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Toward the end of the University of Maine men’s basketball practice on Tuesday, head coach Ted Woodward had each player pair up and shoot 5 straight minutes of threes, in hopes of making the benchmark of 60.
As I tried to observe each shooter and their motion, the slight, recognizable “swish” sound kept drawing my attention back to the center basket. After making over 20 3-pointers in a row, senior guard Gerald McLemore finished with 75.
“That’s a new record,” Woodward said. “I’ve never had that.”
McLemore finished with 50 on his second 5-minute round, upset by not eclipsing 60. The San Diego native and co-captain is the obvious focal point of the Black Bears — a team with a lot of questions throughout the roster.
“We have a lot of new pieces, maybe five, six, seven freshmen — it’s hard to keep count,” McLemore said. “There are a lot of guards, a lot of speed. [Junior forward] Mike Allison is looking good, as far as bigs go, and Aly [sophomore center Alasdair Fraser] is looking good.”
While having a presence down low will be a key element for the Black Bears to work on, McLemore is figuring out ways to give himself separation to get his lethal shot off after his 3-point percentage took a hit last season.
“It was more the fact that teams started keying in on the fact that I’m a shooter,” McLemore said. “You were on your conditioning so you [have energy] coming off double screens and staggered screens when you’re tired. Now I’m picking my spots where to shoot and it gives me more room for my one-dribble pull-ups, and when I get to the rack more, it opens the three up.”
The post-game was one of the biggest question marks coming into the season, as the Black Bears lost their starting frontcourt to graduation. Allison averaged 11 minutes per game, while Fraser saw 17 minutes of action per game.
“Me and Aly are really stepping into those spots,” Allison said. “Aly’s more of a scorer and I’m more a defender. He gets more of the defensive [rebounds], I get more of the offensive — everything flows really well with us.
“[2011 graduate] Troy [Barnies] had such a phenomenal year that it cut the minutes for the four down quite a bit,” Allison added. “But when we did step in, we brought something new to the table. We’re in a good position right now.”
“Honestly, I don’t know how worried we were about [our down-low play],” Woodward said. “We were a very deep basketball team last year — unusually deep. As far as our bigs go, if you came into our practice last year and didn’t know our team, it would be tough to try and guess our starters for bigs.”
With the absence of a traditional swingman, the Black Bears are resorting to a three-guard set that will increase the pace of the game for UMaine as they look to run the floor.
“We want to get up and down, a lot of pressure and full-court defense,” McLemore said. “We’re a little bit smaller at the wing position, but we want to get up and down a little more.”
But with a number of players occupying similar positions, it may be difficult early in the season for the Black Bears to find the best combination of the players.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out now,” McLemore said. “We’re similar height, similar athleticism. It’s tough having the same height on both wings, but we haven’t quite figured it out yet. It will be our challenge figuring out where those pieces go.”
One of those pieces is freshman guard Justin Edwards. A top prospect out of Canada, Edwards is athletically gifted and has a quick step to the hoop with explosive finishing ability.
“It was definitely a good opportunity to play a lot, coming here, and it’s a good conference,” Edwards said. “I’m looking forward to playing with some of the players here; when I visited I got along with all of them and I was really comfortable.”
Edwards is expected to be one of the catalysts for points this season, but with some spots interchangeable, he may find himself handling the ball — something he’s comfortable with.
“On this type of team we have scorers and I like to penetrate a lot, so if I don’t finish at the rim I can dish it to Gerald to hit the three, or dish it off to Aly or Mike for the dunk,” Edwards said.
Woodward admitted that Edwards caught his eye immediately but was pleased with the entire incoming class he was able to recruit.
“I think they’re all excellent for us. Everyone had high-end visibility,” Woodward said. “Certainly Justin’s a guy we liked as soon as we saw him play — we liked everything he did. Certainly [freshman guard] Noam [Laish] had a lot of accolades as well. [Freshman forward] Killian [Cato] is a guy we’ve been following for a couple years. [Freshman guard] Xavier [Pollard] was one of the leading scorers of all New England prep schools last year.”
Other ball handlers on the team include co-captains Raheem Singleton and Andrew Rogers; both are seniors and are capable of putting up points.
“Raheem Singleton is a guy who has been playing great. He got himself in terrific shape,” Woodward said. “We’re a team with a lot of guards and a lot of bigs, so there will be time where he’ll be playing off the ball. Our guards are interchangeable.
“We have a number of different guys who can handle the basketball, a number of guys who can penetrate and kick — our quickness becomes our advantage,” Woodward added. “The other thing about it is our bigs are significantly bigger.”
Of those bigs, five are originally from another country. Almost half of the roster is made up of foreign-born players.
“We’ve had foreign guys here for a long time. We’ve always had an international influence and of course there’s pockets of places we recruit from anyway,” Woodward said. “It’s been nice that they all have a lot of fun with each other. It’s a chance for some outstanding chemistry.”
Switching from the traditional lineup of two guards, two forwards and a center, the three-guard set gives this group of players more versatility and plays toward their strengths.
“You always adjust to the personnel you have and this is a team that has a chance to be an explosive offense and get up and down the court,” Woodward said. “We’re going with three guards on almost everything we do, and there’s not a problem with that. There are a lot of teams in our league that play with three guards and there’s been great teams at UMaine since I’ve been here with three guards.”
The Black Bears open the season in an exhibition game against Fisher College Sunday at noon.
