Vermont at Marquette 12/5/17

Marquette 91 Vermont 81

Vermont ran into a hot shooting Markus Howard and fell to Marquette in the road. Howard was unbelievable in this one. He absolutely could not be stopped and the rest of his Golden Eagle teammates joined in the fun as Marquette shot 57% from the field. The Golden Eagles don't play much defense but they will win some games in the Big East this year by virtue of an incredibly efficient offense. Anytime an underdog is trying to pull an upset, it needs to be a combination of the underdog being hot and the favorite playing a little off. Both teams were hot in this one and as result Vermont didn't have enough to get the victory. Much will be written about the trouble Vermont is having at the defensive end but I am not ready to panic about the Cats defense. They played two very tough, offensively efficient opponents on the road.  There are certainly some things to tighten up but I think some of the last two games had to do with very strong offensive performances by the Vermont opponents. This game has all the feelings of the Butler game last season that propelled Vermont to their win streak. I am not saying that they won't lose again this season, but I believe that this game can be a sign of how close they are but serve as a reminder of the work they have left to do. How about Stef Smith? Holy mackerel he single-handedly kept Vermont in the game. After struggling through the last few games Smith came out firing in this one and finished with a career high 20 points on 6/6 shooting from three. What a great game to build on and a tremendous confidence booster. Smith is a very gifted player and it looks like he is starting to get a feel for the college game. He certainly looks right on track to be a consistent contributor come conference schedule time. That will be a huge boost to add an instant offense piece off the bench. The bench was good in general tonight as Drew Urquhart had another strong game and Cam Ward knocked down some nice shots in his homecoming game. Anthony Lamb picked up some and fouls early and looked out of sorts for the rest of the game. He needs to get off to good starts as how he begins the game seems to dictate how the rest of the game will go. I was excited that Trae Bell-Haynes finally looked healthy and then he fell hard and hit his head on the floor at the end of the game. Hopefully he is ready to go because now comes the crucial part of taking away the "positives" from these losses. The game at Northeastern becomes a "must win" game now. The Cats are tired and weary from the road but they cannot take this next game lightly. Ideally they will come out and take it to Northeastern as they should be highly motivated to move on from this tough stretch. It is time to take the hard lessons and apply them to their next opponent so Vermont can get back on the winning track.

P.S. I actually work with a Marquette fan and we made a small "wear the opposing team's t-shirt" bet on this game, so tomorrow I will unfortunately be wearing the blue and gold all day. Ouch.