The streak comes to an end

Hartford 69 Vermont 68

Vermont lost it first conference game in over two years, falling to Hartford at home. The Hawks were motivated and executed well down the stretch thanks to an incredible game by Jason Dunne. Vermont started slow again and this time they were unable to turn up the heat in the second half. You could kind of see a loss coming over the last few games. Despite the exciting, Herculean efforts that the Cats had been using to win, they have been struggling to execute for a few games now. Each time they had been able to turn it on in the second half and grind down their opponents. Today the sluggish body language and poor execution continued all the way to the final buzzer. If you have read my blog in the past I often talk about how losses can have some value. I don't like the term "good loss" cause that doesn't even make any sense but sometimes a team needs to lose to reignite their fire. I truly believe that the Cats needed a extra motivator. Whether the team talked about it or not the streak was starting to be a bigger storyline than their championship drive and I think it will be a relief to go out and just try to win a championship. As long as Vermont can right the ship, this loss doesn't change anything. They still control their own destiny for the conference championship and they are still the team to beat come playoff time. Time to let the steam valve open a little and snap the focus back on winning that championship. The streak was wonderful and great and hopefully after the season it will be great to look back on it and how much fun it was. It is also interesting that every team across college basketball with a long winning streak lost this week. This week began with 6 teams that were undefeated in their conference and now there are none. Some of those team even lost multiple games this week. These are the dog days of the college basketball season and wins are not easy to come by. Hartford is actually a good team and if you dive into the statistics they rate out as the second best team in the conference as they are very well rounded. They rank very highly in both offensive and defensive statistics and have shown a strong ability to play well on the road. The projections gave Hartford very little chance of winning but if you look at the conference only statistics they are a team that can beat anyone on any given night. I was quite concerned about this game because of the way Vermont had been coming out in the first half lately. Senior night is on Wednesday and this a group that deserves to be honored for their tremendous accomplishments and contributions to the Vermont program. This group wont dwell on this loss and I think they will be playing with a special fire the rest of the way.