Vermont Discussion Game Time 1:45 CT

[muwarrior69]

Catamounts are cats, not monkeys.

Season 3 Episode 24: To Serve Man

Respectfully submitted for your perusal — a Kanamit Catamount. Height: a little over nine feet. Weight: in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds. Origin: unknown. Motives? Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment, we're going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a Christopher Columbus from another galaxy and another time. This is the Twilight Zone.

[pbiflyer]

As in you don't like the matchup for Marquette? Don't like them to have a chance to win?

No, I think we handle them just fine. They seem just unlikeable.

[NickelDimer]

my basic bball knowledge says 3 2 zone? No way can they deal with our length and speed on the arc. If we bring the energy and hunger, it'll be over at half

Zone would play to their strengths. Unless we're concerned they'll penetrate the lane off the bounce, which I don't see why we would be we'll man up and pressure the hell out of them I reckon

[ATL MU Warrior]

Zone would play to their strengths. Unless we're concerned they'll penetrate the lane off the bounce, which I don't see why we would be we'll man up and pressure the hell out of them I reckon

Yeah, I think we pressure the ever lovin' crap out of them and see if they can deal with it.

[GoldenEagles03]

1:02:50 mark the coach of Vermont is interviewed

https://www.youtube.com/live/om1GEiC_4GY?feature=share

Q: "What's the 1st thought when you hear Marquette is your matchup?"

A: "Uh oh"

Coach said he knows Tyler Kolek well but doesn't seem as though he knows too much of Marquette's personnel quite yet.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I don't think I've ever seen this before. Vermont's starting "center", Matt Veretto, played his freshman year at Delaware where he put up moderate numbers for a freshman. He then stopped playing basketball, transferred to UConn as a non-athlete student, finished his his undergraduate degree over the next three years, then went to Vermont for his graduate degree and decided to play another year of basketball.

[Goatherder]

Catamounts are cats, not monkeys.

Also known as mountain lions, pumas, or cougars.  Lots of Cougars among college teams.  Surprisingly no Mountain Lions or Pumas.I guess Mountain Lions is a little long, but why no Pumas?  Strange.

[Tums Festival]

I remember happily watching Vermont, lead by Taylor Coppenrath, bounce Syracuse out in the 1st round back in 2005.

This Vermont team has no near as talented as Taylor Coppenrath on their roster.

[i71_dawg]

Also known as mountain lions, pumas, or cougars.  Lots of Cougars among college teams.  Surprisingly no Mountain Lions or Pumas.I guess Mountain Lions is a little long, but why no Pumas?  Strange.

Penn St Nittany Lions are close....their mascot is a mountain lion named after nearby Mount Nittany. 

The nickname was originally coined by a Penn State baseball player who used the full longer name of "Nittany Mountain Lions."

[cheebs09]

I don't think I've ever seen this before. Vermont's starting "center", Matt Veretto, played his freshman year at Delaware where he put up moderate numbers for a freshman. He then stopped playing basketball, transferred to UConn as a non-athlete student, finished his his undergraduate degree over the next three years, then went to Vermont for his graduate degree and decided to play another year of basketball.

Ian Markolf lost the will to play for UW and then resurfaced elsewhere.

[avid1010]

It's a much better draw than UNC last year,  or Murray State, or South Carolina like we had in the past!   I will take the Catamounts. 

I think we played them at the Bradley Center a long time ago!

Yup...long time ago...had to be 6+ years as I was childless.  My wife and I went down to MKE for the wknd to see the Christmas Carol and a MU game.  We were checking into the Hilton as thy were, and I said something to her like "they must be a D3 team in town to play MSOE or Concordia."  Then I saw some Vermont gear...

If I remember correctly, they had a win or two many years ago with a really solid coach.  Brennan, Brennehan, or something. 

MU only an 11 point favorite.  Pressure the hell out of them, and funnel everything to Oso?  If I'm Vermont...I'm running 5 out...with 5 shooters...and hoping to hit a ton of 3s. 

[lawdog77]

Also known as mountain lions, pumas, or cougars.  Lots of Cougars among college teams.  Surprisingly no Mountain Lions or Pumas.I guess Mountain Lions is a little long, but why no Pumas?  Strange.

St Joseph's College in Rennselaer Indiana , which is no longer around, were the Pumas.

[MU82]

The reason Vermont started so poorly and then turned it on later in the season is that they weren't any competition for the P6 teams they faced ... and then they got to compete in a terrible conference, where they were the best of the mediocre (and the bad).

It's a great draw for Marquette, and it will be a nice way for our guys to get the tourney nervousness out of the way early en route to the Final Four and more.

Sorry ... I didn't mean to mention aiming for the Final Four. We fans have to concentrate only on the mighty, mighty Catamounts because if we so much as think of any possible future opponent, we will have doomed our Warrior Eagles to certain first-round defeat.

Everyone knows every single Kansas fan was laser-focused on Texas Southern in the days leading up to their first-round matchup last season, never once thought of the possible second-round matchup with Creighton or of winning the title. And because every single Kansas fan thought only about Texas Southern, the team was able to eventually win the championship. I mean, that's just science.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Marquette matches up well with Vermont because we can defend 5 out. 

1. Ball pressure: make them start their offense far away from the basket.

2. Deny the pass: force Vermont to catch the ball running away from the hoop and get some timely steals.

3. Switch when necessary: Vermont doesn't have the personnel to create a lot of one on one matchup advantages.  Switch out to shooters to deny open threes.

4. Mobile 4/5s:  O-Max and Oso have the speed to defend on the perimeter.  Joplin is less consistent on D but has played well at times. Chase Ross could even get some run in a 4 guard lineup.  I don't expect to see Gold very much, except in garbage time.

This is one of the things I love about Shaka's roster construction.  I know a lot of people want a big bruiser that can go toe to toe with Sanago, Kalkbrenner, Nunge, Soriano, etc.  But sometimes you have to play a tournament game versus mid majors that play 5 out small ball.  Marquette has the matchup flexibility to win against all styles.

[The Sultan]

Marquette matches up well with Vermont because we can defend 5 out. 

1. Ball pressure: make them start their offense far away from the basket.

2. Deny the pass: force Vermont to catch the ball running away from the hoop and get some timely steals.

3. Switch when necessary: Vermont doesn't have the personnel to create a lot of one on one matchup advantages.  Switch out to shooters to deny open threes.

4. Mobile 4/5s:  O-Max and Oso have the speed to defend on the perimeter.  Joplin is less consistent on D but has played well at times. Chase Ross could even get some run in a 4 guard lineup.  I don't expect to see Gold very much, except in garbage time.

This is one of the things I love about Shaka's roster construction.  I know a lot of people want a big bruiser that can go toe to toe with Sanago, Kalkbrenner, Nunge, Soriano, etc.  But sometimes you have to play a tournament game versus mid majors that play 5 out small ball.  Marquette has the matchup flexibility to win against all styles.

Yep, yep, yep and yep.

[tower912]

Pull Ellis's red-shirt and really mess these guys up.


What a terrible idea.  MU will be fine.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Just run them off the 3 point line like they did the past few games in New York, they'll be fine.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Vermont is a sloooow tempo, good trey shooting, low turnover team. Grinders. The type of team MU underperforms against (according to Vegas). Jfp61 and I had this argument earlier in the season...let's hope I am wrong and MU blows them out early.

As was said, pressure them and run them off the line. The next game is the most important.

[NickelDimer]

More than being active on defense, defensive discipline will be very important. Have to communicate on switches, can't overhelp (which we've been prone to do), can't lose cutters, etc. They look to run a very structured offense and patiently wait for the defense to make a mistake

[wadesworld]

Super slow tempo and don't turn it over.  Half court offense is going to have to be good.  MU wins, would be nice to have it going away.

[Jay Bee]

+50% 3fg% from them is the wildcard that could make things interesting if they are in fire/lucky.  #pray

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Watching some replays of their games, they have two guys who initiate the offense. Dylan Penn and Robin Duncan.

Penn will have the ball in hands more often than not. He's quick and strong enough to take (America East level) defenders off the bounce. If he can beat his man he is pretty craft around the hoop. If he can't, he goes into a post up and tries to back down his defender. He's skilled enough in the post that he can score on guards with his back to the basket. However, he is really doing that so he can see his four teammates on the perimeter and is looking for an open man to begin a series of quick perimeter passes which forces the defense to rotate and leads to open shots.

Duncan is a taller guard (6'5") and is the more creative passer of the two. He is good at skip passes and dump offs and is usually the guy who finds the open shooter. He himself can't shoot and his scoring is pretty limited. He is a smart player though and knows when and where to cut.

I think we will see OMax on Penn. His size and length should be more than enough to contain Penn and will neutralize his post up ability, meaning we won't need to help on him and can play him as a passer.  Duncan has some creative passing ability but I don't think his skip passes will work well against our guys, there will be plenty of interception opportunities. I'd put Kolek or Kam on Duncan and have them sag to dare him to shoot and take away his passing ability.

Other key to the game will be limiting Matt Vertto. He's their starting "center" who during their current winning streak is shooting 45% from three. He has the potential to go nuclear and hit a bunch of treys. I think Oso should be more than a match for him. Tell Oso to run him off the line. He has some ability to put it on the floor but not against our level of defense. If Oso stays home, Veretto shouldn't be able to get shots off.

Vermont also has the conference player of the year on their team in  Finn Sullivan. His numbers are very muted for a conference POY and he doesn't seem all that potent on offense. Stick Stevie "Off Night" Mitchell on him and I think he'll be out of the picture.

Their defense struggled to stop America East opponents at times. We should eviscerate them on that end.

Game may have a smaller margin of victory than we expect just because of how SLOW Vermont is, but I expect us to be comfortably in control for 40 minutes.

[JakeBarnes]

Watching some replays of their games, they have two guys who initiate the offense. Dylan Penn and Robin Duncan.

Penn will have the ball in hands more often than not. He's quick and strong enough to take (America East level) defenders off the bounce. If he can beat his man he is pretty craft around the hoop. If he can't, he goes into a post up and tries to back down his defender. He's skilled enough in the post that he can score on guards with his back to the basket. However, he is really doing that so he can see his four teammates on the perimeter and is looking for an open man to begin a series of quick perimeter passes which forces the defense to rotate and leads to open shots.

Duncan is a taller guard (6'5") and is the more creative passer of the two. He is good at skip passes and dump offs and is usually the guy who finds the open shooter. He himself can't shoot and his scoring is pretty limited. He is a smart player though and knows when and where to cut.

I think we will see OMax on Penn. His size and length should be more than enough to contain Penn and will neutralize his post up ability, meaning we won't need to help on him and can play him as a passer.  Duncan has some creative passing ability but I don't think his skip passes will work well against our guys, there will be plenty of interception opportunities. I'd put Kolek or Kam on Duncan and have them sag to dare him to shoot and take away his passing ability.

Other key to the game will be limiting Matt Vertto. He's their starting "center" who during their current winning streak is shooting 45% from three. He has the potential to go nuclear and hit a bunch of treys. I think Oso should be more than a match for him. Tell Oso to run him off the line. He has some ability to put it on the floor but not against our level of defense. If Oso stays home, Veretto shouldn't be able to get shots off.

Vermont also has the conference player of the year on their team in  Finn Sullivan. His numbers are very muted for a conference POY and he doesn't seem all that potent on offense. Stick Stevie "Off Night" Mitchell on him and I think he'll be out of the picture.

Their defense struggled to stop America East opponents at times. We should eviscerate them on that end.

Game may have a smaller margin of victory than we expect just because of how SLOW Vermont is, but I expect us to be comfortably in control for 40 minutes.

Great write up. I think there is a good chance we can impose our pace on them with how active (and deep) our defense is. The key will be imposing our pace there to force them into "uncharacteristic" turnovers. Establish a good lead early and we can really force them into that sort of pace and get out of sorts.

Also just happy that "Off Nite" is catching on.

[warriorchick]

St Joseph's College in Rennselaer Indiana , which is no longer around, were the Pumas.

Yep.  I went there my freshman year.  Being the only Pumas was one of our few claims to fame.

Based on the state of affairs at the school when I was there, I was surprised it actually survived another 35 years after I left.

[The Sultan]

St Joseph's is still around. They are offering a bunch of unaccredited two year and certificate programs.