BIDDEFORD — The University of New England men’s basketball team is basically starting from scratch this season. The Nor’easters only have one player on the team with any real college experience, and their 1-6 record during the first-semester slate of games is indicative of their youth. But head coach Ed Silva said the foundation that this year’s team is creating will hopefully equal success that the program has been searching for.

“I’m very excited about our group. I think we’ve been very competitive in every one of the games,” said Silva, who is in his third year leading the program. “We just have a lot of youth.”

The Nor’easters have seven freshmen on the roster, as well as seven sophomores without any significant playing time before this season. Only junior guard Devin Thompson has any college experience to fall back on, but he played in only seven games a year ago after a stellar freshman season.

“It starts with Devin Thompson,” said Silva. “He’s a key factor for us; he scores the ball.”

Thompson has had a couple of what Silva called “monster games” this season, including a season-high 36 points against Bates, and 31 and 26 against Middlebury and Eastern Nazarene, respectively.

Despite the majority of the roster being green, Silva said his team is full of the kind of players he wants and needs to build the program back up.

“I’m pleased that this group of guys is chock-full of a bunch of gymrats, which is one thing that we knew we needed to get in our culture here,” said Silva. “In the process of changing the culture here at the University of New England men’s basketball, we knew that one of the prerequisites was to get guys that actually had great passion for the game.”

UNE went 24-5 ”“ a program record for wins ”“ in 2008-09 and won its only Commonwealth Coast Conference title, but hasn’t been above .500 since. The Nor’easters went 11-14 a year later and have won a combined 16 games the past four years.

While the Nor’easters won just one of their first seven games, Silva said he likes the progression that his team has made. And while the long layoff ”“ 27 days ”“ between games that UNE is currently in is “awful,” according to Silva, he said he knows his group will be in the gym almost every day to keep working and improving.

The Nor’easters will be back in action on Jan. 2, when they play the first of two games in Wesleyan University’s Red & Black Holiday Tournament. The pair of non-conference games will give the Nor’easters a chance to get back into rhythm before they get back into conference play.

“Some people thing I’m a little crazy, because it’s our fourth NESCAC school that we’re playing, and Wesleyan is a very, very solid program,” said Silva. “I think the idea is to continue challenging ourself, continue to get better. And I feel like if we can compete with the teams on our non-league schedule, then we can certainly compete with the teams in our league.”

Coming out of the break, Silva said he expects a pair of players to join Thompson as program pillars. One is sophomore guard Jean-Luc Parker, who is a junior college transfer from Georgetown, Texas, and the other is freshman forward Evrim Ozkan from Istanbul, Turkey.

Silva called Parker a “quick, athletic guard who can shoot the ball, score at the rim, defend hard.”

Parker’s best game came in a season-opening win against Maine Maritime, when he scored a season-high 15 points and pulled down five rebounds.

Okzan’s first few games of the season weren’t as memorable, according to Silva, but he played better just before the break.

“His first three games of the year were definitely forgettable,” Silva said of the 6-foot-8 Ozkan. “I think each game that he plays he’s going to continue to get better, and I think he could be a really, really tough player in our league.”

It won’t take much for the Nor’easters to better last season’s results, as they need just one more win to improve on last year’s 1-24 record. But Silva said his burgeoning team could do much better than just that.

“All of these guys, the upside and the room for them to improve is huge,” he said.

— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.