Vermont snags the NE10 player of the year in the portal

Late last night Vermont secured another big piece for next years team. Will Davies, a 6'4" point guard who played for former Catamount assistant Chris Santo at St. Anselm for the past two seasons, committed to the Cats. Davies is coming off a monster sophomore season where he averaged 13.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 7.1 assists while leading St. Anselm to the NE10 championship and earning NE10 player of the year honors. He was also selected as the Division II east region player of the year by the D2CCA. Davies was an absolute warrior for the Hawks, rarely leaving the floor as he averaged 35 minutes per game. He led Division II in total assists with 235 and his 7.1 assists per game average were second. Davies is from Saco, Maine where he won the state's Mr. Basketball honor his senior year before spending a prep year at St. Thomas Moore in Connecticut. So in short, this is a big time add for the Catamounts. Davies is an all around, staff stuffing, hard working player who brings tenacity and a winning mindset. The assist numbers speak for themselves as he is a strong playmaker and floor general. He has knack for finishing at the rim, shooting 191/309 (62%) form two point range over his two seasons at St. Anselm. He made 50 threes at a 33% clip, enough to keep defenders honest and Davies made them in big spots for the Hawks throughout the season. Fans may remember Davies from the barn burner of an exhibition against Vermont this past season, as he led St. Anselm with 16 points while adding 5 assists and 3 rebounds. For those counting at home that is 3 for 3 on former Catamount opponents added through the portal. Between Darell Yepdo and Davies, the Cats have given themselves great options to mix and match lineups with solid point guard play. With the portal closing today, recruiting is really going to heat up over the next week as teams and players have a more concrete idea of available options. 

Khalil Badru commits to Vermont

Better late than never!

Spent the weekend in the Kingdom area for AAU and was quite off the grid but now I am back, recovered, and ready to catch up on Catamounts news. Vermont snagged their second portal commit from 6'5" guard Khalil Badru from New Britain, CT before attending the Newman school in Massachusetts. Badru began his college career at UNH before spending last season at Iona. That makes both portal commits former America East opponents. He struggled to crack the rotation at Iona, particularly his fit in the offensive system was a struggle. At UNH, Vermont fans may remember he went on quite a heater during conference play and made the America East all rookie team. Badru should be a great fit at Vermont, taking on that Sam Alamutu type role for the Cats. He is a strong and rangy defender who is a menace on the offensive glass. While still developing his offensive game, he is great slashing to the basket and finishing above the rim. He will be able to impact the game without the ball in his hands on the offensive end and gives the Cats a good foundation to start building their defense. The roster building is off to a good start, adding two tough, hard nosed, experienced players who can step right in to an important role. Can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring to Catamount country!

Vermont gets their first portal commitment

The portal is flying fast and furious and Vermont landed their first commitment for next season from 6'0" point guard Darrel Yepdo. Fans may remember that Yepdo began his career at St. Michaels for three years before transferring to UMass Lowell last season. He played two seasons for the Purple Knights before sitting out the 24-25 season due to injury. Yepdo had a strong sophomore season where he averaged 14.9 points, 3.6 assists, and 3.8 rebounds while making the NE-10 all-conference second team and all defensive team. Last year at UMass Lowell he averaged 10.3 points, 3.2 assists, and 3.1 rebounds and passed 1,000 points for his career. Yepdo has shot 137/361 (38%) from three over his three seasons, bringing strong shooting at a high volume. For a team that needs lots of players, finding a veteran point guard who can bring shooting as well is an important piece. Yepdo has been a good playmaker throughout his career and is a strong rebounder despite his size. At times Yepdo has struggled with turnovers but will likely benefit from the Vermont system. The big question will be recapturing his defensive prowess. Lowell was not a good defensive team last season and Yepdo struggled on that side of the ball. He was a strong defender while at St. Michaels so the Vermont staff will work their magic to get him up to speed on that end of the court. Experience at the point guard position is very hard to find in the portal at the mid major level and not having true depth at point guard last season proved to be hard for the Cats. Vermont fills a big need with player who can start or come off the bench and give valuable veteran minutes. I would imagine there will be more commitments in the next few weeks as the portal picture starts to become clearer. 

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.