Saturday, February 19, 2011

Be Careful What You Wish For

So the Catamounts got their national TV game for ESPN's Bracketbusters bonanza. And they got absolutely shellacked by the College of Charleston, 85-70. 85-70, you say, that cannot be so bad, right? Oh no, it wasn't even close -- this was an absolute drubbing. Charleston used a 25-0 run en route to a 52-24 halftime lead. The Cats couldn't do anything right. Their defense looked completely lost, they could hardly get the ball across half court, and they burned through three timeouts well before the first half was over. One thing that the Catamounts should get credit for from their faithful is that they never gave up.

It was quite remarkable really. The Cats never put their heads down, they never got on one another about making bad plays; they stuck together and fought like they do when they're going on 25-0 runs. Okay, so maybe they haven't been on any of those, but you know what I mean. The Catamounts, as usual, are a classy team to get excited for. And that's about all you can ask for.

I'll spare you the gory details about how Andrew Goudelock somehow only managed 24 points, despite knocking down shot after shot in the huge first half spurt. I'll even ignore the fact that Vermont shot 32% from the floor, while Charleston shot 58% (they really did not execute a solid defensive gameplan at all). The fact is, aside from the horrid 25-0 run (I couldn't decide whether to turn the game off, pretend it wasn't happening, or cry), Vermont actually outscored the Cougars by 10. But, for some reason, you gotta count all the points in this silly game called basketball. Blasphemy.

Regardless, Vermont gets a bunch of time off before they play Boston University next Sunday. It's senior day for Evan Fjeld, Joey Accaoui, and Garrett Kissel, three guys who the program will miss dearly. Then the real season begins.

2 comments:

  1. I forgot to mention,

    Charleston is a really good team. Goudelock was as good as advertised. The other guards were hitting shots off the dribble like it was a bad joke (for UVM fans like myself). I tip my hat to them. They seem to be destined for a 13 seed -- if so, make sure you take a long hard look at their opponent before making your bracket pick.

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  2. Buster, if that's a 13 seed, I wouldn't want to be a #4. They could surprise a lot of good teams. CoC plays well together, has good talent and Goudelock is NBA quality.
    If Cremins hadn't called his players off; the game could have been a 40 pt. spankage.

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