After winning three consecutive championships, overcoming injuries and adversity, winning 10 games in a row down the stretch, and if you can believe it for the first time since 2015 (again throwing out the COVID year), Vermont will not be in the title game. It is someone else's turn. I say it a lot and it bears repeating, Vermont has had an unprecedented and frankly mythical run of success and to expect to never lose or have another team rise up is unrealistic. This was a roller-coaster season full of twists and turns and going all the way back to Jayhlon Young's de-commitment in June, it felt like the basketball gods were signaling that this year was going to be one full of challenges. Losing Shamir Bogues was the straw that broke the camel's back and the Cats season came to a close.
First and foremost, a tip of the cap to Maine, who beat Vermont for the first time since 2010 (that is quite a run). They absolutely dominated the game and executed on the defensive end like I haven't seen in a long time. The Cats had their struggles but most of the turnovers and missed shots were due to an insane defensive effort from Maine. Kellen Tynes played like a man possessed and dominated end to end. Maine came in and said "we are going to smother TJ Hurley and make someone else beat us" and boy did they execute that strategy. Hurley had no space and no time as Maine threw everything but the kitchen sink to stop him. The Black Bears were hungry. Vermont came out flat for the second straight game and this time they could not recover. Maine was all over them from the tip and forced the Cats into 17 turnovers which turned into 21 points for the Black Bears. Vermont was back on their heels and played very tentatively as it seemed like Maine defenders kept coming out of nowhere to get steals and swat shots. The Cats shot 25.9% from the field and 4-26 (15.4%) from three. The Cats defense was very good as well holding Maine to 38.6% shooting and 4-17 (23.5%) from three. They could not get anything to fall against the highly motivated and energetic Maine defense.
One incredible highlight was Sam Alamutu pulled down an herculean 21 rebounds! He worked very hard to initiate the offense and finished with 8 points. Ileri Ayo-Faleye finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds but shot 4-15 from the field. Hurley finished 1-15 from the field as he fell victim to three time defensive player of the year Kellen Tynes. I look forward to the Hurley revenge tour next season. Jace Roquemore went out with a bang, delivering quite an impressive poster dunk.
I will reflect and recap the season in the coming weeks but I wanted to thank to the team for another exciting season in Catamount country and now on to cheering for the Vermont Women's team on Friday!!
Maine is clearly the better team in both offense and defense . Plus they have a long bench - 6 or 7 capable substitutes to allow the starters to get a break. The Cats had only the Freshman - Shawn and Noah . The starters were visibly worn out and Maine ran over them.
ReplyDeleteA lot of bad luck with all the injuries
Hopefully Shy Odom will recover from his back injury and Blake and Barnett.factoring in.
That kid from Charlottesville , Va ( a red shirt freshman this year) will be back. He apparently broke the Virginia high school record for the most three pointers in High School history) . He was actively recruited by many Div 1 colleges but he chose UVM . And T J Long will be back . Cats will come back soon !
Great effort by the the guys this year great players all of you !!
Go Cats Go !
Word from a UVM administrator is that Hurly will be entering the portal.
DeleteOf course he will be. Any of us would do the same. He'll either be a star at a low level D1 team or a spot up shooter at a mid level school. And he'll get paid. Hopefully UVM will be able to match whatever he is offered. And hopefully he will be satisfied with UVM's graduate programs. Otherwise there are lots of schools that will love to have him.
DeleteThough as we saw tonight he has trouble creating his own shot. He's a first teamer for America East, but I question how successful he'll be against better competition.
We need to come out of the dark ages when it comes to NIL. This whole people will come for the culture and program only goes so far. Guys come for a couple years, win a couple titles then move on and get paid just like Hurley is doing. We have billionaire alumni, pick up the phone and ask for some funds!!! Several AE programs have NIL collectives now. You think earl Timberlake came back for free?!! Heck no!!
DeleteI'm a fan, but, sorry, if I were a billionaire I'd have better places to put my money than an athletic fund to benefit kids already getting scholarships to play. The Burlington area needs so much help in many areas that basketball is minor in the grand scheme of things.
DeleteThank you for the great coverage this season. I look forward to your analysis of each game.
ReplyDeleteAnd congratulations to Maine for a well deserved victory. Maine's defense, and limiting Hurley clean looks was the story of the game.
This was a truly ugly conference semi final. Both squads worked hard, but neither had a good offense. 42 points in a conference tournament game? Are you kidding me? Towards the end part of me was satisfied Vermont would be spared a 40 point embarrassment on national TV at Bryant.
Thank you ileri Ayo-Faleye and Nick Fiorillo. You each gave it your all and had great success. I enjoyed watching you play. And Shamir Bogues you are my favorite player in UVM history. I only wish you'd been healthy this season. I wish all three great success in the future.
Cats had trouble generating points all year and that was apparent in this game. Once Hurley was neutralized, Cats had no other reliable shooters. Happened before this year. Too bad it showed up again last night. Great Maine defense and bad UVM offense = 42 points. Haven't checked but that must be a season low. Need some shooters next year!
ReplyDeleteI checked and the 42 points is a season low - they had 43 against Auburn.
DeleteIleri, Sam, and TJ were a combined 9 of 42. Ouch! Team had 17 turnovers to 3 for Maine. Maine didn't exactly light it up either and missed 11 free throws. I think we'll see Bryant in the NCAA tournament this year.
ReplyDeleteI hope bogues is healthy for the NIT. Even though it’s not the big dance we still have postseason basketball ahead of us and I hope Shamir has the chance to end his catamount career on the court
ReplyDeleteAre they really going to the NIT? I think they should just put the basketballs away for the year and move on.
DeleteThe highest seed in each conference that doesn’t make the ncaa tournament gets an automatic invite. So if Bryant wins Saturday we should get an invite. Whether they take it or not is another thing
DeleteThis is not the case. The only automatic qualifier into the NIT is regular season conference champion, but you have to have a BPI, Kenpom, and NET ranking all at 125 or better
DeleteLee thank you for another great season!! The amount of your free time you dedicate to this without any expectation of compensation is amazing. This blog is constantly the most accurate up to date source of catamount news and the game recaps are always thoughtful and neutral. I know you’ll be posting through the postseason and offseason but thank you again!
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%. Thank you Lee. This is the only reliable and timely coverage of UVM men’s basketball. Looking forward to more of the same in the future!
DeleteFor the person that posted about NIL: UVM basketball does have a program. Here’s the link: https://go.uvm.edu/stonefund
ReplyDeletePut your money where your mouth is and hit it up!
Lee, thank you for you coverage and thoughts on the team all season. I always look forward to reading your essays.
The fact that hardly anyone knows such a program exists proves the posters point. Thank you
DeleteAgreed! Let’s not rely on the admin to promote and help fund the team. They don’t seem very good at it yet. It’s our team too! We can help spread the word. It benefits us as fans too!
DeleteAre Shamir and Ileri eligible to return as grad students?
ReplyDeleteNo, both are out of eligibility
DeleteThe hope was- get to the final and maybe Shamir will be back. The fact that the Cats overcame a rough season's start to nearly win the league with a 10 game streak is a credit to the players and the staff, because this was a thin team...and it caught up with them. I have really enjoyed this group, when healthy, they were the best in the AE
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog. Credit Maine, they had a terrific game plan and deserved the win. Our defense is always fine, Head coach is great. Whoever is in charge of our offense needs to find another occupation, honestly. All season our offense puts our players in a tough spot to execute. Offensive scheme needs to be totally restructured this off season. Teams in our conference have some good coaching and their teams are improving.
ReplyDeleteYes thanks again for all your work Lee! An up and down yr but kept us entertained and it’s even though it didn’t turn out remotely how we hoped I still got excited for every game. A few things. First, if Hurley enters the portal it will be everything that is wrong in college hoops. Becker and his coaching staff put a lot into TJ. They played him a lot as a freshman and yesterday’s game was the culmination of all that trust and work they put in. Becker left him out there the whole game, in hindsight the wrong thing to do, hoping he might find some magic and get hot. Here’s the thing about TJ’s game, his ceiling has been hit. He’s not quick, his release is too slow and his ability to handle the ball is average at best. I don’t think I can remember seeing a player of his supposed caliber get blocked on jump shots as much as him. Stef smith, who I’d argue was more talented, was another kid that left for greener pastures his senior yr and look how that ended up. So if he leaves so be it, it reflects poorly on him and I don’t think he’ll be successful in higher competition. And getting back to leaving for greener pastures, it just wreaks of not caring about the commitment you make to the coaches and school. Take Long and Odom, we have no idea what to expect from the next yr but the coaches are standing by and working to get them red shirts for injury. If the shoe was on the other foot and the coaches didn’t care about the players they would say screw it, let’s lead them out to pasture and find replacements in the portal.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of the team leaving. Shamir will be sorely missed on both ends, it’s an obvious statement but when healthy he was a beast defending and getting to the rim. Ileri will be sorely missed on defense but offensively I saw him as a negative. Yes he would hit threes and had incredible dunks but between him and fiorillo I saw them as liabilities mainly because they seemed to want to play like guards or small forwards and their skill sets weren’t such. I don’t know why the staff would position them almost exclusively around the 3 pt line and it led to too many terrible possessions. Them attempting to dribble drive or hoisting up 3’s was hard to watch and led to a lot of the scoring droughts we saw all yr. I suppose they just couldn’t wall guys up in the post and that’s what we were left with. Thetre both great kids and gave the program everything they had I wish them the best of luck but as a program I think they can be substituted and possibly upgraded. And that leads me to the program and the future. As things stand right now things don’t look great for next yr. The question to me is can Becker et al adopt to the changed landscape. Can they slightly adjust to finding more offensive players and cede a little on the defense at all costs. It was noticeable all yr that in our own conference most teams found higher major transfers that contributed mightily on the offensive end. I honestly often felt other than a few teams we were outclassed in terms of play making and talent. We need to hit the portal and find play makers, hopefully more athletic type wings. I know there’s no money but we should be able to find guys if Bryant, Albany and even NJIT can. I love the upside for Blake but right now that’s really the only difference maker we have to build on. Anyway, here’s to scanning blogs and Twitter during the offseason and hopefully it bears some fruit….
Totally agree regarding Hurley - let him go - should not be the focal point of the offense - mediocre - will probably not do any better wherever he lands. Would be sad to see Barnett or Blake go. Joba & Odom probably gone. Becker gone?
DeleteReferring to Hurley leaving; don’t be overly myopic here. Hurley was forced to play the leading scorer role with very little support, especially without Bogues. On any other team he becomes a valuable cog in the offense. Other teams simply caught on to the fact that there was no other meaningful offensive capabilities without Bogues so they worked overtime to shut Hurley down. Put Hurley on another team with offensive balance and it’s a different story.
DeleteListen Text Waller, maybe you can waive your hand and brush away 50 to 100 grand like it's nothing. It's a whole different story for kids nowadays. Maybe the kid wants to own a house before he's 35. Use your head before calling a kid disloyal because you clearly have no idea of the draw of a sum that high to someone TJ's age. If he does choose to go somewhere else for a bigger payday, I wish him well. He's owes you nothing sir.
DeleteTo "Myopic": I still contend that at best, Hurley is mediocre. A mediocre Bryant shut him down earlier this year. A mediocre Maine team stuffed him. Against elite tournament teams, completely schooled. Not a good first or second option on the big stage. I hope the Cats move on from him as the focal point, and reorganize the offense away from the small ball erratic 3's to a more balanced inside-outside -slashing game. Becker an excellent defensive coach, but sorely lacking in the offensive scheme...
DeleteJust like J Young owed the team nothing. Settle down tough guy, I never said he owed me anything I said he owed the coaches and program something for developing him and recruiting him. The people on the side of the “kids” solely are wrong. If a player has been slighted or doesn’t get along with the coach or isn’t fitting in with the system and wants to leave that’s fine. In Hurleys case it’s the furthest thing from reality and in my opinion he owes it to the staff to honor his 4 yr commitment to them. He will make more than 30-50k a yr in Europe if that’s the path he chooses so spare me the owning a house one day argument. And getting back to j young, you ever think about the adults that have kids, bills, and mortgages that go and recruit a kid only to split in the middle of the summer and leave them high and dry? Beckers job security is clearly not an issue but think about all of the coaches trying to cut it in college who are now at the mercy of this system. They can’t even plan for the same season let alone 1 or 2 yrs out. You think when Becker and crew were putting together their roster a yr ago they didn’t consider they had TJ for two more yrs and j young was an insurance policy for long and Shamir injuries? If a team doesn’t have NIL money or a lot of it and it can’t rely on signed commitments then why even bother trying to compete.
DeletePlayers owe you nothing. Get over it. They are essentially professionals now. They will do what's best for them as they should. You will just have to get over your hurt feelings and get used to the new reality of college basketball.
DeleteIf Hurly comes back - Vermont is in an OK spot to begin the offseason with. If he leaves - very tough. A core of Blake, Long, Hurley, Sammy and Odom is good. But to many of the above. They need to add to it. What is the latest on the JUCO transfers? Can Joba or Barnett be counted on for our big men next year? This years freshmen that redshirted - any blue chippers in that group? If they get invited to the NIT - they should go. The experience will be great for some of the players - especially a guy like Blake.
ReplyDeleteGood core for a 6'5" and under league. The difficulty at this level is finding bigs. Barnett is a keeper and Alamutu plays bigger than his size. But that's a thin front court. Joba and Odom showed me nothing this season.
DeletePlease let Hurley move on and re-focus the offense away from the 3-point inefficient mind set.
DeleteAgree on Joba. Not going to be of help. Odom has an injury excuse - Joba has no excuse.
ReplyDeleteBecker himself said there are no plans to accept any postseason invite. The selfish part of me wants to see them take any invite so we can see more catamount basketball. The practical part of me realizes it’s the right choice though. We have like 7 healthy bodies at this point, no need to risk serious injury for next year
ReplyDeleteFact is- this is Shamirs team and if he cannot play- why bother? IMHO- with the way healthy Shamir was playing during ( especially the last part of ) the winning streak, I think they just may have beaten Bryant- he was that important.and that good. A great Catamount who will be missed.
ReplyDeleteAll the hate being spewed towards Hurley because of a rumor posted on a chatboard is hilarious. Same people calling him mediocre now spent all year praising his growth. People are hilarious
ReplyDeleteI agree, he’s not mediocre. He’s a great player in the right system and an average player in the wrong system. Good defender, good 3pt shooter, very good mid range shooter, and great FT shooter which helps down the stretch. That being said I think it’s wrong if he splits…
DeleteHurley a "great" player? Very good at free throws, 89% - Field goals only 42.7%. 38.2% 3-Pt. Not great. But you counter: "He was double teamed, had no help" still doesn't cut it - sorry, he isn't great - got dominated when pressured. It's sad that he was the go-to guy on a team that ranked 290th in offense nationally - UVM needs a major change on the offensive end...
DeleteOuch... harsh critiquing of a D1 player who led a team that won 21 games... my, my!
Delete21 games won, mostly in one of the weakest conferences in the NCAA...my my!
DeleteUVM won 21 games this season with a seriously short bench due to injuries to several key players and some of you sound like they have hit rock bottom! Hurley was straight up impressive. He showed quiet leadership as he led the team in scoring forcing other teams to double their efforts to stop him. It’s not ideal that UVM didn’t win it all but what they did was put Catamount pride fully on display!
ReplyDeleteSeriously who is posting on this blog, UVM fans or haters? This league had the highest rpi rankings in yrs to start the season. No clue how it ended but uvm had a really down yr but still beat uab, Delaware, Miami, blew a game against Fairfield etc all teams that either won the conference tournament or playing in the finals. Bryant put it all together in the middle of the season and are very good. UML on the other hand were very good to start the season and had tons of talent but something happened in the locker room. Maine and Albany were much improved, umbc very talented offensively and unh and njit completely rebuilding. Hurley is a very good player that I would love to see stay and I think he should but if he doesn’t I think the point of this entire conversation is how does the program rethink their approach. Can they get this center finally built, can the community support find some money, can the be better in the portal, can they get freshmen that can contribute sooner or are they willing to allow mistakes on the defensive end, and the list goes on where their are “problems” currently with their approach that reared its ugly head this yr. I hope and think that Becker and staff will fix this and be more hungry next yr/s…
ReplyDeleteI think we got a very talented freshman in Sean Blake, but we did him a disservice with the inconsistent role, not giving him the time to grow. It would suck to see him hit the portal because he has so much potential.
DeleteI as a "hater" am a gift to blogs such as this - Do you just want yes-men regurgitating the same theme? Only happy talk allowed? It's good to stir the pot!
DeleteHow about you just can’t win every year.
ReplyDeleteBecker’s run at all these conference wins and championships has been, and always will be REMARKABLE. What they did with TJ Long out and Odom not producing when he could play, and of course Shamir playing a number of games at not 100% is to be appreciated even by the “haters”. Of course if you are a “hater”, maybe you weren’t here for so many of the glory years. I’m no fan of Bryant, but they are well equipped to show well at the Dance, if they can keep their composure. They have many shooters and are a rebounding juggernaut and they have a bench. Not sure I want to say good luck to them but it could be an interesting watch.
Anonymously claiming credit for other anonymous posts don’t make you a “hater” or “pot stirrer” just another anonymous anonymously posting lmaoc
ReplyDeleteExactly, you understand the point being made
ReplyDeleteAnd last season they had fewer injuries. Lowell had more. We didn't cry for them. Bryant won't cry for us. Injuries are part of the game.
ReplyDeleteThey lost this season because they whiffed in the portal. Nothing. Zero. Nada. It left them with no depth. And Bryant hit a home run with Barry Evans. Whoever wins the portal wins the conference.
Good try though!
ReplyDeleteHurley is an impressive player, carried the Cats in more than a few games. However, he's not invincible and can be shut down, which has happened a few times.... If the refs don't help Bryant beat Lowell, the Cats win the league, seriously.
ReplyDeleteSeth Joba just entered the Transfer Portal
ReplyDeleteProbably best for both the player and the team. He had two years left, he should go to a school where he can play. This gives Becker another spot to upgrade. Hopefully will recruit hard this off-season. Wish Seth the best!
DeleteGood luck to him. Big kid with a nice touch. I know he didn't show us everything we hoped for but this leaves Becker with only one serviceable player over 6'5". Barnett. And he only played 6-10 minutes per game. Vermont is officially DESPERATE for big men.
Delete