Scrimmage at the Aud

It is time for the annual Barre Auditorium scrimmage to return! On October 16th the Cats will be at the Aud for an intrasquad scrimmage. I love this new partnership and it is one of my favorite events of the year. The Barre Auditorium is an amazing place to watch a basketball game. It is a must for every local basketball fan. I have been going to the high school championships there for close to twenty years now and when local star Ross Demasi, played for the Frost Heaves I never missed a game. There is just an incredible feel in the building and my favorite feature has to be the corner press box balconies at each end. On the online Auditorium schedule the place is booked from 1-4. That would put the game beginning at 1:30. It is a fun time because it is a real game with referees and everything so the players really get after it. Also on the online schedule the women's hoop team is going to be at the Aud this saturday October 2nd from 11-2. Check them out as well. Get a group and get to the Auditorium. The only bummer this year is that my favorite restaurant Soup n' Greens, where I always go when I am at the Aud, closed last month. Guess I will be looking for a new spot for a bite to eat. 

Schedule Release/New Assistant

Two for one!

I was planning on posting about the non-conference schedule and then today the Cats announced their new assistant coach so lets get to it!

First and foremost, man is it going to feel good to be back in Patrick Gym this season. I have missed watching live college basketball dearly and will probably shed a tear when I walk back in. I like the non-conference schedule that Vermont put together this season. It has a great mix of teams. Tough northeast teams like Yale and Northeastern I love the opener against Northern Iowa and getting Colgate on the schedule. Maryland and Providence are good buy games and going back to the gulf coast showcase will be fun. All in all a strong schedule that will give the Cats the tests that they sorely missed before conference play last season. 

Now on to Part two.

Today Vermont announced former Catamount Chris Santo as their new assistant coach. Die hard Cats fans will remember Santo for his few appearances as a freshman during the 2011-2012 season. After that year he transferred to St. Anselm where he had a very strong career. Santo joined the Catamounts just as I was getting into following the recruiting and researching the new players as much as I could so I very distinctly remember getting excited for him to join the Cats. Pretty cool to see it come full circle for him and as an added bonus Vermont actually plays St. Anselm as their second exhibition game this season.  I like this hire for Vermont. Santo has most recently been working with the Knicks coaching staff with game-planning and video analysis. I like the idea of having a guy on the staff with a little NBA experience as the program continues to move forward. Also working with a guy like Tom Thibodeau who is such a strong X's and O's guy will be very helpful as the team continues to add new wrinkles into their gameplan. It will be exciting to watch this new coaching develop their identity along with the team. October 30th can't come soon enough.

Roster finally updated

The 2021-2022 Vermont roster was officially updated on the athletics website and the newcomers were officially announced. It is finally time to get excited and I couldn't resist the chance to share some thoughts. First off the roster stands at 17 with the departure of walk-ons Kevin Garrison and Deng Adiang. Four year walk-ons are few and far between so those departures are no surprise. Second both Nick Fiorillo and Finn Sullivan are listed as the same number so I guess they have to enter the octagon to decide the real number 15. 

Now to the real stuff. 

Sam Alamutu is listed at 6'2" instead of the 6'4" he had been listed as during the recruiting process. Doesn't change his potential, just a surprisingly significant difference. Along with the roster update Becker provided a few words on each newcomer. Becker confirmed what Vermont fans have been salivating over since his commitment. Sam Alamutu is a special player and has all the makings of the next great Vermont guard. I am beyond excited to see what he can do. Becker also said that Alamutu and Evan Guillory are the future of the Vermont program. That is high praise. I am very excited to see Guillory as well. The comparisons to Dre Wills are very intriguing. Both freshman guards are big, physical, unselfish, and hard working. Kam Gibson and Finn Sullivan also received praise from Becker as offensive weapons and big parts of this years team. Particularly as dynamic offensive weapons. I feel like Sullivan might be the best under the radar addition in the league. He fits so well in the Vermont system, does all the little things well, and is set up to have a big time impact. I am so excited to watch this team play this season. There is so much intrigue with the new additions and the new roles for returning players. One of the most interesting story lines is how the coaching staff manages balancing the old and the new. Alamutu and Guillory sound like they are ready to contribute early on but with the transfers and returning COVID year guards, there is going to be a fierce competition for minutes. The ebb and flow of the playing time at the guard position and the creative lineups that Becker employs will be exciting to follow. 

Kyle Cieplicki leaves Vermont for Pitt

In my last post I mentioned that it was rumored that Kyle Cieplicki had left Vermont to take a job at Pitt. Today that move was made official as Cieplicki was announced as the Chief of Staff for the Pitt basketball program. It sounds like he will be responsible for coordinating and overseeing much of the recruiting process at Pitt. At Vermont he had developed a strong reputation as a recruiter so it is no surprise to see him remaining in that role. The coaching staff has seen significant turnover this offseason and it will certainly be a a new look program when the season begins. The Vermont staff had been together for a very long time and the turnover is both a reflection of the current job climate around the country and one of the results of a difficult time for the Vermont program. Between COVID, the sexual assault scandal, budgets cuts, and the arena getting delayed once again, the trajectory of the Vermont program has definitely stagnated. The last time the coaching staff experienced this much turnover it coincided with Vermont going after a different level of player and reshaping its roster to begin the recent run of success. There is often a geographic shift in recruiting as each assistant coach brings with them their own connections. Whoever the replacement ends up being they will have a steep learning curve with the move being made so close to the beginning of the season. This season feels more and more like the beginning of a new era in Catamount country. 

Vermont adds a new assistant

A few days ago Vermont officially announced that Bryson Johnson joined the staff as an assistant coach. I have been waiting for this announcement for SO long as Jeff Goodman tweeted mid June that he had replaced Hamlet Tibbs. Johnson is a great addition to the Vermont program and has experience working with well respected coaches and was a very successful and high character player at Bucknell. He led the Bisons winningest senior class in history to two NCAA tournaments, finishing as the 11th all time scorer and also served as two time captain. He was a leader on the court and in the classroom as he also received numerous academic awards. A perfect fit for the type of player that Vermont typically recruits. He has worked on the staffs at George Mason and Brown after playing professionally overseas for a few years. The only real information Catamount fans need is when I retweeted that he had joined the staff TJ Sorrentine gave his stamp of approval as "one of the best". Enough said. I waited for confirmation on this move as I try to avoid reporting on information where I can't find official word or corroborating sources. I am going to break this rule right now however as this hire carries a greater importance with HoopDirt.com reporting that Kyle Cieplicki has left the program to take a job at Pitt. Ari Shapiro-Miller has also left to take a position at Johns Hopkins. That is significant turnover for a staff that had been stable and unchanged for 7 years. Getting an experienced and well respected coach like Johnson to join the staff will help this transition to an new era. 

I also wanted to mention a few thoughts after the release of the America East conference schedule. Vermont got the most odd and lopsided schedule of any team. Whether that is a good or bad thing I don't know but their schedule ended up very front loaded with tough games. They are going to have to come out of the non-conference firing on all cylinders as they play Hartford and Stony Brook back to back twice within the first eight games of the schedule. They don't play Maine or Binghamton once until the second half of the conference slate. Interesting to say the least. Most other teams have a far more balanced schedule with more of a mix of upper half and lower half teams throughout. As I said there are both positives and negatives to having the schedule constructed like this, it is just something I have never really seen before. I am definitely chomping at the bit for the non-conference schedule and it finally feels like the season is right around the corner.