The first domino to fall is Aaron Deloney putting his name in the portal and testing the waters for his extra year of eligibility. This move is no surprise as it is a pretty amazing and unique opportunity to be given an extra year of eligibility after completing a 4 year career. I am glad that he is exploring his options. He has given some serious blood, sweat, and tears over the years and deserves to explore another chapter. Don't get me wrong I love Deloney and will miss watching him but I kind of treated him as a senior for most of the year, thinking there was a chance he wouldn't be back. If he ends up officially leaving I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. The effect for next year is that it will leave Nick Fiorillo as the only player in the program who has been with the team for more than two seasons. That equates to Vermont moving from a fairly old team, to a very young team in the blink of an eye. The offseason needs from a recruiting standpoint were already at the guard position and that will continue to be the focus of the coaching staff. Most of the players that Vermont has contacted in the transfer portal have been at the guard position so they have already been addressing this need. This leaves Vermont with a lot of question marks for next season which I will touch on further in a season wrap up post this weekend. I will say the coaching staff has demonstrated that they can find underrated (Finn Sullivan) and highly rated (Dylan Penn) transfers and they had a lot of talent on the bench this season. There will be young players that put in the work this offseason and thrive in a larger role. The Vermont program demonstrated their strong player development this season and there is no reason to doubt that they will be able to do it again. Check back for my season wrap this weekend.
