ORONO – Troy Barnies hasn’t stopped growing, and no, we’re not only talking about his new, moptop haircut.

“I gained probably about five more pounds over this summer,” said Barnies. “I think I’m actually getting a little bit taller. Hopefully not too much more, but I’ll take it.”

Being labeled Mr. Basketball and then committing the next four years of your life to the state university is a little bit like accepting the distinction of Most Likely to Succeed in your high school yearbook.

Barnies embraced the expectations, pressure, even jealousy that come along with being considered a can’t-miss commodity in your own backyard. He felt that spotlight on a smaller scale at Edward Little High School – where he led the Eddies to an unbeaten regular season and was named top player in the state – before graduating to the University of Maine.

It’s easy to forget that the 6-foot-7, 205-pound man’s frame belongs to someone who is still technically a teenager until Feb. 10. It’s even easier to chalk up his choppy, relatively quiet freshman season of college basketball to injury, unfamiliarity and sheer science.

“On average, you’re talking about 17- or 18-year-old kids playing against 22, 23-year-old men,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “There’s a lot of new things in college for every normal student, much less Division I basketball players.”

On-the-job training

Fully healed and almost fully grown, Barnies should be a different person in his second journey through America East.

Barnies appeared in 20 games, starting 11 after recovering from a fracture in his shooting wrist. His modest averages of 3.3 points and 2.3 rebounds probably weren’t a fair assessment of his progress.

“Every year in the league, no matter what every team has for a class, there’s going to be a total of three freshmen averaging double figures. That’s just how it is,” Woodward said. “It’s nice when freshmen become sophomores.”

Eleven different players shared time in Maine’s starting lineup, and most of them are back in the Black Bears’ den this winter.

Emerging from the weighty in-house competition, Barnies was back in Maine’s first five for the Black Bears’ Nov. 2 exhibition against Laval University. He notched seven points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of a 67-62 victory.

Together with former Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference rival Sean McNally of Gardiner, Barnies is part of a Maine team stacked with homegrown talent and built for the long haul. Nine of the 15 players on the roster are freshmen or sophomores.

“I’m no longer the rookie. Being a sophomore with a year under my belt feels good,” Barnies said.

Comfort zone

Attrition and recruiting have made Maine a more athletic team. The Black Bears’ rededication to an up-tempo style should fit Barnies’ game perfectly.

Barnies expects to make the transition from small forward to power forward, returning him to his undergraduate comfort zone in the low post.

“Troy is a kid that can get up and down the court and play a couple different positions,” Woodward said. “I think he’ll get a chance to be at a little more natural spot this year, facing the basket but still being able to do a few things defensively. We’ll be able to use him the way we’d like to use, and physically and mentally he’ll be ready for that now.”

“Screening, getting my players open, that’s pretty much going to be my role,” added Barnies. “But I’m still going to be looking to get offensive looks and be a defensive stopper. In high school that’s all I did was play post, so it comes naturally.”

In addition to missing a month of game action, Barnies was unable to shoot or dribble for several weeks after his preseason injury last season.

“I’d like to say it (the injury) didn’t affect me a lot, but mentally I think it did,” he said. “I was completely ready for the season, and then the first game I got in I hurt myself and it took me out of it for a month and a half to two months. I think I lost my mental edge a little bit.

“I think it’s more mental than physical. You don’t want to go too fast with certain things. Your body wants to, but mentally you can’t.”

Bigger, stronger, faster

Barnies committed both mind and body to his new job description over the summer.

Even in the neck-up photo in the Maine media guide, Barnies is perceptibly bigger.

Don’t think it will cost him foot speed, either. Woodward said that Barnies routinely completes the team’s one-mile conditioning runs in under 5 minutes, 20 seconds.

Much in the way local fans thought of Barnies and McNally as a two-headed monster during their high school battles, Woodward speaks of them as a package deal as they grow into Maine’s system.

“I think even toward the end of last year, both of them knew exactly what to expect coming into this year,” said the coach. “From the moment they put away their uniforms, they’ve been on a mission to get stronger, quicker, faster and be guys that are very reliable as far as positions that they play. We have a lot of look forward to with those two guys.”

Barring injury, Barnies will get his first taste of a true, grueling college season this winter.

Maine’s season-opener Thursday against Northern Illinois launches a minimum 30-game season, one that includes trips to Boston College, Oklahoma, Providence and South Alabama.

“At least I already know how it is because of last year. I know what to expect,” Barnies said. “I’m hoping to start. Everybody’s going to be pushing each other.”

With a healthy set of hands and an extra year in the real world on his resume, Barnies is well equipped to begin pushing back.