Vermont at Canisius 11/15/14

Canisius 64 Vermont 60

Vermont began the season with a tough road loss against Canisius. This was one of the few winnable games on this year's non-conference schedule as Canisius is one of the teams on the schedule with as many freshman and as little experience as the Cats. Vermont's defense broke down in the second half and allowed Canisius to shoot a blistering 56%, including 6-8 from three. The first half for Vermont was marred by turnovers and missed shots.When the coaching staff added so many shooters to this team, I was excited to see the team three point shooting improve. So far this has not materialized and that is somewhat surprising. This is definitely the type of game this team is going to have this year. It is just too bad that they couldn't take advantage of a good match-up. The 17 turnovers will not win many games and the frustrating thing is 8 of those turnovers were Harold and Kilpatrick. Harold being asked to play a larger role is going to be one of the key areas for this team. He has demonstrated wild inconsistency and is very turnover prone. As an elder statesman on this team he is going to need to clean up his play. Duncan's back is clearly going to be a problem for the entire year and that is really going to handicap this team. It is really to bad for Duncan and I would have to imagine he is incredibly frustrated. The one very bright spot from this game was Trae Bell-Haynes. Throughout the summer he was the leading scorer for Vermont but his turnovers were limiting his effectiveness. For one game at least, he took care of the ball and showcased his tremendous speed and tenacity. Bell-Haynes gets up the floor very quickly and is able to score in transition. He has also demonstrated an ability to finish strong in traffic and make his free throws. This is a great recipe for future success and if he is able to limit his turnovers he will be a very effective player. Bell-Haynes is already a very polished defender and with his offensive abilities coming along seemingly ahead of schedule, he will play big minutes for this team. It does not get any easier as Vermont travels to Siena tomorrow for what will be a very difficult match-up. Siena is big, physical, and forces their opponents into unforced errors and mental mistakes. This will be a quick turnaround for the freshman and a much stronger opponent. Becker is preaching each game this season as part of the process and if the players can maintain that attitude and make small gains each game, Vermont will be headed in the right direction.