As a dominating high school basketball player, Andrew Fleming usually decided what speed the game would be played at whenever he was on the floor. He usually kept his emotions in check while doing it, despite the physical and emotional tools opponents and their fans used to try to throw him out of gear.

Fleming quickly found the college game to be faster and unwilling to wait for him. By the third game of the season against Boston University, and frustrated with a subpar first-half performance, his emotions started getting the better of him.

“I didn’t have that great of a first half and I just got made in the second half,” Fleming said. “I just kind of didn’t think and started flying around in the second half.”

In his fury, Fleming started playing more aggressively, attacking the hoop rather than settle for jump shots, crashing the boards and playing with the confidence that made him the state’s top college recruit last year.

The game might not have slowed down, but Fleming certainly found a way to keep pace. The forward/center scored 15 of his team-high and season-high 17 points in the second half and grabbed nine rebounds in Maine’s 102-78 loss Nov. 19. The next night, he scored eight points in 26 minutes off the bench in an 80-72 loss to Northeastern.

“Really, last weekend was the first time I felt like I was in my rhythm,” he said.

Maine head coach Bob Walsh agreed and rewarded Fleming with the first start of his career in Monday’s 71-66 loss to LIU-Brooklyn. He logged the second-most minutes on the team with 28 and finished with eight points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.

His game has already grown by leaps and bounds since he first reported to Orono over the summer.

It helped that Fleming felt at home immediately.

“Everyone was so welcoming,” he said. “From August on, I was one of the guys. Coach Walsh says you’re not really a freshman — we’re all just Maine basketball players.”

Fleming got that sense while being recruited by Walsh, who is now in his third season at Maine.

“He does a great job with knowing how to communicate, knowing when to yell, knowing when to ask questions and knowing when not to say anything and letting us figure it out for ourselves,” he said.

There isn’t much free time for Fleming to figure out how to fill. Before the season, his typical day started at 6 a.m. and was filled with lifting, classes, study halls and workouts before heading to bed.

During the season, he can sleep in a little later, but two and three-hour practices fill whatever time classes don’t on non-game days. His one day off per week is a good time to catch up on class work (he’s considering majoring in finance) and sleep.

The daily grind hasn’t sapped Fleming’s strength yet, at least not enough to keep Walsh from playing him at the 4 and 5 spots. Most nights, the 6-foot-7, 220-pound Fleming matches up with players who are generally bigger and stronger than him.

“It’s tough defensively,” he said. “You have to work a lot harder on the defensive end. It’s a lot of positioning, beating your man to the spot and stuff like that.”

“It’s all mental, really,” said Fleming, the 2016 Maine Gatorade High School Basketball Player of the Year. “I’m trying to focus on the mental game as much as my skills and the physical aspect. My matchup might be a few inches bigger and stronger, but on the offensive end I can take them out and use my quickness to get to the basket.”

Fleming ranks second on the team in minutes (25 per game) and field goal percentage (55 percent), fourth in scoring (8.2 ppg), third in rebounding (4.8 rpg) and first in blocked shots (1 per game).

The numbers don’t mean as much to Fleming as the Black Bears’ 1-4 record and, more importantly, how the team has handled the tough start.

“I really like the team. We’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “Sometimes when you have some losses, people start to question the process, but I think we’ve all bought in with what coach Walsh is saying in practice and we’ll start seeing it play out in games.”

Perhaps it will start with his official home debut at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, where he’ll be trying to build off last weekend’s gains.

“I want to be able to play with rhythm every game,” he said. “I want to show up for every game ready to play.”

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