Vermont at Eastern Michigan 11/13/15

Eastern Michigan 70 Vermont 50

Now that is opening with a thud.

Vermont opened their season with a dismal performance on the road at Eastern Michigan. Marred by miscues and poor execution, the Cats were blown out in the second half. There were many negatives to look at from this game but the most glaring is the 21 turnovers. Many of them were careless passes. That is an inexcusable amount of turnovers. Trae Bell-Haynes had the worst game of his young career going 0-5 from the field while committing  seven turnovers. He was often out of sorts and trying to force a driving lanes when there were none. This continued a trend for Vermont of struggling to run an effective offense against a good zone defense. The Cats just pass the ball around the perimeter over and over again until they end up with what is typically a tough shot. This turns into too many three pointers and no interior scoring. This is best illustrated by the fact that Vermont only scored 14 points in the paint. This team is at their best when they are driving to the hoop. There were also several similarities to the struggles that Vermont had on the road last year. They struggled to find offensive rhythm and shot poorly from the field when they were away from Patrick gym last year. If this game was any indication that may continue to be an issue this year. They also struggled from the free throw line which was also a significant problem last year. This is a very early wake up call for Vermont and this is going to be a tough weekend as they are likely to lose by a similar margin against Purdue. Eastern Michigan was definitely one of the winnable games on the non conference schedule and the game became more winnable when Eastern Michigan's best player was suspended before the game. This was a missed opportunity for Vermont. This game also illustrated how important Dre Wills is to the Cats. Wills brings fire and energy and is the heart and soul of this team. He can change the game in so many ways. They really missed his energy and Vermont is a different team without him on the floor. There are going to be several hard lessons learned this weekend and Coach Becker is going to have plenty of things to preach in practice before the home opener next Wednesday. As an optimistic person and fan I always like to find the silver lining in these games. Kurt Steidl continued to look like a monster on the boards. His increase in athleticism is both surprising and encouraging.He plays tough defense and has really rounded out his game. Ernie Duncan is going to be a great addition to Vermont as he is an exceptional player. He is going to go through some growing pains as he adjusts to the college game and shakes off the rust from the year off, but is going to be a tremendous contributor as the season goes on. He didn't have many assists tonight but his passing ability is off the charts. He gets his teammates the ball with great timing, especially when they are running the floor. I also still really like Nate Rohrer's minutes. He plays very hard and uses his strength to his advantage. Early in the season there is value in every game and Becker is very skilled at using the low points to motivate his teams to play better. Sundays game will be another difficult test and it will be both interesting and very telling to see how this group is going to respond.