In their last two games it appears that the UMaine men's basketball team made a change in their offensive strategy and it produced back-to-back conference wins.
They out scored UML 46-20 in the paint and only took 18 3 point attempts and followed that right up out scoring UNH in the paint 32-8 and only took 15 3 point attempts. That is a 50 point difference as they out scored the two teams 78-28 in the paint.
Even though they only shot 7 for 33 for threes for 21.2% in those 2 games they only took 33 of their FGA's as 3's of their total 111 FGA's for just 29.9% of their FGA's as 3 pointers meaning that they took 70.1% of their field goal attempts as 2 pointers shooting and scored 78 of their 137 total 2 game points in the paint or 56.9% from the paint.
Even more impressive was that of their 2 pointers total of 96 points 78 came from in the paint or 81.3%.
They shot 53-111 for 49.6 from the floor combing 2's and 3's and shot 7-33 for 3's for 21.1% and 48 for 78 for 2's for 61.6%.
Maine is 541 for 1520 for 43.3% for Field Goal %.
Maine is 149 for 498 for 29.9% for 3 point shooting %.
Maine is 392 for 752 for 52.1% for 2 point shooting %.
Maine is 217 for 332 for 65.4% for foul shooting %.
Andrew Fleming himself out scored both UML (36) and UNH (2) 38 to 28 in the paint in the 2 games.
Despite not making their threes better they still came out with 2 wins because they went inside more than they had in previous games.
But it just goes to show that you can still win AE Conference games if you can get the ball to the paint as much as Maine did in the past two wins even if you shoot poorly from the 3 point arc.
For teams to stop Maine's new inside attack teams have got to either go zone or when man to man they have to double the players on the block before or after they get the ball. If this happens then it will give Maine's 3 point shooters more open less rushed 3's looks which should increase their 3 point percentage, which UML and UNH did not do.
It was great when Fleming had 36 points in the paint in the big 19 point 75-59 win over UML, but team and win wise it was even greater to see Larsson, Darwich and Eze take over in the paint against UNH when Fleming was struggling on 1 for 11 from the floor after going 18 for 20 from the floor vs. UML.
The big question is will Maine still try to get the ball inside to the paint and will it be as effective in their 8 remaining America East regular season games and tournament quarter-final game as they did against UML and UNH??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
By forcing teams to double down on the block to stop Maine's new paint game will that improve their 3 point shooting as they are only shooting just 29.9% for the year so far. In fact, in their 3 previous losses they shot 43% in 2 games in a row and 29% in one other.
Interesting that Maine shot 43% for 3's and lose two conference games and win 2 games shooting 21.1% for 3's.
GO FIGURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!