Today’s useless fact. We are all North American Cougars. That’s right a Catamount is the same as a Panther — they are all the same beast.
Vermont’s basketball has actually mined Pittsburgh for talent.
Several recent Catamount standouts are from the Pittsburgh area led by UVM’s all-time leading scorer, Eddie Benton ’96 (Perry), who is the women’s coach at Laroche College. Others include Erik Nelson ’98 (Fox Chapel), George Roberson ’95 (Penn Hills), Jeremy McCool ’95 (Keystone) and Dave Ostrosky ’94 (Fox Chapel). Current UVM assistant John Sanow is from nearby Windber, Pa. and he played at Indiana-Pa.
So when Hillgrove and Groat mention this sort of thing on the air today, you can thank the Vermont Athletic Department for the info.
The Pitt Athletic Department has its own pre-game summary. The press release was used to fill a brief notebook article.
As for today’s game, the players and coach are optimistic.
“They’ve really been killing some teams,” said Cieplicki, who along with his University of Vermont men’s basketball teammates, travels to Pittsburgh to take on the undefeated Panthers at 4 p.m. today. “No one expects us to go in there and win, and we’ve got to use that to our advantage.”
The Catamounts (3-4 and winners of three of their last four) will need any advantage they can find against Pitt (7-0), which has beaten opponents by an average of 22 points per game, including 37-point wins over Penn State and Auburn. The Panthers also knocked off UVM league-rival Maine, 62-49.
“They’re drilling everyone right now,” said UVM first-year coach Mike Lonergan. “My goal is to stay competitive and remember that this game will help us.”
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“To stay in the game, we’re going to have to hit some shots,” Lonergan said, “and we’re going to have play more physical.”
Vermont’s main focal point on offense is a freshman point guard, Mike Trimboli who is averaging 17.4 points and 6.4 assists. He also averages about 4.6 turnovers and almost 35 minutes per game. Their other main weapon is a junior from the Czech Republic, Martin Klimes. He is 6’8″ but plays Center averaging 15.6 points and 5.7 rebounds.
He actually starts ahead of Chris Holm, a Junior Center who is 6′ 11″. Looking over their roster, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Holm and Klimes on the court together to give Vermont some size to match-up against Pitt. Unsurprisingly, there isn’t a lot of height on the team. They aren’t playing migits, but there just isn’t a lot of size or bulk on the team.
Antonio Graves receives a story in each paper today. The focus, of course, is on his new role coming off the bench. Slightly different tones to them. The P-G story seems to imply that Graves is not very happy about it, is frustrated but is holding it in check because of expectations of more PT as the competition improves.
“To be honest, it’s kind of hard,” Graves said yesterday after the Panthers had finished preparations for today’s game against Vermont at the Petersen Events Center. “Knowing where I came from last year … My role was a lot bigger.
“But I’m a team player. That comes first. We’re going with what’s working. I’m getting comfortable with it. My main thing is not who starts but who finishes games. When we get to the Big East, when it’s tight, I want to be one of the guys who is in there.”
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While Graves said he was getting accustomed to his new role, he made it clear he was striving for more playing time when the Big East season comes around. That very well could be the case. Dixon has leaned on experience in the past and could turn to Graves for some leadership later in the season.
“That’s what’s keeping me motivated,” Graves said. “This whole experience has made me a lot hungrier.
“Down the line, I’ll be much needed because of my experience. Who knows what’s going to happen? Injuries, foul trouble … I’m still adjusting and getting used to things. It’s not easy coming from where I was last year. But I’m a team guy and I love Pitt. I’m going to do whatever coach asks me to do.”
The Trib story implies that Graves is a little more relaxed about the whole situation.
Mismatches aside — Pitt is outscoring its opponents by more than 22 points per game — Graves is averaging 16.0 minutes per game to go with 5.9 points and 2.9 rebounds. He has played through sporadic foul trouble and an ankle injury that forced him to miss most of a 79-58 victory over St. Francis (N.Y.) on Nov. 29.
“His minutes are not as much as last year (26.9 mpg.), obviously, but nobody’s are right now,” Dixon said.
But you can bet the Pitt coach is pleased to have Graves on his roster as much as anyone on the team. He has been a valuable reserve in the Panthers’ deep backcourt this year, shooting 40.6 percent (13 for 32) and getting to the free-throw line 16 times while playing both guard positions.
“He’s playing very well,” Dixon said. “He’s given us a lot of good things, offensively and defensively. It’s nothing that he’s doing (wrong). We’re playing more guys, we’ve had some blowouts and he had the ankle injury in the game where he played only four minutes. There are so many things that come into play.”
Winning, of course, is a great cure for problems that arise, and Graves knows it just the same. But it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t mind playing more often. Yet, the thought of winning keeps coming back to him.
“I’m definitely contributing. Coach looks at me as one of the top defensive guys on the team,” Graves said. “He wants me to keep the game going when Carl (leading scorer Carl Krauser) and other guys come out. My main focus is to keep the defensive pressure up, and I can do that. It’s all about being a leader.”
You have to believe he is frustrated not to be starting. The thing is, though, he has been very good off of the bench. Providing more of a spark and seems to be able to handle not being in there right away.
Both stories, though, engage in blatant revisionism that Pitt and Coach Dixon “found” Graves and took a chance on him when no one else was ready to take him. That’s simply not true. Graves had academic issues that was holding him back from scholarship offers. He was a first team all-Ohio guard in his Senior year of high school. He was on the verge of heading to prep school when his final scores came back high enough — in August — to allow him to qualify. He did have offers from Rutgers and Bowling Green, along with interest from Ohio State and Cinci if his scores came up.
