Bryant 87 Vermont 64
In the opener of a long road trip the Cats ran into a buzzsaw. Dyami Starks and the Bryant basketball team dominated the second half and may be poised for a special season. Starks could very well lead the nation in scoring this year and Bryant has the look of a tournament team. Hats off to Bryant for executing a perfect game plan. Now on to the Cats......
The injuries are piling up and the effects are apparent on the court. Ethan O'Day is an extremely important player to this team. It is not even his individual loss that is the most damaging, but rather the domino effect it causes in the lineup. Without O'Day (and Pierson for that matter) UVM only has two healthy post players on the roster. It is safe to say that very few college teams are going to win with such a thin frontcourt. This has caused Hector Harold to play the four. Harold has played very poorly so far this season and looks every bit like he has missed a year of game action. The one thing that can be said in his defense is he is playing completely out of position. His height is the only reason he is playing in the post as he is clearly more comfortable on the perimeter. This lack of frontcourt depth is going to pose a serious problem throughout the nonconference schedule. Losing a defender like Dre Wills right before playing a team with a dynamic guard certainly put a wrench in the coach's plan as well. The injuries have pressed young players into action and caused the offense to be inconsistent as they are not quite ready for a prominent role in the offense. The one bright spot in last nights game was that Nas Williams looked like he could contribute to this team. He showed a soft touch and got to the basket at will, which is something this team desperately needs. It looks like he has been working very hard in practice and may see increased minutes during this time of the walking wounded. When healthy, this team is every bit the championship caliber team everyone was talking about preseason. The Cats challenged a very strong St. Josephs team in the second half and had opportunities to pull ahead and win that game. This is the same St. Josephs team that almost beat a highly regarded Creighton team last night. The Cats were far healthier in that game and it showed. The unfortunate thing is that the writing is on the wall for most of the nonconference schedule. With multiple players still at least a month away from returning, the nonconference schedule could be extremely rough. The Cats need to survive this stretch with their confidence in tact because if they are healthy come conference play they will still be a force to be reckoned with. Until then Cats fans are in for some very frustrating games and more losses than they have been accustomed to. The hope is that this senior laden team will absorb every blow and overcome every obstacle while not allowing their confidence and drive to be shaken.
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