As far as the rest of the league is concerned for a third straight year, expectations are low for the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
That’s fine, say Black Bear players and coaches. They have their own expectations.
The team known for letting leads get away from it in the second half and down the stretch has been picked to finish eighth in the nine-team America East Conference after losing leading scorer and guard Mark Socoby of Houlton plus superlative senior substitute guard Kaimondre Owes. That’s the bad news.
The good includes the return of four starters and four of the top six scorers joining a group of fresh faces who figure to grab plenty of playing time from the season’s opening tipoff.
“Right now there’s really no one I can say who’ll be left out or left behind,” said UMaine head coach Ted Woodward.
That tipoff comes at 8 p.m., Nov. 13, in Bronx, N.Y., against Fordham University.
For now, the Bears are trying to figure out the best combinations, rotations and substitutions to utilize their mix of young and proven talent. Until things shake out, the flood of new talent could make Woodward employ different starting fives to figure things out.
“It could. Everything’s developing a little later now that we’re in our third week of practice,” he said. “We have a number of different pieces.
“We do have a bunch of guys who can score in different ways. Shooting is something we struggled with last year, but we have several guys who can shoot it this year.”
Primary among them is sophomore starter Gerald McLemore, who averaged 12.1 points last year and shot 35.6 percent from 3-point range. Now he’s looking on opening it up even more.
“I worked on coming off the dribble more and going to the basket,” McLemore said of his offseason focus. “I added some weight and I feel good. I put on about 10 pounds and I think that will allow me to drive inside a little more.”
The 6-foot-3, 198-pound guard is also already establishing himself as a team leader.
“I’m not going in thinking I’m going to be the vocal leader, but if I see something that needs to be corrected, I’ll say something,” McLemore said.
McLemore is already addressing a sore spot from last season: a lack of team killer instinct.
“I feel like last season, we had games when we were up, but we let them get away, and I think this year we’ll pull out those wins that we should,” he said. “I think you’ll notice our toughness, not just our physical toughness. We’ve always played tough, but we’ll have mental lapses and I think we’ll be mentally tough this year.”
They look tougher as McLemore isn’t the only one to bulk up — or work on becoming a leader — over the summer.
“I feel like that’s my job, it’s my time to be a leader because most of the team looks at me as one,” said junior forward Troy Barnies of Auburn. “We were in every single game last year. We had a chance to win, but we just didn’t get it done. This year, we’re going to capitalize on most of those games. Actually, I’m going to say all those games. Last year, I felt like we wanted to win, but it wasn’t as important to us.
“Now we all know what the deal is. Now it’s time to win.”
Barnies spent a lot of time in the gym this offseason, doing a lot of weight work. He added about 10-15 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot-7, 205-pound frame.
“Other than lifting, which was my top priority, I worked on my 3-point shot. I feel like I can spread defenses out.”
Barnies averaged 7.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last season to be the team’s No. 5 scorer and No. 2 rebounder.
The No. 1 rebounder and No. 3 scorer was Sean McNally, who also appears more confident after averaging 9.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks while starting all 30 games.
“It’s my time to step up, kind of put this team on my back and see where we can go with it,” said the 6-7, 250-pound junior forward from Gardiner. “I know I have to provide leadership. When teams made a run on us, our leadership kind of dropped. We need two or three guys to step up when the going’s tough to lead this team.”
Senior Junior Bernal is the fourth member of the nucleus around which Woodward will build.
The 6-5, 200-pound senior guard is more of a quiet presence and lead-by-example type. Last year, his example produced 6 points and 4.1 rebounds per 27.8 minutes a game.
“Leading by example is great, but sometimes you do have to talk,” Bernal said. “Me being the only senior this year, I know that’s something I need to take on.”
He can also take on a lot of positions on the court.
“I can do point, go to the wing, it really doesn’t matter,” Bernal said. “Whatever the team needs, I’ll do.”
Bernal’s versatility is reflected by the new guys in different ways.
Junior college transfer guards Terrance Mitchell (6-3) and Jerrell Boswell (6-0) join Canadian freshman forwards Murphy Burnatowski (6-7) and Mike Allison (6-9) figure to earn some minutes early on.
“I’m not just a stationary guy,” said Burnatowski. “For the Canadian [national] team, I was playing a lot of small forward so I was on the wing a lot more and I feel like I got more of a feel for the perimeter, which hopefully as the years move along I’ll move out to on this team as well
“Usually, the guys I match up with are either too big to guard me or too small, but I think I do better against smaller guys.”
Guard Andrew Rogers returns to the point and fellow sophomore Svetoslav Chetinov (6-9, 250) to the post to give Maine a more experienced inside-outside game.
Travon Wilcher, a 6-7 forward transfer from the University of Massachusetts, should augment Maine’s lineup in the second semester when he’s eligible to suit up and redshirt freshman guard Jon McAllian of Bangor figures to enhance UM’s perimeter shooting.
“Boswell can really stretch defenses and heat things up quick as far as shooting, McAllian can do things with his shooting ability, Burnatowski is probably the best athlete in our program and a very versatile player, Allison is smart and can shoot facing up, and Mitchell is one of our best defenders and a versatile offensive threat,” said Woodward.
Sophomore guard Ryan Martin of Wayne may sit out this season as a redshirt, and junior guard Malachi Peay, who started nine of 22 games played, will sit out the first semester to concentrate on academics.
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