Hartford at Vermont 2/14/16

Vermont 92 Hartford 81

Vermont got big buckets when they needed it down the stretch and got back on the winning track against Hartford. Kurt Steidl started off hot hitting 5 threes and scoring 19 first half points. Steidl finished with a career high 26 points. He continues to step up in games after tough losses. Dre Wills and came off the bench and recorded a double double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Most of his production came during a crucial stretch late in the game. Wills has been very up and down but still manages to make plays down the stretch when his team needs him. Darren Payen continues to shine on the offensive end of the floor finishing with 15 points. He has a beautiful soft touch around the rim. It is really unfortunate that he struggles so mightily on the defensive end. The defensive struggles continued for Vermont and it is very hard to explain why when watching the games. It seems like they find new and different ways to struggle and just when one aspect of the defense looks better, a different breakdown occurs. It is great to get a win and maybe they can build some momentum over the next week before a big showdown with New Hampshire on February 24th. I wanted to take a little time in this post to comment on some of the things that Coach Becker said about the team this week. The points he made about chemistry and leadership make sense when you consider the rotating lineups and the playing time distribution. Payen and Drew Urquhart have seen minutes come and go and Nate Rohrer has fallen completely off the depth chart. He went from starting to zero minutes in a very short amount of time. That speaks to a clear lack of identity for many of the players on the team. The comments that Becker made about some guys having their own agenda is some very harsh criticism. Combine that with his comments about guys trying to step up and lead but no one following them is even more concerning. All of these things make sense when you see the on court play this year. Players look like they are clawing and fighting to define their role on the team and that is what has lead to stretches of very poor execution. The players are struggling to execute the game plan because they haven't figured what their role in the game plan is. All of this leads me to believe that when this season ends, there will be some major changes before next season. Whether it be players transferring out or players taking on very different roles on next years team. With how things have gone I see a significant shakeup and next years team will look very different. Next year is going to definitely begin with no roles guaranteed. That type of change may not be a bad thing, and the league will be wide open next season as there will be no clear dominant team for the first time in several years. The rest of this season to me is about making sure that Vermont can maintain enough continuity, positive energy, and drive to not let this difficult season leak out into next season.