Dr Pepper Classic Participant: Maine

Nickname: Black Bears
Conference: America East
Enrollment: 10,901
Record: 1-9
Last in NCAA: Never
Head Coach: Ted Woodward
Record at School: 92-144

The Maine Black Bears are just 1-9 on the year, without any wins over a D1 team. Their closest loss against a D1 team was to NJIT at home by 6, their second closest a road loss to NJIT by 9. Army beat them by ten. Quinnipiac (who is better than you think) beat them by 41 at Maine. Ouch.

Xavier Pollard is the Bears best player. He played just nine minutes against Fisher, the teams lone win. He sat out three others with an injury. In the remaining games, he played 32.7 minutes per game. He is averaging 18.8 points per game in those six games, to go along with six rebounds and 3.3 assists. He is 6-3, but only 1 of 12 from three point range. He is a scorer and a solid contributor. He is also the teams leading rebounder. He is second in assists to Shaun Lawton, who averages 4.8 assists per game and 9.0 points per contest.

The Black Bears are not a good three point shooting team. They are shooting 33.2% from three point range, worse than that against D1 teams. Zarko Valjarevic is shooting 44.8% from three point range on the year. Over the last five games, he is shooting 53.1% from three point range. He is another player that normally scores in double figures. He has done that in every game except for two. He's averaging 13.4 points per game.

Dimitry Akanda-Coronel is averaging 13.7 points per game, but wow have his numbers dropped off in the last five games. He is averaging just 5.4 points in those five games, while averaging 19.6 in the first five.

This Maine team is one of the worst rebounding teams in the country. They rank 337th in OR% and 335th in DR%. Ouch. That's really bad. Their eFG% defense is ranked 316th in the country. Again, not good.

OUTLOOK

The Bears have some scorers, but not a ton of height. They are among the smaller teams in the country. They also are one of the youngest teams in the country- with no seniors. They rank 334th in experience according to Pomeroy. That's really young. The Black Bears are the team most likely to finish last in the Dr Pepper Classic. Of course, that doesn't mean that they will. They have enough scorers to present a threat to the Mocs or Grand Canyon on the second night. I have no reason to believe that they can compete with Middle Tennessee on the opening night. This is not a very good team that is still learning how to win. Like I said, they could put it together on night two and win, but that opening game on Sunday night in the Dr Pepper Classic looks like the least competitive game of the entire tournament.