Portal Season

With Noah Barnett, Sincere Clemons, and Ben Michaels entering the portal and Lucas Mari moving on as well, the start to portal season has not been kind to Vermont. I wish all of them the best of luck in their future and feel like this is as good a time as any to write some general thoughts on the college basketball landscape.

First and foremost, blaming the players is misplaced. All of the narratives in the media painting this player movement era as a reflection of some problem with the determination and dedication of players is silly. Players maximizing their value and being able to find the right fit is a good thing. Particularly for the players who may not have a long and lucrative pro career, they are being presented with an opportunity to pack all they can into a short period of time. Just about every person would make the same decision if they had an opportunity to make life changing money or pursue a dream to its fullest. Throughout the tournament this year it was cool to see former mid major players get a chance to compete for a national title. Michigan winning the title while returning only 34% of their minutes is a perfect reflection of this new era. This change is hitting programs regardless of resources or prestige. For every program across the country, retaining players is a huge challenge. 

Suddenly, there is an entirely new approach to team building while also requiring a while new area of expertise needed to navigate this era properly. Programs everywhere are hiring general managers as business savvy, working with agents, and an understanding of the non-basketball side of things becomes crucial. Resources certainly help in getting players into a program but are less important on the retention side of the equation. For coaching staffs, building team culture has new challenges around every corner. Who gets paid and how much is now a huge part of the team culture. It is a difficult balance to strike and puts a strain on any locker room. Some programs have made the adjustment smoothly and others are trying to find their footing in the new normal. The demands on coaches have increased exponentially and at some point there will need to be some correction the other way. 

For college basketball fans, this is a hard shift. It will certainly never be the same again and the change might be so significant that when it comes out the other side, it might be unrecognizable. With the current structure and a potential 76 game tournament implemented next year, the college game might be fundamentally different from here on out. Getting excited about players in the moment, instead of looking to the future or remaining fans of a player on their new team and taking pride in being a small part of their journey is likely a new part of college basketball fandom. 

Two things can be true at the same time. Players being able to move and find the right fit while being compensated is ultimately the right system. At the same time, the current system has flaws and there is likely a better way to balance player empowerment and an effective college basketball structure. 

Specifically for the Vermont program this offseason, this is their first foray in the full breadth of the NIL/Portal era. They had been able to stave it off through a strong tradition and individual sacrifices, but now they will face the same challenges that many programs across college basketball are already familiar with. It is tough to see players go, especially before the roster begins to fill up again. This will certainly be the coaching staff's most difficult offseason and does feel like the end of one era while hopefully beginning another. This is the first time there will be no passing on of the tradition and values from one group to the next. The lower resources in the Vermont program make the portal process very challenging for the coaching staff but for the first time there are huge opportunities for playing time to offer prospective players. Once the program gets to the players committing stage, that will be the true test of what this next phase will bring. If nothing else, the next few months will be fast and furious for the Vermont program. It will be very interesting to see whats next. 

Sean Blake and David Simon enter the portal

Portal season is upon us and both David Simon and Sean Blake intend to enter the portal when it opens on April 7th. They are the second and third Catamounts to enter the portal after Ben Wesson announced last week. Up until this point, Vermont had miraculously avoided significant losses in the portal but Blake breaks that trend. He really grew tremendously this year and his trajectory continues to look very strong. That leaves a big hole in the Vermont roster with the point guard position already being quite thin and the guard room lost to graduation. Blake will be a big time addition to any program and I wish him the best of luck as he charts a new course. David Simon flashed lots of potential and we will always have that insane Pepperdine game to remember him by. Unfortunately, injuries derailed his season and he never got to fully integrate into the Vermont program. I wish him the best of luck at his new spot. 

It would be naive to think that Vermont was never going to lose one of their young up and coming stars to the portal, especially with their limited resources compared to their top mid-major peers. This coaching staff can still sell the winning and player development but the longer into this era the Cats go without more resources (or a new facility), the more common this might become.  It will be another busy offseason for the Cats with 7 roster spots to fill and the portal has not officially opened yet. 

Season reflections

Another season in the books for the Catamounts and as March comes to a close, it is time to reflect on the journey. There were quite a few highs and lows as Vermont continues to adapt to the changing landscape of college basketball. When all was said and done, The Cats checked off several boxes before falling just short of their ultimate goal. It was another 20 win season and that continues to highlight the consistency and program standard that Becker and his staff has set. New players and changing environments across college basketball and the Vermont program continues to find ways to compete at a high level. Falling short the last two seasons has been hard but only because the standard has been set so high. Those high standards make the Vermont program special and it is important to recognize just how rare it is to be able to pencil in 20 wins, a top two seed, and a spot in the championship year in and year out in a very chaotic and ever-changing sport.

The individual player development still showed through and continues to be the bread and butter of the Vermont program. Even with less times and years with players, there are steady improvements and buy in. TJ Hurley transitioned from shooter to scorer, Sean Blake became an all around contributor, Gus Yalden improved exponentially on defense (and from three), Noah Barnett went from energy guy to crucial starter, Lucas Mari became a defensive disruptor, and Momo Nkugwa a calming presence at the point guard position. If you rewind to the beginning of the season, these evolutions did not seem likely. Year to year continuity might be a thing of the past but even within a single season, there is tremendous room for growth. The most difficult part of the new era is the never knowing what the next year will bring and the inability to project a roster for the next season. This year the team cohesiveness took a bit longer than usual but it still had the Cats playing good basketball in March and had players making progress throughout the season. It is worth mentioning that overall this was a very young team with a significant part of the rotation in their first or second full college season. That inexperience was a big contributor to the in game swings in effectiveness. 

I am really going to miss the TJ's. They never really got to play together at their full potential but the excitement and shotmaking they brought over their time was really fun. They both gave us so many exciting moments and played their hearts out. Despite this group's struggles this season there was a bit of extra energy to the team. A lot of that credit goes to Yalden for bringing personality and fan engagement but guys like Barnett, and Nkugwa, and Blake also brought highlight plays and energy. The big swings in effectiveness during games resulted in huge runs and as a result this group of Cats almost always made the game interesting right up until the final buzzer. 

Two seasons ago, the defense was strong and the offense struggled. That put the emphasis this past offseason on improving the offense, potentially at the expense of the defense. During the non-conference portion of the season, it looked like that goal had been achieved as the offense hummed along and the defense struggled to get stops. It looked like a different style of Vermont team was going to be on the menu. Then as conference play approached, suddenly the defense began to catch up and the offense began to stall. That would foreshadow the rest of the season as Vermont again became a defensive minded team trying to survive scoring droughts. It was a genuinely weird season as the offensive talent and shotmaking was there but never seemed to fire on all cylinders. So I did what I love to do and go look at the numbers.

On barttorvik.com, there is a great table that takes a year over year look at a team's numbers. It is a great way to dig in a double check what you saw and felt during the year and to get at what the real difference was between a successful year and a year that fell short. The post COVID seasons are a great data set as the Cats have won three titles and fell short twice. The overall efficiency numbers have declined over the last several seasons but many of the underlying numbers are the same between the title and non-title seasons. They struggled to defend the three this year but that was also showed up in the 21-22 season. The defense not forcing a lot of turnovers is consistent year over year etc. This years team continued the staples of the Vermont program with efficient two point shooting, low turnovers, great defensive rebounding, and strong two point defense. So what was appreciably different? The three point shooting is an area of concern as over the last three seasons the percentage has been at its lowest during the Becker years. The big outlier for this years squad was how much they fouled on defense. Playing defense without fouling has long been a hallmark of Vermont teams and this year they put their opponents on the line significantly more than any of the post COVID teams. That is a backbreaker for a defensive minded a team and there were many times this year where it cost them games. Cleaning up that single area would have added several wins to this years squad. 

Now it is time to look ahead. With the transfer portal opening later and for less time, it will be interesting to see if that changes how the college basketball offseason looks once again. If the Cats can retain some of their core pieces they will be able to be more selective in how the coaching staff wants to roster build. If it is going to be another big roster overhaul, there will be more uncertainty. Last season they were forced to take big swings on unproven young players that yielded inconsistent results (much like the bygone era of high school recruiting). So far only Ben Wesson has entered the portal but it doesn't technically open until after the national title game so it will be through April until the roster becomes clearer. It will also be interesting to see who the coaching staff targets. The "add shooting and offense" mission had mixed results and ultimately did not have the effect that they were hoping. I think shooting will still be a priority but I think a creator off the dribble and reemphasizing defense will likely be an area they will look at. 

Look out for posts from all angles once portal season is in full swing as next year's roster takes shape!

Lastly, as always I appreciate everyone that still reads along and goes on this ride with me. I know that shutting off the comments reduced the interactive experience and that was a tough decision, but ultimately it allowed me to balance things in a better way. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for sharing this journey of college basketball fandom with me. 

Vermont falls in the America East title game

UMBC 74 Vermont 59 

UMBC continued their incredible play down the stretch and DJ Armstrong Jr. put together an all time championship game performance to lead the Retrievers to the tournament berth. The final score (and box score) will not do this game justice and don't tell the whole story. It will be easy to nitpick the poor Vermont shooting or look at the free throw disparity and if you didn't watch the game think same old problems. It was a closely contested game throughout with both teams responding to runs each way. Vermont's defense was really good and they made every shot tough for UMBC. DJ Armstrong Jr. single-handedly won this game with an insane performance, hitting tough contested shots, and scoring 13 points in a 4 minute stretch after Vermont took a three point lead. It was insane to watch and an incredible clutch performance. Armstrong Jr finished with with 33 points and almost all of his makes were deep, off balance looks, with hands in his face. Tip of the cap to him. To illustrate the point of how incredible his performance was, the rest of the Retrievers shot 12-40 (30%) and their leading scorer Jah'likai King was held scoreless. Great performance by UMBC and they will continue their hot streak into the NCAA tournament. 

TJ Long led the way for the Cats with a vintage 17 point performance in his final game. TJ Hurley struggled to make shots against a UMBC team determined to take him out of the offense and finished with 11 points. It is too bad the injuries never allowed the TJ & TJ experience to be fully realized. Gus Yalden chipped in 11 points and 5 rebounds (4 offensive) but battled foul trouble in the second half. Lucas Mari willed the Cats into the lead with his energy on both ends of the floor before getting hit with a elbow to the head and not returning down the stretch. He finished with 6 points and 8 rebounds. He was really incredible getting the Cats back into the game. Sean Blake finished with 7 points and 6 rebounds.

I will post a season review sometime in the coming weeks but in the meantime it is time to turn our attention to the Vermont women's basketball team following their incredible performance in the championship game last night. There are Catamounts in the postseason!

ON TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!

Vermont 63 NJIT 54

Vermont continued their strong defensive play late in the season and booked a trip to the title game at UMBC on Saturday.  That was a magnificent team win. The cohesiveness that this group has found since the UMBC loss is an incredible accomplishment. Four players in double figures, six players with at least 4 rebounds, seven players with at least 1 assist, and a stingy, physical defensive effort. Tonight was the "next man up" Vermont mantra at its finest. The right plays at the right time. With all the challenges that Vermont faced this year, they are playing their best basketball of the season in March and avenged last year's semifinal loss to make it back to the title game for the 4th time in the last 5 years. Now they get to go on the road and I hope they get to play loose and free as the underdogs. Vermont has always been the hunted so I hope this group gets to come out as the hunters. UMBC has been on fire, winning 11 in a row since the loss to Vermont on January 29th. The Cats have nothing to lose and earned the opportunity to play for the championship. 

Sean Blake and TJ Hurley led the balanced attack with 14 points and 5 rebounds apiece. Both played with force and toughness in the face of the physical ball pressure from the Highlanders. TJ Long stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 (!) steals. His defensive intensity over the last two games has been incredible. His back to back threes in the second half gave the Cats a huge lift when the offense was struggling. Noah Barnett also had 11 points and hauled in 4 rebounds. He also made his first career three at the most clutch moment possible. It is hard to say a three with 9 minutes to go is a game winner, but that is exactly what it felt like. He has been playing incredible basketball over the last few weeks. Momo Nkugwa once again made a driving layup in a clutch spot. Lucas Mari finished with 4 points and 5 rebounds. Gus Yalden struggled to get it going and finished with 6 points and 4 rebounds but continues to show major improvement on the defensive end. 

 

Nothing better than playing on championship Saturday!

HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL!!!!!

Vermont 77 Bryant 57

College basketball is the best.

Fresh off his player of the year award, TJ Hurley exploded in the second half and carried Vermont to the America East semifinals. What a game, what an atmosphere. Patrick was electric and the Cats showed out in one of their most well played games of the season. Vermont had Bryant at arms length for much of the game until the Bulldogs cut the lead to just four with 8:30 to go. The Cats responded with a 12-0 run and never looked back. Throughout the game, Vermont had the intensity, effort, and swagger that they have shown in spurts this season. The defense was once again really good and it goes beyond the box score. On paper Bryant shot a high percentage and took a lot of free throws, but they only attempted 38 shots for the entire game. That is an absurd number even for a slow paced game. Vermont gave up TWO offensive rebounds (they once again this season are second in all DI in defensive rebound percentage) and forced 12 Bryant turnovers. They were physical and in the Bulldogs grill from the opening tip. Offensively the Cats shot 57% (28-49) from the field and 45% (9-20) from three. Everybody that stepped on the on the floor made plays that helped contribute to the win. 

What more can you say about TJ Hurley? An all time playoff performance from an all time Catamount. Talk about a guy that earned it. Four years of hard work, battling through injuries, improving and expanding his game, and now player of the year. He absolutely put the team on his back and scored 24 of his game high 29 points in the second half. Hurley finished 9/12 from the field and 5/7 from three. The first of the back to back and-one drives was a thing of absolute beauty. Not to mention fouling out Bryant's best player in the process. Gus Yalden and Sean Blake both chipped in 12 points and got the Cats going with strong first halves. Noah Barnett was incredible as usual with his energy and hustle, finishing with 8 points and 7 rebounds. He had a big block and a clutch, full extension, diving on the floor steal in a big moment. Momo Nkugwa continues to defy logic with his calm, under control and yet explosive play down the stretch. His dunk in the first half was vicious and thankfully he survived the scary fall. He had one of the most clutch buckets of the game, driving to the rim right after Bryant cut the lead to four to give the Cats some breathing room. Over the last 5 games he has played 86 minutes and has committed ONE turnover. (he has not turned the ball over in the last 4 games at all). Just incredible for anyone, much less a young player in the most important games of the season. TJ Long's defensive intensity set the tone from his first minutes on the court and he finished with 3 steals.

What a great college basketball game in an incredible atmosphere. There is nothing better than basketball in March. Tuesday can't come soon enough. 

Another 20 win season

Vermont 69 Albany 56

Vermont used a strong defensive effort to secure another 20 win season for the program. It continues to impress that the coaching staff has been able to take different groups of players with different skillsets and still find ways to win at a consistent level year in and year out. This year may have taken a bit more of a circuitous route than in years past, but the player development and team cohesion still shines through. Great win to honor the seniors and secure the two seed for the America East playoffs. The key to this game was the incredible double teams that forced Albany big man Okechukwu Okeke into SEVEN turnovers. The defense was connected all night and forced Albany into really tough shots in the second half. This game also has the distinction of the most banked in shots I have ever seen. Offensively the Cats really attacked the rim in the second half and got to the free throw line, which wore down the Great Danes. 

Gus Yalden led the way with 19 points and stayed red hot from three with a 4/6 effort from distance. Watching him play this year has been pure joy and he has brought an energy to Patrick that is unlike anything I have seen from a player in the past. The crowd really responds to him and he just looks like he is having so much fun. Airplane celebration was top notch today. TJ Long finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds. His rebounding continues to be huge and I thought he made a great adjustment in the second half to drive the ball instead of setting for threes. Noah Barnett chipped in 9 points and 5 rebounds and is starting to benefit from the extra defensive attention given to everyone else. TJ Hurley had 9 points and 5 rebounds as well and continues to impress in a big way on the defensive end. He is a brick wall.  Sean Blake had a really rough stretch in the second half but finished with 9 points and 5 assists. Ben Johnson added 5 points on his senior day. Momo Nkugwa stepped in for Blake and was really good. He played tough defense and handled point guard duties with ease. He plays with a poise beyond his years. 

Its the most wonderful time of the year. Saturday can't come soon enough.