Vermont landed Western Carolina (also the Catamounts) transfer Kameron Gibson. Gibson is a 6-3 guard from Cincinnati, OH. Due to the COVID year I believe Gibson will have 2 years of eligibility remaining. For Vermont this transfer is about one thing and one thing only...... three point shooting. Gibson is a career 39% shooter from three and somewhat of a specialist as 54% of his career field goal makes and 59% of his career field goal attempts are from beyond the arc. The Cats desperately needed to add shooting for next season and Gibson fits the bill nicely. Gibson is looking to jump start his career after two difficult seasons. His 2019-2020 season was cut short due to a knee injury and last season...well we all know how difficult last season was. When Gibson was a freshman in the 2018-2019 season he came out of the gates hot. In just his third career game he poured in 34 points on 8-11 shooting from beyond the arc. Gibson would go on to start 31 out of 32 games and made the Southern Conference all freshman team after averaging 13.6 points per game. One caveat to those numbers is that Western Carolina really struggled that year to the tune of a 7-25 record. This transfer seems like a good fit for both sides. Gibson is looking for an environment where he can win and recapture some of that magic from his freshman year and Vermont is desperate for some proven outside shooting at the guard position. This does make Vermont incredibly guard heavy but I envision the coaching staff going to three guard lineups while utilizing the bigger guards at the small forward position. This was an important addition as based on the way rosters are shaping up, the America East is going to see a significant influx of talent. With several teams adding experienced, all league caliber players, there is going to be fierce competition in the top half of the league. This will be the first year where in the preseason there will not be a clear preseason favorite. What an exciting way to kick off the recruiting cycle.
Which teams appear to be loading up with all league caliber players that you reference?
ReplyDeleteStony Brook
DeleteElijah Olaniyi (returns) 2x all AE 112 carrer games, averaged 10.5 ppg in the ACC last season
Jahlil Jenkins 2x all NEC 118 career games, Career: 1698 pts, 477 ast, 334 reb, 183 stl, 179 made threes.
Anthony Roberts MAC all freshman team 18-19, 12.7 ppg as a sophmore
Hartford
Dejuan Clayton 3x all MEAC 116, career games, Career: 1518 pts, 419 ast, 349 rbs, 140 stl, 141 made threes
NJIT
Matt Faw 109 career games, Career: 788 pts, 364 rbs, 111 made threes
Albany has added 2 players with 100 college games under their belt and a D2 all conference player along with a major conference transfer. The biggest differnece from years past is instead of getting strong young talent to fill out a roster, teams are able to add players with 4 years of college experience. That is just so far and I would expect more teams (especially UMBC) to be very active in filling out their roster through the transfer portal.
Here is another one
DeleteUMBC
Ray Salnave All MAAC 114 career games, Career: 1266 pts, 438 rbs, 267 ast, 142 stl, 115 made threes
I was just about to ask this very same question. I know that Olaniyi is returning to Stony Brook. Is Guy returning too?
ReplyDeleteI expect/desperately hope the Cats to add an interior player.
See Above for the player info. I will be interested to see who else they target.
DeleteWhat do you know about the sexual abuse allegations
ReplyDeleteagainst some basketball players? I noticed that the
local sports shows, media, and your site have not touched
this topic.
I don't know more than what has already been reported. I have no idea why there has been so little coverage in the media. I have actually written, deleted, rewritten, and deleted again a post this week because I can't find the words to describe the many layers of this issue. I am angry and appalled that those at Vermont who are responsible for protecting the students have failed to do so. There needs to be accountability for those who perpetrated the sexual violence and those who didn't do enough to support the victims. This fundamentally changes the program forever. Right now it is so much bigger than basketball and I will write a post when I feel like I can clearly articulate my feelings.
DeleteBut there has been news coverage...
ReplyDeleteFree Press for sure. Other news outlets have not picked it up going all the way back to last fall.
DeleteSome other places have covered it, trust me. I won't go through the trouble of listing... There's at least one person who's on a rampage to cancel Vermont basketball and cancel Vermont basketball fans.
ReplyDelete