New for the
2011-2012 season, the America East Daily Word, a collaboration between
AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on
goings on our nine campuses and provide links to recaps, previews,
features and exclusive coverage.
The
Vermont men’s basketball team isn’t getting much love in preseason
publications’ predictions of the America East basketball season. After
winning the conference regular season last year, the Catamounts take a
back seat to Stony Brook and Boston U., and in some predictions,
Albany.
Some
other major publications, though, dissected the Catamounts, getting any
and all stories from the team’s new head coach, its former head coach
and former high-flying, rim-rocking superstar.
First-year UVM head coach, John Becker was featured by ESPN.com. Dana O’Neil tells a great story about Becker and his ‘leap of faith’
to Burlington with his family. Catamount fans in Burlington expect to
win – a tradition started by Tom Brennan and continued by Mike
Lonergan. Becker is now charged with repeating that success. “It’s
already caused a lot of sleepless nights on the job without playing any
games,’’ Becker confessed in the feature. Still, though, he’s received
tremendous praise from Lonergan who believes he has what it takes to
keep the wins coming.
SLAM Magazine featured one of Lonergan’s and Becker’s former players, Marqus Blakely. The magazine caught up with the former ‘Cat and current Houston Rocket.
Even though his NBA career is on hold at the moment, Blakely continues
to make the best of it, speaking highly of his experience in the
D-League and how it will translate to the NBA courts. If he keeps
throwing down like he did before signing with the Rockets, and knocks
down the open jumper, he’ll be just fine.
For more of the Daily Word, head on over to the AEXtra Blog.