The Pit in Memorial Gymnasium

A 3,100-seat multipurpose arena inside of Memorial Gymnasium on the campus of the University of Maine, the affectionately dubbed "Pit" is has been home to the Maine men's and women's basketball programs from their inceptions.

A throwback to a long-gone era of college basketball, the Pit is designed in a classic arena, with the playing level approximately ten feet below the first row of bleacher stands. Often at capacity, the fans create a one-of-a-kind experience for visiting players and Black Bears alike that is tough to match. It's intimate, quirky, and at times inconvenient layout only add to the experience, as do the wooden chaired bleacher seats.

The Memorial Gym itself was built in 1933 as an addition to the earlier constructed indoor field house. Its name honors the more than 40 UMaine alumni and students who died in the Spanish-American War and World War I. Art Deco influences are found in the figures at the top of the south-facing façade, as well as in the decorative steel athletic figures above the three doors. The Gym and Field House have undergone numerous revisions, inside and out, with the most recent completed in 2014.

Both Black Bears teams hold every practice in The Pit, and both team's locker rooms are attached directly to the court as is the UMaine Athletics Training Room.

These days, the Pit hosts only a handful of Maine games a season, as the Black Bears call the Cross Insurance Center in downtown Bangor home for most of the year. Recent years have seen more and more games coming "home" to the Orono campus, including most recently the 2019-20 America East Women's Semifinal game and the entire 2020-21 COVID-impacted season.