Vermont Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Catamounts
By Chris Kern
Key Non-Conference Games
Kansas
Vermont heads to Lawrence, Kansas on Nov 12th to take part in the NIT Season Tip-Off. The Jayhawks are a very talented team and will possibly be the top-ranked team in the preseason.
Kansas will be working in a lot of new faces early on in the season so it’s possible that they’ll struggle. The Catamounts are in a similar situation so going to a place like Allen Fieldhouse probably won’t end well.
The Jayhawks are extremely deep inside with guys like Dedric Lawson, Udoka Azubuike and Silvio De Sousa playing big roles. They also got Mitch Lightfoot and David McCormack who will also get some playing time. With Vermont not having a lot of size inside, they will probably get dominated by a Kansas team that has multiple future NBA first-round draft picks.
Louisville
Vermont will also travel to Louisville, Kentucky for another NIT Season Tip-Off contest on Nov 16th. This is a Louisville team that is going through some big changes after the Rick Pitino scandal. They fell just short of the NCAA tournament last year as they never could get a big win.
The Cardinals lost a lot of guys from last years team so it’ll be a struggle for them to get to the big dance. V.J. King is one of the main returning players and they’ll rely heavily on him to lead while they incorporate the new faces.
This will be a very tough game for Vermont though it’ll be much easier than their matchup with the Jayhawks. If they were to win one of these two NIT Season Tip-Off games it would be at Louisville. They’ll rely on Anthony Lamb and the Duncan brothers to try and pull off the upset.
Northeastern
Vermont will host the Northeastern Huskies on Dec. 16th. This is a Huskies team that returns their top six scorers from a year ago. They tied for first place in the Colonial Athletic Association with the College Of Charleston.
This is an extremely talented basketball team. They’re capable of pulling off a huge upset if they can get into the NCAA tournament.
They’re gonna be led by senior guard Vasa Pusica. He is gonna have a huge year offensively, he is very tough to stop. If Vermont can contain him they’ll have a shot at pulling off the upset.