The University of Maine men’s basketball roster underwent sweeping changes Thursday.

Coach Bob Walsh announced that guard Kevin Little and forward Devine Eke, both starters last winter, have been granted requests to transfer from Maine – the third and fourth scholarship players to leave the team since the end of an 8-22 season.

A few hours later, Walsh announced that the Black Bears would add two players: 5-foot-10 freshman guard Marcus Floyd of Wilmington, Delaware, and junior college transfer Ilker Er, a 6-foot-6 wing from Istanbul, Turkey.

“We knew all of it was coming. This has all been part of what we’ve been doing the past six weeks,” Walsh said.

The roster overhaul began when freshman Issac Vann, the team’s leading scorer, decided in late March to leave Maine. Limited to 17 games by injury, Vann averaged 16.4 points per game and was named to the America East all-rookie team. He accepted a scholarship at Virginia Commonwealth University, a member of the Atlantic-10.

Reserve guard Lavar Harewood (28 games, 8 starts, 5.1 points) was the next to announce his intention to transfer.

Then came Thursday’s announcement that Little and Eke – the second- and fourth-leading scorers on the team – also would be departing.

Together the four departed players accounted for 46 percent of Maine’s points last season and 37 percent of the minutes played.

“When guys see what other opportunities are out there for a teammate, they begin to think, ‘We can be part of that, too,’ ” Walsh said. “We have a free-agent culture in our sport and it’s really common for guys to look around. I certainly think (Vann’s transfer) had an impact.”

Eke, from Plainfield, New Jersey, played 30 games last season as a freshman, starting 22. The 6-foot-7 forward averaged 9.5 points on 61.2 percent shooting and led the team in rebounding (6.8 per game) and blocks (1.7).

Little, a 6-foot guard from Wyandanch, New York, appeared in 23 games with 20 starts as a sophomore, and averaged 14.7 points with 2.6 assists and 1.2 steals. He scored 12.5 points a game in an all-rookie freshman season.

Walsh said Little and Eke told him they were happy with “our culture and happy with the way they were coached and they were successful academically” but wanted a chance to see if they – like Vann – could play in a higher-profile conference.

Walsh was asked how he would handle negative perceptions from having four of his recruits transfer in just a few months.

“Transparency. That’s how we do it,” he said. “I reached out to (incoming recruits) Andrew Fleming and Danny Evans and told them what was going on, and we’ve had honest conversations with the guys we have here now.”

Walsh emphasized he wants a roster full of players fully committed to Maine basketball.

“I will say this candidly: I could not get this team to respond the way we needed to respond (last season) when things got tough,” he said. “We made progress. We had talent. But ultimately that high level of trust you need, we hadn’t gotten there yet. I didn’t correlate it at the time (to players thinking about transferring), but certainly now looking back I have an understanding of why it was so hard.”

Floyd and Er, the newest additions, are eligible for next season.

Floyd played last season for Sunrise Christian Academy, a prep school in Wichita, Kansas. He played his final two seasons of high school ball for Trenton Catholic Academy.

“Marcus Floyd is a talented, tough, competitive scoring guard,” Walsh said. “He’s a great penetrator. He lives in the paint and can make his teammates better.”

Er, a native of Istanbul, Turkey, averaged 10 points and 7.5 rebounds last season for San Jacinto Junior College in Pasadena, Texas.

“He is a skilled, versatile wing player,” Walsh said. “He can shoot it. He’s a veteran with two years (of eligibility) left. Again, he’s a player who is really excited to be here.”

Walsh is 11-49 in two seasons as Maine’s coach. He said the transfers “will leave some voids,” but does not mean the building process is starting over.

“I don’t agree with that at all,” Walsh said. “We’re moving forward, not starting over. We’re in a really good place with the culture we’re creating, and we have talented kids fully invested who are mentally tough, and we have newcomers who we think can help us.”

The returning players include point guard Aaron Calixte (10.8 points, 2.7 assists in 26 starts), forward Ilija Stojiljkovic (22 starts) and guard Troy Reid-Knight (five starts).

Redshirt freshman Vincent Eze (6-8, 202 pounds) and junior transfer Wesley Myers, who played two seasons at Niagara, are “college ready,” Walsh said.

In addition to Floyd and Er, Maine will add incoming freshmen Fleming of Oxford Hills High and Evans of Leeds, England.

Fleming, a 6-7 forward, was the Gatorade Maine high school player of the year this winter, averaging 28.2 points and 14.0 rebounds. Evans, a 6-4 point guard, averaged 17.0 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists in a postgraduate year at Phillips Andover (Massachusetts) Academy.

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