{"id":36784,"date":"2025-07-25T17:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T17:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/36784\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T17:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T17:09:13","slug":"bangor-area-basketball-star-is-surprise-addition-to-umaine-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/36784\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangor-area basketball star is surprise addition to UMaine roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emmitt Byther was one of the best high school basketball players in the state last year. The former Old Town standout\u2019s size and athleticism made him a matchup nightmare<\/a>\u00a0for opponents. <\/p>\n

And now he\u2019s living a dream as a new member of the University of Maine men\u2019s basketball team. <\/p>\n

Byther was originally set to attend Division III University of Southern Maine this fall. But plans changed, and the 6-foot-6 Byther has instead taken his high-intensity game to top level in Maine college basketball. <\/p>\n

UMaine is the only Division I program in the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Maine kid growing up here, everybody always dreams of playing here, wearing Maine across your chest.\u201d Byther said Thursday before a team practice. \u201cTo have an opportunity to come here, it\u2019s a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byther has strong UMaine ties, pointing out that his mother also went to the school and saying that he \u201cgrew up on this campus.\u201d He played his high school ball just down the road in neighboring Old Town and was a member of the Bangor Daily News\u2019 All-Maine Second Team in his senior season. <\/p>\n

UMaine head coach Chris Markwood is \u201creally excited to have Emmitt\u201d as an addition to the Black Bears roster. The team had already recruited<\/a>\u00a0several other freshmen and picked others up in the transfer portal<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we kind of finished our roster, our traditional roster, got done with the portal, we kind of identified that with this team, we needed to add one more body,\u201d Markwood said. \u201cWe needed a bigger body that could kind of help in practice, but also develop hopefully into a player here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Markwood said the team had been keeping an eye on Byther and knew there was mutual interest. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just kind of worked out, the timing of it,\u201d the coach said. <\/p>\n

Byther couldn\u2019t pass on the opportunity to play at UMaine. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t take it, I\u2019d obviously be mad at myself,\u201d Byther said. \u201cBecause there would always be that thought that like, \u2018What could have been?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While he may have seen more immediate playing time at a smaller USM program, Byther is embracing the challenge of competing at the Division I level and willing to work on \u201cany way that I can help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Markwood said that the 6-foot-6, 225-pound Byther \u201cmoves really well for his size\u201d and has inside-out skill. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about recruiting in-state guys, there\u2019s some physical trait that when you compete at the Division I level, you kind of have to have,\u201d Markwood said. \u201cYou gotta have the Division I size, you gotta have Division I athleticism, and you gotta have a game to match. And I do think he has a great foundation in all those areas.\u201d <\/p>\n

Markwood said Byther still has developing to do at this level as the freshman makes the substantial transition from high school basketball, but is already off to a strong start and has a lot of upside to his game. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe just comes with a great mentality, he picks things up really fast,\u201d Markwood said. <\/p>\n

Byther is focused on developing his overall game as acclimates to a new level of competition. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed of the game has been a big adjustment, obviously,\u201d Byther said. \u201cI think I\u2019m like the youngest one on the team right now. So playing against 22-year-olds, that\u2019s a big jump compared to kids my age.\u201d <\/p>\n

He and other high-profile arrivals like Ace Flagg<\/a>\u00a0add to a younger, bigger UMaine team following up on one of its best seasons in decades. Last year\u2019s squad made it all the way to the America East Conference championship game<\/a>\u00a0for the first time in 21 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast year they went to the conference championship,\u201d Byther said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to go again, if not further. So it\u2019s an amazing feeling just to be here, be part of a successful program right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emmitt Byther was one of the best high school basketball players in the state last year. The former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99,1148,30032,30033,30034],"class_list":["post-36784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports","tag-surprise","tag-umaine-black-bears","tag-umaine-mens-basketball","tag-university-of-maine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}