Look who’s wearing the leashes now. Predicted to finish fifth in the America East Conference this season, the UMBC Retrievers (21-8, 13-3 AE) turned the game of basketball on its head, chasing their rival teams to the hills. A spectacular conference season places the Retrievers as AE Men’s Basketball Championship’s top seed.

“I think it means a great deal to the program,” said UMBC head coach Randy Monroe in a press release. “We were picked to finish fifth and we finished first. It was a great motivator to our guys. To see our guys go to the other team’s home court and win some games that you’re not supposed to win, it was very rewarding and gratifying. We have played those teams tough in the past, but to win those games this year, it was very special.”

But don’t pop open the champagne bottles just yet. The Retrievers still have to win the AE championship. They will face the winner of the No. 8 Stony Brook versus No. 9 Maine game in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Although it is the hottest team this year, UMBC has fallen into the occasional pothole and in the AE tournament, anything can happen.

On the surface, the Retrievers seem to have the edge in this tournament when it comes to facing both the Stony Brook Seawolves and the Maine Black Bears. UMBC is first in the conference, and many of its players sit atop the stat columns, while Stony Brook and Maine lie at the bottom of the conference.

The Retrievers bring with them their leading scorer, senior Ray Barbosa, who averages 16.8 points per game; junior Jay Greene, who is top in the conference in assists; and the second best rebounder in the conference, junior Darryl Proctor.

If Maine faces off against the Retrievers, there’s a good chance those three will dominate the game and collapse the young Black Bear defense like they did in their last matchup, which UMBC took 85-68.

UMBC has at least one chink in its armor. It lacks a solid center, something Maine has. Massive 6-foot-9-inch senior Brian Andre has a .554 field goal percentage for the season and has shown in the past that he can score easily over defenders.

Ninth-seeded Maine, despite its disappointing record, did manage to defeat UMBC, 77-74, in their first showdown earlier this season. Should the Black Bears make it to the quarterfinals, it could spell trouble for the Retrievers.

UMBC did not end its season with a victory. The team snapped its nine-game winning streak when it fell to Hartford, 58-57, in Hartford last Sunday.

Stony Brook presents a bit of a defensive challenge for UMBC. The Retrievers won by a combined 26 points this season; however, shaking off the Seawolves pressure defense is going to be quite the challenge. It will be up to Barbosa and the rest of the offensive unit to step it up a notch.

The Retrievers had never even sniffed first place since joining the America East. The team came in ninth place both in 2004 and 2005, eighth in 2006, fifth in 2007 and now are the top dog in 2008.

Tip-off is set for noon at the Events Center.