Vermont Hasn’t Fallen Off the Map
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Vermont Catamounts were supposed to fall off the map. The 2005 team, a senior-driven team that scored a stunning victory over Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament, was supposed to be the last we would hear of them for a long time.
Don’t look now, but the Catamounts aren’t going away.
First, they made it to the America East championship game for the fourth straight year last season, doing so as the No. 6 seed. They look primed to contend for the title this season, and Boston College found that out on Monday night, when the Catamounts beat the Eagles 77-63 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score might indicate.
“All the players, we believed in this, especially all the freshmen – they all see what we did in 2005, and they want to continue the legacy,” said senior forward Martin Klimes, a key player on that team.
Eagle fans and impartial observers not familiar with college basketball might look at this and wonder, what happened to the Eagles? How did they lose to Vermont? While the Eagles have some question marks, which were shown in this game, let’s not get it twisted: this is a good team that beat them on Monday night. We have to recognize that they didn’t lose to a team that’s going to go 7-20, or even 14-14.
A year ago, Vermont had the least experienced team in America. They are now more seasoned and have added freshmen like Joe Trapani, whose father played at the school in the 1970s and was a three-time captain, and point guard Nick Vier. They aren’t loaded with seniors, but have players who got a lot of minutes last season and a coach who is already starting to establish himself as one of the best in the conference in Mike Lonergan.
Lonergan, who is very intense and seems to sweat as much as his players, was no one’s pick for this job after longtime head coach Tom Brennan retired, and there were certainly questions asked. Could he keep the program at a high level, especially inheriting a team that would be so inexperienced? Could he be the guy to show that the three-year run was not a fluke, that they can win again? At times last season, the answer was unclear, at other times it appeared to be “no” until they made it to the conference title game. But looking at the big picture, the answer looks to be a resounding yes.
“He didn’t want to take four years to be a good team, he wanted to start right away,” said Mike Trimboli, one of Lonergan’s first recruits and last season’s America East Rookie of the Year. “He really cares for his players, and I think most importantly, he brings us together as a team. He works just as hard as we do.”
Trimboli looked like he could have started for the Eagles in Monday’s game. He had 17 points, including 3-5 from behind the three-point line, and handed out eight assists. He comes from a basketball family, as both of his parents were college stars and one younger brother was a Division II All-American. It shows in how he plays the game, and he got some help in the off-season about the rigors of playing at this level from former Catamount star guard T.J. Sorrentine.
The riches don’t end there. Trapani, who didn’t play AAU before his senior season in high school, might be the best freshman in a conference that already looks to have no shortage of talent in that class. He had 13 points and eight rebounds, dominating in the first half. He and Rhode Island transfer Chris Holm, one of the two seniors on the roster, controlled the inside as Holm added 15 points and 10 rebounds. Noteworthy is that Klimes, the other senior, didn’t play much due to foul trouble and yet the Catamounts still out-rebounded the Eagles 48-39.
“They just basically out-played us,” said B.C. senior Jared Dudley.
That about sums it up. The Eagles were in the game, tying it at 17 in the first half. That was the last time that was the case, as the Catamounts scored the next nine points as part of a 20-3 run that gave them the lead for good. They had answers every time the Eagles tried to gather momentum.
So in short order, Vermont has the look of an America East contender again and got a win on Monday that gives them some national attention. They didn’t go quietly last season, and they’re sure not going away now.
“I told our guys, we’re trying to stay (on the map),” Lonergan said. “Hopefully tonight will go a long way towards keeping the name out there.”
