Serious roster turnover for a team that won the conference. Did not see so much of it coming. That said, pretty excited about all the new guys coming in and guys that are taking departing players spots.
I know I'm probably in the minority here, but you have to at least consider Trimboli. I'm not looking up exact stats now, but he's what? #1 in assists? #3 in points? Yes ok, he didn't win the big one...but he kept this team on the map after Coppenrath and Sorrentine left and he was one helluva player. Commence debate.
A couple things...first, Coppenrath and Sorrentine won't have their numbers retired til atleast 2015 and Marqus 2020, so they won't be at the same time. UVM decided retired number ceremonies needs to coincide with a former player's Hall of Fame induction unless there are other circumstances (Roberson, Gaines). The earliest Marqus would have his retired is 2020, when he's eligible for Hall of Fame induction.
Separately, while players like Voelkel and Trimboli are good and have records (may have records in Voelkel's case), they are not truly elite enough as was Coppenrath/Sorrentine/Marqus to have their numbers retired. We can't retire everyone's who has a good career and not an elite career because, each team only has a maximum of 30 numbers available. You are only allowed 0-5 digits (nobody in college basketball can be #6-9, or 16-19 etc). Right now, UVM has essentially 25 numbers available if you say that 10 - Benton, 33 - Roberson, 45 - Gaines, 11- Sorrentine, and 22 - Coppenrath are retired officially or unofficially.
Add Blakely to that they have 24 numbers to choose from. I just think its a fine line to be "over-retiring" numbers and it should be saved for the truly transcendent and elite players.
I know I'm probably in the minority here, but you have to at least consider Trimboli. I'm not looking up exact stats now, but he's what? #1 in assists? #3 in points? Yes ok, he didn't win the big one...but he kept this team on the map after Coppenrath and Sorrentine left and he was one helluva player. Commence debate.
I'd retire his jersey, absolutely. 1st in assists and 4th in points, really was the key gut that kept the program at a high level despite tremendous shoes to have to fill (tough act to follow).
I personally would put Trimboli ahead of Roberson, Benton, and Gaines. I dont see those players at another level than Trimboli. Atleast Trimboli made a post season tourney. I dont know if Gaines would of had his jersey retired if it wasnt for the tragedy. Roberson didnt dominate reb and blocks much more than Trimboli did with assist, and points. If Trimboli won the big one it wouldnt be a discussion. That's the one knock on him but you can say the same thing about the 3 previous players. UVM has been lucky enough to get all these great players to even have a discussion about who gets retired and running out of jerseys.
Is somebody allowed to have the number 0? what about 00?
Kevin Roberson would have been a stud on any other AE team at the time he played, or at any time in the past/present (except for maybe the Reggie NU teams, Deane's Siena teams and Pitino's BU teams). He was the bright light on some pretty bad UVM teams.
You may not have seen him play, but I've seen UVM play since 1988, and he's better than most guys on their current roster.
Roberson was the guy you didn't want to have beat you when you played UVM back then.
Roberson, Kenny White, Matt Johnson - whether you want to believe it or not, but those guys are the reason UVM is where it is today. They made UVM more relevant when they were highly relevant.
Eddie Benton was a scorer, I don't put him in the same class as Roberson.
Give me those 3 kids as your core today (Roberson, White, Johnson) and you'd win the AE - with ease.
I've been fortunate enough to see all of these guys play, and IMO the two best are Coppenrath and Roberson. And I agree, Roberson would dominant in today's AE, it would be a joke.
As dominant as Coppenrath was on offense- that's how dominant Roberson was on defense. Third for me would be Blakely- who just did things on both sides of the ball, and athletically, that nobody else could.
Getting back to Voelkel for a second, if a 6'5'' forward ends up as our all-time leading rebounder and all-time leader in assists given the players before him, and can manage to get us back into an NCAA Tournament..even if he doesn't...man, that's impressive.
Yes he doesn't pass the "looks test" I suppose and his offense is...funky- I dunno, that's still an elite player IMHO.
FWIW I was walking the dog and ran into Clancy Rugg. He said he thinks they will be better this year than last year, maybe by a lot. He looks like he has put on a couple more pounds of muscle.
That's a bold statement from Clancy. We definitely have some solid returning guys but where's the scoring coming from? Last season Glass and McGlynn took the big shots in almost every game. Losing three strong perimeter players will have impact this season. In addition, there are so many new pieces this year that you have wait to find how the chemistry of the team will gel. I hope he's right but I'm not sold that a roster that has this many new pieces will deliver us back to the dance.
Great post. I think scoring's going to be a work in progress, much like last season where we didn't really know who the go to guy was going to be and it evolved over the season. At first it was Bald, then it eventually became Four and Glass. But, Sandro showed he can score and Apfeld for a stretch last year was IMO our most consistent offensive threat. Plus, we have some newcomers that are expected to make an impact right away.
At this point I just gotta believe whether it's one person, a couple, or a collective team effort- it works itself out.
In other words, I think we've been worried about where scoring was going to come from since end of 09-10....and each season we've lost our #1/#2 scorers....Blakely/MoJo....Fjeld/Accaoui......yet have still won 47 games since and been to the NIT and NCAA Tournaments.
Losing our #1/#2 scorers from last years team too in Four/Glass....not saying it's going to keep happening where things work out for us, but we've been able to replace scorers and find new ones.
I am with Clancy - They will be better, a lott better.
Four is gone - we have Candon (way better defensive player, 2009/10 MAAC All-Rookie Team) and Trey Blue(able to
play 1 or 2 guard, 5th year senor)
Bald is gone - we have rookie Brendan Kilpatrick-you are going to be surprised
Matt is gone - O'Day and 15 pounds stronger Clancy Rugg
and new Brian Voelkel
I think our front court will be better than last season. I think we'll get better scoring inside this season, we didn't really have that last year.
I think Apfeld/O'Day will be a nice tandem and hopefully Crenca can have a final injury-free senior season Rugg has added size. Those guys will also benefit from going against Ryan Pierson every day in practice, making them better. And Voelkel.
I think UVM Hoop Cat has hit the nail right on the head. We worry every year where our offense is going to come from and somehow it seems to emerge. I think that is largely a function of the offensive system we run. Lots of guys get touches, and eventually it finds the weakness in the defense. We probably won't know who our "go to" guy(s) are until later in the season. We didn't really have a clear finisher until the second half of the season last year either and we turned out fine.
I take Clancy at his word. If he thinks we could be better this year than last, I would think he's in a pretty good position to know that. I'd say we'll have to be, because some other teams in the conference are going to be better as well.
Yep- and I used to be one of those people that was worried, but not anymore. I think given the fact since 09-10 we've graduated Nos. 1 & Nos. 2 in scoring and have still played at a very high level speaks volumes to the abilities of Lonergan/ Becker and rest of the coaches to not only bring in talented players- but get them ready for when their number is called.
I'm also pretty encouraged by the fact that we have four newcomers in Rusin/Blue/O'Day/Kilpatrick that by all accounts are four guys that are going to play meaningful minutes+ maybe Taggart is he can show he can play now. It's nice knowing that both freshmen aren't going to come in and just sit on the bench; but rather are going to be productive. I'm definitely less worried about Four's departure/Bald then I was previously.
Not related to 12-13 at all, but UVM has been releasing videos of Classic sports moments, here's the win in 06-07 over #14 BC. Pretty awesome. Might recognize Jared Dudley, plays for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA. Also, one of a number of games that explains why Al Skinner isn't coaching:
I'm pretty sure Taggart is here a year early for depth purposes. I dont think he is going to get much action his rookie season. Kilpatrick is more game ready than he is.
Also nothing about Harrison Taggart. And I see Ryan Pierson has jersey #3 on the UVM roster. (Trey had #3 at Illinois St and Fordham; I was assuming he'd want that number at UVM, à la Four.)
Nice seeing the roster get updated and fill in a bit- was looking sparse for a whole.
RE: Blue & Taggart- most likely given the timing of their commitments being so late in the signing season I would expect a separate announcement at a later time introducing those two players.
He's not physical, that's my knock on him at NU. Smaller, rougher/physical bigs will be able to push him around. I honestly think he's a better face to the basket guy (more of a 4) than a center. But you're right, in a league with a few bigs, he will likely excel. If he gets a little more agile, watch out.
He also gets frustrated pretty easily. We could tell if he would have a good game in the first 5-7 minutes.
But he's a real good kid. We all knew he wasn't happy at NU, and I had a few conersations with him. Good student, good person.
He will be happy that BU isn't in the AE any more, or I'd have ridden him mercilessly. Now I have to drive to Durham to do it. ;-)
Pierson was great as a freshman at NU- and last year it ultimately seemed that his style of play- more traditional, back to the basket, catch and seal- was bypassed by NU in favor of more 6'7''/6'8'' face the basket, slash off the dribble types of big men.
He will do well in a conference with less skilled and less athletic big men by default as Ice and NUHF have pointed out- I think everyone is in agreement that the CAA has far superior post players in terms of overall size and athleticism- but he also *should* do well because he will be in an offensive system at UVM that is a better fit/match for his skills and will put him in a position to get touches on offense and be productive and successful.
Pierson will make Crenca work harder in practice. I'm hoping for a BIG senior year from Crenca, free of injuries. He has shown so much promise in the past and been so unlucky with his knees. I'm hoping he is Mr. Double Double this year.
Yep- Pierson and O'Day will help Crenca in practice. I hope Crenca can give us whatever he can next season and just hope his final season is injury-free.
Seems like a real good kid, great teammate, and a positive presence on the team. Deserves a final season free of surgeries/injuries.
Looks like it was changed August 16th, now a 15 against #2 UNC in Philadelphia.
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