Brown's tenure as the head coach of the Albany Great Danes has been a roller coaster experience, complete with nearly as many sub-10 win seasons as there have been 15-win seasons. This stretch peaked in 2006 and 2007 when Albany had back-to-back 20-win seasons a two straight conference championships.

After stumbling terribly two seasons ago, the Great Danes look to be back on the up swing, finishing in fourth last season and returning a strong nucleus of upperclassmen. An intriguing recruiting class will help bolster the lineup as well, particularly following the loss of all-conference selection Tim Ambrose. It's very likely this team is still a year away from being a real threat to contend for an America East title again, but with Brown's contract down to its final year, maybe that will be enough fire to have this team ready to win it all a year in advance. 

Let's meet Albany.

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Note: This preview posted was originally posted on April 27th, head coach Pat Chambers has since departed for the head coaching position at Penn State.

Regardless of how things play out from this point, Pat Chambers can at least know that no head coach has had a better two-year start at Boston University. The Terriers have posted back-to-back 21-win seasons, qualified for a postseason tournament in both years, won an America East Tournament championship, earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002 and gave Kansas a run for about 30 minutes or so this past March. 

What's more, BU returns all but one player to their roster next season, that player just happens to be leading scorer and rebounder John Holland who capped off a brilliant career averaging 19 points and nearly six rebounds. This is undoubtedly a major blow to the Terriers, but with the continued development of several promising underclassmen and a wealth of experience, this is a void that could ultimately be filled by the postseason.

Let's meet the Terriers.

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