Exhibition: St. Michael's at Vermont

Vermont 94 St. Michael's 65

Vermont had their full squad and came out firing in their final exhibition game. It was great to see Ernie Duncan back on the court and he showed no ill effects from his sprained thumb leading the Catamounts with 21 points including 5-9 shooting from three. He looked like the Duncan from down the stretch last year and completely changes the dynamics of the Cats offense. His ability to rise up and shoot no matter the situation is crucial when Vermont is really looking for a bucket. Its has been since Sorrentine that Vermont has had a player that has the ability to be effective taking ten three pointers in a game. If he can remain healthy he is going to have a great season. It was also good to see Ward back on the court, but he looked a little more affected by his injury battle. Ward looked tired and not quite up to speed, the result of missing practice time. Hopefully this game is a step in the right direction towards full recovery. It is again time to gush about Anthony Lamb. That kid is on another level. He is all out on every play and goes after the ball relentlessly. He can affect the game in so many ways and did so again tonight with 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks. I am sure there will be some growing pains but he has already looked like the best player on Vermont through the exhibition games. There are still many things the Cats need to work in in practice this week as the defense is not quite where it needs to be. The newcomers are still in the process of picking up the rotation as several players founds themselves lost on defense. After the two exhibition games there is no question that Vermont is the most talented team top to bottom in the America East. The question becomes: are they mentally tough enough to make a push for the championship? On a team this talented the only thing that will hold them back is their ability to remain focused on the goals of the team. Coach Becker has talked at length about this team only being concerned about one thing and that is winning. It is easy to talk like that when as of right now no one has lost any minutes. As the season goes on and players start to struggle, that is when winning needs to be the most important thing. The coaching staff is going to have a significant challenge in finding minutes for everyone and someone is going to have less minutes than they want. There are a lot of players deserving of minutes and only so many to go around. I think this team has committed to a goal and I hope that they can hold on to that when inevitably they face adversity. I can't wait for the opener next Saturday and to get this season rolling. I will post a Vermont season preview sometime this week. Time for the real thing.