Another hometown star walks on to the Catamounts

Vermont snagged  a two time Vermont Mr. Basketball from Rice as a preferred walk-on.

Sound Familiar?

Following Ben Shungu's path to the Catamounts,  Rice star Michel Ndayishimiye committed to Vermont as a walk-on with a path to a scholarship. The 5-10 guard dominated Vermont high school basketball over the last two seasons and now has an opportunity to continue his basketball career close to home. The Vermont program has established a path to success for walk-ons in recent years and with Shungu's incredible transformation, a blueprint for the top Vermont talent to achieve their goal of playing DI basketball. This partnership the Cats have developed is a win for everyone involved as the local players and fans get to take pride in their local heroes and the Vermont program has opportunities to find overlooked talent and develop them into contributors. Low risk, high reward. Ndayishimiye has the foundation of a player that could develop into a contributor in the future. He is lightning quick in every sense of the word. In the open court, first step, off the dribble, slicing to the rim, etc. His quickness and speed translate anywhere on the court and is an elite skill. He is a capable shooter and as a smaller player already has the stop on a dime pull up that will allow him to get his shot off at the college level. In the past few seasons the America East has seen several undersized guards make a huge impact and if Ndayishimiye woks hard and improves as many of the other walks-ons have, there is absolutely a path to success. At the very least he brings another dedicated, hard working, high character player to practice that will push everyone on the team and push the level of competitiveness. Practice during the upcoming season will be interesting in that the team is going to bigger than a normal year. The returning seniors do not count against the scholarship limit so the roster will be slightly larger than in a normal year. That is going to create quite a competitive atmosphere as players push to make themselves and their teammates better. I would expect another addition from the transfer portal in the coming weeks as Vermont tries to position themselves to compete for a title. With so much available talent and several coaching changes in the America East, there is going to be just as much talent entering the league as exiting. Stony Brook in particular has already put together and impressive roster through the transfer market and it will be interesting to see how some of the teams with new coaching staffs are able to shape their rosters in their first year with a transfer pool that is larger than usual and immediately eligible. The NCAA finally approved the one-time transfer exception. This will allow all student athletes the opportunity to transfer one time during their career without sitting out. A much needed change for the players. The player movement thus far has been exciting to follow and I can't wait to see how the rest of the spring plays out.