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America East Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season

By Salvador Lopez

CATONSVILLE, MD - FEBRUARY 21: The American East Conference logo on the floor before a college basketball game between the Vermont Catamounts and the UMBC Retrievers at the Event Center on February 21, 2019 in Catsonville, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
CATONSVILLE, MD - FEBRUARY 21: The American East Conference logo on the floor before a college basketball game between the Vermont Catamounts and the UMBC Retrievers at the Event Center on February 21, 2019 in Catsonville, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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America East Basketball Sergio El Darwich (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

7. Maine Black Bears

Projected Starters

Guards – Mykhailo Yagodin (JR), Precious Okoh (SO)
Forwards – Nedeljko Prijovic (SR), Stephane Ingo (SO), Vilgot Larsson (SR)
Bench – Ja’Shonte Wright-Mcleish (SO), LeChaun Duhart (FR), Miks Antoms (SR), Matthew Fleming (FR), Solomon Iluyomade (JR), Ata Turgut (SO), Veljko Radakovic (SO), Taylor Schildroth (SO), Matias Prock (FR), Adefolalrin Adetogun (FR), Randell Wiel (FR), Wol Maiwen (FR), Leyton Bickford (FR)

Maine is one of the five teams in the America East that has never appeared in an NCAA Tournament. Head coach, Richard Barron, heads back to Orono for his third season, as he looks to take the Black Bears to their first 10-plus win season for Maine since the 2012-13 season. Maine made an improvement in 2019-20 with four more wins in year two under Barron, compared to year one, finishing this past season with an overall record of 9-22.

Some of the problems that the Black Bears will look to improve upon will be their scoring production and three-point shooting. In both categories, Maine ranked 341st nationally with only 61.4 points per game and 28.1 percent shooting from three-point range. Maine was clearly missing any sort of knockdown perimeter shooter this past season. Finding a perimeter threat this season for the Black Bears will go a long way towards moving upwards in the conference.

Some of the positives last season for the Black Bears was that they battled hard and lost nine conference games by 10 points or less. One of those losses was by two points against the America East front-runner, Vermont. Towards the end of the season, the Black Bears showed promise with a 26-point victory over UMBC and a 6-point win against Hartford. Maine will look to ride that momentum into this season.

Replacing the production of Maine’s graduating departures, which happen to be their top two scorers from 2019-20, Sergio El Darwich (14.9 ppg, 4.2 ast) and Andrew Fleming (14.2 ppg, 6.2 rpg), will be a difficult task. Both players averaged around 34 minutes per game last season.

El Darwich was a two-year starter that was the leader of last season’s squad at point guard. He was a scrappy defender that averaged 1.7 steals per game in 2019-20 for the Black Bears. Fleming was a four-year starter at Maine and was the Black Bears’ primary post scorer. Fleming was the shooting leader for Maine, connecting on 49 percent of his shots from the floor.

Rebounding was an issue last season for the Black Bears, as they ranked at the bottom of the conference in defensive rebounds per game. However, Maine should be much improved on the boards in 2020-21 given the size of their three forwards, 6-8 Nedeljko Prijovic, 6-8 Vilgot Larsson, and 6-9 Stephane Ingo, as they all look to take a step up in rebounding.

The main impact player to look out for this season for the Black Bears is senior forward from Serbia, Nedeljko Prijovic (10.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg), who is one of three seniors on the roster this season. He was also named of three team captains for the Black Bears, along with Ingo and Iluyomade. Prijovic will be the go-to scorer and the experienced leader on the court this season for Maine.

Consistency was the main issue this past season for Prijovic, but if he can build off his strong ending to the season, then he has an opportunity to put himself in the conversation as an All-Conference Award Winner. He averaged 19.5 ppg in his final four games of last season.

Prijovic also showed flashes of sharpshooter perimeter potential this past season. One example is Prijovic’s solid showing shooting 6-for-8 from behind the arc along with dropping 22 points against Hartford in the Black Bears’ regular-season finale.

Joining Prijovic to help on the boards will be sophomore Stephane Ingo (4.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg), who should see an increased role this season down low and at the rim. Ingo made tremendous progress last season averaging 11.8 rebounds per game during the final five games of the season.

A third forward will be in the mix in the lineup with senior Vilgot Larsson (6.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg), who will look to improve both offensively and defensively this season. Larsson struggled shooting from the floor, as he only connected on 37.7 percent of his shots. Defensively, he has the potential to help on the boards given his size and improve at the rim.

I project that junior Mykhailo Yagodin will take over the point guard duties to replace El Darwich for this season. El Darwich missed a four-game stretch last season due to an ankle injury and Yagodin was inserted into the starting lineup.

Heading back to Maine will also be Precious Okoh (3.1 ppg), who should also have an expanded role in his second season at guard.

Replacing a ton of minutes from the losses of El Darwich and Fleming with an extremely difficult task. However, I have faith that Barron can coach Maine to another improving season. Last season’s team was a young squad that had seven freshmen and three sophomores on the roster.

I predict that the Black Bears will continue to improve under Barron and are capable of doing two things that have not been done since the 2012-13 season for Maine. First, I project that Maine has a great opportunity to win 10 or more games this season. Lastly, I predict that Maine will not finish in either last place or second to last place in the conference.

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