Bracketology 2023: Florida Atlantic, Charleston among mid-majors to watch

Vermont Catamounts at UMass-Lowell River Hawks

Wednesday, January 11, Lowell, MA, 6:00 PM ET

For more than a decade the America East conference has run through Burlington, Vermont. However, with the addition of Bryant to the conference, that road has a few more speed bumps in it. As it turns out, at least to begin league play, that road has a pretty big roadblock right at the beginning, except it’s not a bulldog but the Riverhawk from UMass-Lowell.

While the Catamounts’ 8-9 record doesn’t seem impressive, their November was littered with games against high-major teams and some of the best mid-major teams in the country, such as Yale, Iona, and UNC- Wilmington. Since the beginning of December, they have gone 6-2 and began conference play 2-1 including a win against the aforementioned Bryant.

The River Hawks begin the week 14-3 and even though their schedule hasn’t been the gauntlet that Vermont’s has, they’ve won them all except for three, an 8- point loss at Rutgers, a 77-75 overtime loss at Rhode Island and their worst loss of the year on Sunday, an 88-63 loss to Albany. Their best win in the non-conference was a victory over UMass, but now it’s time to see if the River Hawks are a product of their 333rd-ranked early-season slate or a contender in America East.

The Riverhawks have just one win over Vermont in the last three seasons and this is a prime opportunity for Pat Duquette’s team to show that they are ready to compete with the measuring stick of the conference on a regular basis.