[VCat_2015]

A big test tonight between two floundering programs. Both teams are in desperate need for a win. Vermont will need to show they can put some cohesive offensive schemes together, while the Bearcats can't afford drop another match to a Midmajor in what's been an underwhelming start for a program that was expected to compete with Memphis for an American Athletic Conference championship.

Cincy has the edge in Vegas as a consensus -7.0 point favorite. The Bearcats are coming off a pre-Thanksgiving loss to Bowling Green of the MAC and have recently struggled against other midmajors, eking out a recent overtime over #159 UNLV and a single-point win over #200 Illinois State (66-65), who sit in the basement of the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Vermont Catamounts come into tonight as a club that was largely able to solve Virginia's esteemed "Pack Line" defense (and the only team this season to put up more than 50 against the Cavaliers), but have more recently struggled to move the ball, taking 52 3pt shots in their last two games but only connecting at an abysmal 22.6% clip. With only five non-conference games left on Vermont's schedule after tonight the Catamounts are running out of time to put together a strong March Madness resume for their presumed auto-bid out of the America East Conference and will be eager to find that offensive identity that has eluded John Becker's squad so far.

 

[NotDeadYet]

I watched the Cincy/UNLV game. Both teams are huge up front. Any word about Shungu, Smith and Giddens?

 

[VCat_2015]

Just noticed this....Giddens will be out. Sounds like his leg injury is pretty bad. This is going to be ugly.

Davis is expected to get the start, but my guess is Becker will quickly slide Lamb over to Center and put Patella or Deloney in there. Yikes.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1201931486309564416

 

[VT Cats Fan]

A big test tonight between two floundering programs. Both teams are in desperate need for a win. Vermont will need to show they can put some cohesive offensive schemes together, while the Bearcats can't afford drop another match to a Midmajor in what's been an underwhelming start for a program that was expected to compete with Memphis for an American Athletic Conference championship.

Cincy has the edge in Vegas as a consensus -7.0 point favorite. The Bearcats are coming off a pre-Thanksgiving loss to Bowling Green of the MAC and have recently struggled against other midmajors, eking out a recent overtime over #159 UNLV and a single-point win over #200 Illinois State (66-65), who sit in the basement of the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Vermont Catamounts come into tonight as a club that was largely able to solve Virginia's esteemed "Pack Line" defense (and the only team this season to put up more than 50 against the Cavaliers), but have more recently struggled to move the ball, taking 52 3pt shots in their last two games but only connecting at an abysmal 22.6% clip. With only five non-conference games left on Vermont's schedule after tonight the Catamounts are running out of time to put together a strong March Madness resume for their presumed auto-bid out of the America East Conference and will be eager to find that offensive identity that has eluded John Becker's squad so far.

The showing against VA was certainly nice, but our defensive scheme is very similar to theirs, albeit with lower level players. Our offensive motions are pretty similar as well. The team ought to have been pretty comfortable playing against them. It's basically the same stuff they see everyday in practice.

 

[UVMauntyg]

Hope we get some decent refs. Our once deep bench can’t get into foul trouble.

 

[UVM Hoop Cat]

Good opportunity for some other guys to step up with increased minutes.

Anyone up for it? Will see.

 

[Old_Cat_Fan]

anybody have a link to the game on the CBS website? I signed up for the subscription but don't see the actual location where the game will be streamed.

Thanks.

 

[Vermonster]

Just noticed this....Giddens will be out. Sounds like his leg injury is pretty bad. This is going to be ugly.

Davis is expected to get the start, but my guess is Becker will quickly slide Lamb over to Center and put Patella or Deloney in there. Yikes.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1201931486309564416

That's not good at all. I figured from the looks of it, and being non-contact it would be just a hamstring. He also seemed to walk off fine at the half. That being said, those non-contact injuries can end up horrible even though they don't initially look like much. Hope for the best.

 

[GoCatsGo]

That's not good at all. I figured from the looks of it, and being non-contact it would be just a hamstring. He also seemed to walk off fine at the half. That being said, those non-contact injuries can end up horrible even though they don't initially look like much. Hope for the best.

Without knowing any more than what's reported in that Tweet, it's possible still something like a hamstring/muscle injury. It only happened 48 hours ago: I guess I'm not totally shocked he's unavailable today, especially if it was bad enough for him to miss the 2nd Half.

That said, huge bummer to not have his size in a game like this.

 

[Vermonster]

This would be one hell of a game for Davis to have a breakout performance. We are going to need everything from him to compete and stay close.

 

[vtballerfan]

The Powell redshirt idea is similar to the Ra Kpedi situation couple years ago. Does he start playing out if necessity?

 

[UVMauntyg]

anybody have a link to the game on the CBS website? I signed up for the subscription but don't see the actual location where the game will be streamed.

Thanks.

Do you have the CBS sports network as part of your cable line up?

 

[UVM7680]

anybody have a link to the game on the CBS website? I signed up for the subscription but don't see the actual location where the game will be streamed

I see that the CBS Sports channel is Xfinity/Comcast 175 or HD 823. They also offer one-week free trials (as long as you remember to cancel, of course).

 

[Old_Cat_Fan]

Do you have the CBS sports network as part of your cable line up?

No

 

[UVMauntyg]

I see that the CBS Sports channel is Xfinity/Comcast 175 or HD 823. They also offer one-week free trials (as long as you remember to cancel, of course).

The link on the UVM schedule sends you to a streaming service but people should check there cable line up. I will seek out anyway to not stream after the ESPN crap.

 

[UVMauntyg]

No

If I have to stream the game I usually go through the UVM Basketball schedule website. Good luck! May the streaming gods be with you.

 

[Chance_the_Catamount]

With Smith not at 100 percent I would love to see Deloney break out. His threes haven’t been falling and he hasn’t finished at the hoop very well. You can see the potential for him, maybe he can hit some shots and get hot. The other Freshman Beckett should get some good minutes too. Valuable playing time for our young guys. It doesn’t look good for tonight but these games can help us get stronger for conference play. If there is any chance for an upset Everett need to catch fire.

Of course this could be a signature senior season game for Lamb. 35/15 and and upset win would sure be nice.

 

[UVM Hoop Cat]

If Stef is out, and the Duncan Brothers are both going to play 30+ mpg tonight, then scoring is going to need to come from somewhere ex-Lamb.

Deloney has been facing a good amount of size around the hoop and he's not taking very good 3pt attempts. I do expect Deloney to make more of an impact once we get into the softer part of our schedule. He's definitely talented. Tonight is likely not the night.

 

[Mr quint]

The Powell redshirt idea is similar to the Ra Kpedi situation couple years ago. Does he start playing out if necessity?

I’ve been wondering about this too. Would be a king sized kick in the junk but this situation was exactly why it seemed so odd initially. I doubt they do it.

Giddens and Shungu are ideal for this type of opponent. The matchup really stinks on paper right now. If Smith doesn’t play, we basically have 8 guys. And that includes DeMuth and two freshmen. Yikes. They’ll just send 2 or 3 guys at Lamb all night. God forbid he picks up fouls.

A couple others have mentioned but the whole vibe around the team right now is off. The air feels heavy and not just because of a couple losses.

Nothing to lose tonight so let’s hope they just play loose and have fun.

 

[vtballerfan]

The vibe is off because expectations were set so high. The standard of 20 plus wins and competing for a conference title is still there and will likely be there at the end of the season. While getting top 25 votes is great and all, at the end of the day what matters most to me is that this team is in the mix and wins the Conference tournament. We have all been putting the cart before the horse will all this talk about what seed they will get when they make the tournament. I get it, we all want more and just making it to the tournament isnt good enough anymore. we have been spoiled and it shows. I am confident the ship will right itself and the focus should be getting guys healthy and prepared for conference play... which matters the most.