The University of Maine men’s basketball team certainly looked like it would be solid at the guard position in the 2008-09 season, the year that Gerald McLemore was slated to play his rookie year for the Black Bears. The team was returning five guards, and three of them were starters from the season before, so the idea that the 6-foot-3-inch freshman from San Diego would play any immediately significant role for the Black Bears was an uncertain one.

But when the start of the season rolled around, McLemore had beaten out the competition and garnered himself a starting spot in the Black Bears’ first game of the year against Northern Illinois. By the time the contest was over, McLemore had all but cemented his starting position and answered any doubts about the kind of impact he would provide for the team.

In his collegiate debut, McLemore outshone every player on the floor, racking up a team-high 24 points while going 6-of-9 from behind the arc en route to a 77-64 Black Bear victory. Suddenly, the University of Maine basketball program, which had tied for a last-place finish in the America East Conference standings the season before, had a future that looked a lot brighter.

McLemore said that he first began playing basketball when he was 4 or 5 years old, and by the time he reached middle school, playing on a Division I team in college was a serious goal.

“I wanted to have goals in life, so during middle school I figured I could start with that, trying to get to Division I basketball,” McLemore said.

No unimposing ambition for an eighth grader.

McLemore attended high school at Scripps Ranch High School in San Diego, Calif., where he continued to play ball and work toward his goal of earning a spot on a D-I team. During his senior year at Scripps, McLemore averaged just over 17 points per game and led his team to the city and league championships. He garnered Offensive Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player honors during his time there.

McLemore’s play in high school earned him national attention from college scouts and as graduation approached he was faced with a hefty decision. A two-time All-Academic Team honoree, McLemore was receiving looks from Ivy League schools, and the education these universities promised added an extra twist to his decision.

“Academics is always first, first priority,” McLemore said. “My family stresses that, because basketball will be over before I know it. I’ll be [in my] late 20s, early 20s — who knows — when I’ll be done … academics you’ll need for the rest of your life, so academics is very important.”

The Ivy League schools could not offer McLemore a full scholarship, however, so he made the decision to go to Worcester Academy, a prep school in Massachusetts. After playing a semester at Worcester, McLemore transferred to the University of Maine, where he became a redshirt on the men’s basketball team for the spring semester of the 2007-08 season.

Maine head coach Ted Woodward said that he knew he wanted McLemore to play for the Black Bears the moment he saw him play.

“I just thought he was a great player,” Woodward said. “I liked how he shot the ball, I liked his presence on the court. I just thought he really had a good sense about how to play … [and] he played extremely hard on both ends. First time I saw him play, I immediately knew he was a guy we’d like to have on our program.”

And McLemore knew that Maine would be “a perfect fit” for him, too.

But no one could know just how perfect the match really was.

After dropping 24 points in his Division I debut, the rest of McLemore’s rookie season did not disappoint. He became one of the top-five first-year scorers Maine had seen in over 30 years and was named to the America East All-Rookie Team for his performance.

In his sophomore year, McLemore led the Black Bears in scoring and minutes played, and ended the season ranked second in the country with 102 3-pointers. He garnered All-America East first team honors as he propelled his team to a third-place finish in the conference, up five places in the standings from the year before.

Now, two years after his eye-opening collegiate debut against Northern Illinois, junior McLemore has become a centerpiece on a strong Maine team and one of the top players in the America East. He continues to propel a Black Bear offense that now leads the conference in scoring and field goal percentage. He is second on the team in scoring, averaging 13.8 points per game, and currently sits atop the league leaders in free-throw percentage, with a percentage of .872.

McLemore continues to be the Black Bears’ most serious threat from behind the arc. He leads the team in 3-pointers with an average of 2.5 per game. Though well behind last year’s pace, McLemore is still in the top five in the conference in 3-pointers made.

When McLemore is on and shooting well from behind the arc, the Black Bears are a serious force to be reckoned with. The threat he poses from the outside gives Maine the ability to put up points quickly and often works to free up senior forward Troy Barnies down low.

In addition to the dangerous offense he provides, McLemore has picked up his defense as of late and has become the best outside defender on the team, according to Woodward.

“[McLemore] works extremely hard, hardest worker on our team, or at least amongst the hardest workers on our team,” Woodward said. “He’s added something every year to his game. He came in as a jump shooter, he’s learned how to put the ball on the floor, how to really read defenses and take what the defense gives you. He’s become our best perimeter defender.”

Despite all the personal success he has achieved, McLemore remains a team player who simply loves to play. When asked about what he considers the highlight of his collegiate career thus far, McLemore responded, “It’s all of it, as a whole.”

“Just being in practice with the team and team experiences,” McLemore continued. “And as far as games are concerned, I mean, every game is a highlight for me. I just enjoy playing basketball and being out there with the fellas.”

But there’s one thing that would likely stand out, among it all, as a true highlight in McLemore’s time at Maine: an America East championship.

“Oh, it would mean a lot,” McLemore said of winning the title. “That’s always our goal, every year coming in. We have four seniors [this year], so we really wanna win it for them. And it’s always a goal of ours every year, so being able to accomplish that would mean the world to us.”

Although the University of Maine exploded into conference play this season, the second half of the year for the Black Bears has been nearly a downward spiral. After going on an 8-1 run to open conference play, Maine had a seven-game winning streak snapped against Boston University in a game that would mark the start of a new kind of streak, as Maine would go on to lose its next six games in a row.

A win against the University of New Hampshire last Tuesday, in which McLemore dropped 26 points, ended the drought. What will happen next, however, remains uncertain for the Black Bears. But hope can rise out of even the most uncertain situations, as it did three years ago when a 6-foot-3-inch freshman from San Diego stepped onto the court for the first time as a Black Bear. If the University of Maine hopes to have a shot at winning the America East title this season, it must look to McLemore to provide that revitalizing spark once more. Chances are, he can do it again.