Vermont 89 UQAM 66
Basketball is back and it feels so good.
Vermont fans got their first look at the 2016-2017 Catamounts and it looked like the hype surrounding the potential of this team was justified. First and foremost, Anthony Lamb is the real deal and he is a future all league caliber player. His entire repertoire was on display. Scoring at all three levels and ripping down tough rebounds. What was most impressive was his ability to get to the rim. He demonstrated a tremendous ability to catch the ball at the three point line and slash to the hoop. It was only an exhibition game but 25 points is 25 points. He is a relentless player who goes all out on every play. He has a chance to be both an elite scorer and a strong rebounder. His strengths fit perfectly to shore up some of the deficiencies that the Catamounts experienced last year. He is going to be a fun player to watch and I have to think is the favorite for rookie of the year in the America East. To go along with the first look at Lamb, Payton Henson also made his Catamount debut. If he had made his free throws he would have challenged Lamb for the high scorer. Henson finished with 15 points and showed off an ability to put the ball in the hoop as well. He too demonstrated a tremendous ability to slash to the hoop and finish at the rim, which produced the highlight of the night when he attacked from the right side and threw down a ferocious dunk while getting fouled. He added a three pointer late in the game to round of the preview of his skill set. Henson showed tremendous athleticism and will be a tough match-up for post defenders. With the versatility in the post complimenting the versatility on the perimeter, the Cats are going to be a very efficient offensive team. The other newcomers looked good as well. Josh Hearlihy showed he can handle the ball up top and be a tough versatile defender. His offense looked like a work in progress but he will definitely be a valuable jack of all trades player this year. Ben Shungu was also very impressive. He has the size, strength, and speed to compete at the college level. His shot needs a lot of work but he showed that he could get to the rim. I don't know if the coaching staff is scratching their plan to redshirt him due to the injury situation in the backcourt. It seems to me they might be forced to, which would be too bad because there will not be too many minutes available when everyone is healthy and he could use a year to work on his offensive game without using eligibility. Everyone else looked like their normal selves although Nate Rohrer looked much quicker and more athletic than he did last season. Dre Wills is such a wild card for this team. He sometimes looks so good and really changes the game and then other times he looks very out of place in the offense. His ability to return to the form that he displayed two years ago is going to be crucial for the Cats, especially with the current injury situation. Vermont needs Ernie Duncan and Cam Ward to be healthy. Even with all of the depth this year, they are too important to the offense. UQAM was able to pack in their defense without the perimeter threats of Duncan and Ward. With the Vermont's offense being so predicated on slashing to the hoop, the Cats need to have perimeter threats in order to open up driving lanes. It seems like the coaching staff has a good handle on Duncan's injured thumb and are confident he will be back shortly. The news on Ward has been a little more vague and that makes it far more concerning. Back spasms has been the word so far and that in and of itself is bad but when Becker has talked about the injury it seems like they don't quite have an answer about how to fix it. It sounds like hasn't been doing very much in practice and back injuries are notoriously difficult to deal with. Hopefully the rest will help and he will be ready to go when the season begins. This game only reinforced my feeling that this is the most talent that Vermont has assembled on a single team. The Cats have had very talented individual players at different times, but have never had a team all the way down the bench with as much talent. All in all it makes for a very exciting season and when fully healthy it looks like the Cats will be a force to be reckoned with.
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