Zach McRoberts leaves Vermont

In a surprising and disappointing move, Zach McRoberts has left the Vermont basketball program. He has decided to enroll at Indiana University and take time off from the game of basketball. This is a big blow for Vermont, particularly for the upcoming season. The team was already thin and using a walk on graduate transfer from Middlebury to fill out its eligible roster. This puts Vermont at 10 scholarship players who are eligible for the upcoming season. That leaves any college program in a predicament when it comes to dealing with injuries. When you throw in that one of those scholarship players is Ernie Duncan, who is coming off what seems like a chronic back issue, and the season is going to require some luck to reach the heights that this program is accustomed to. In no way does this mean that McRoberts should make a different decision. He has to do what is best for him in his life and if basketball is no longer making him happy, he should pursue whatever will make him happy. The timing of his decision puts a huge burden on the coaching staff. It is going to be very hard to find a player who is available for the upcoming season. It is going to be even harder to find a player who is ready to contribute right away. On top of all that, Becker values fit and attitude (as well he should) more than anything and any player that is added this late in the game is a risky proposition. There is no limit to how one player can disrupt the chemistry of an entire team and sometimes when forced to make a quick decision, mistakes can be made. This situation reminds me of when Four McGlynn announced very late that he was going to leave Vermont. The coaching staff scrambled and found Trey Blue. On the court he was a decent contributor. I felt (and this is purely my opinion) that Trey really seemed to hurt the chemistry of the team and there were times where you could tell that the rest of the team was very frustrated with the way Trey played. Who knows how true that perception is but my point is most of the guys that are still available are available for a reason. The coaching staff certainly has their work cut out for them and it will be very interesting to see how they fill this scholarship.