Highlight by Andrew Badillo
Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Dylan Fearon
Since Tom Moore became the coach at Quinnipiac back in 2007, his teams have been a top notch rebounding program. For the past six years, the Bobcats have led the nation in at least one rebounding category, including last year when they led the country in offensive boards.
But the 2016-17 season might be a little different. Moore wants to push the ball and run an up-tempo style offense, which hopefully for Moore and the Bobcats will create more open shots. The down side is that they may lose an edge on the glass, something they aren’t used to.
That was definitely the case Saturday, as Quinnipiac was out-rebounded by 14 boards against Vermont, en route to a 94-70 loss on its home floor.
After coming out with a lot of energy and hitting two threes to excite the crowd, the Bobcats found themselves up 10-6 on the favorite to win the America East.
But then it was all down hill from there.
The Catamounts went on a long 37-15 run to close out the first half, while nearly shooting the lights out. After starting the game one-for-nine from the field, UVM shot 15-for-18 to close out the first stanza, while also stymying the Bobcats defensively.
“There best defense was from 12 minutes left in the first half all the way through half time and it seemed like most of it was half-court man…we didn’t create some baskets against their man,” Moore said. “I thought they did a great job against our new perimeter guys.”
It was easy to predict some struggles for Quinnipiac, as the Bobcats lost six players from last year’s 9-21 team, and started two guards that played their first Division I minutes. Moore brought in four junior college transfers and two freshmen to replace key players like Giovanni McLean and James Ford, Jr.
Reggie Oliver, one of those junior college transfers, finished the game with 15 points, six boards in 30 minutes, while shooting four-for-eight from downtown. Freshman Mikey Dixon tallied 10 points and three assists in 21 minutes of work.
Despite the 24-point loss, Moore was still impressed with his rookies.
“Reggie Oliver has had a really good fall offensively and Mikey Dixon is a talented offensive guy,” Moore said. “They’ve got some swagger… Pete Kiss got some baskets late. I didn’t think we were quite as good when the game mattered. I thought we had some energy early and we ran out a few times early.”
But the best rookie on the court was UVM’s Anthony Lamb, a New York product who averaged thirty points and seven rebounds per game during his senior year of high school. Lamb didn’t disappoint in his collegiate debut, scoring 23 points on eight of 12 shooting, and also corralling nine rebounds in just 24 minutes. Tulane transfer Payton Henson added 19 points while junior Trae Bell-Haynes had 16 points and eight assists in what was a very comfortable win.
“Vermont, I thought was terrific,” Moore said. “For a first game I thought they were really, really good. I won’t be able to tell until I watch the film how much of it was them being really good and how much of it was us being really, really bad. But they were terrific. They have great experience and really high skill level and really high talent level from one through probably seven or eight guys. Lamb as a freshman looks like a pretty special freshman.”
The lack of rebounding was clearly an issue, but senior Daniel Harris doesn’t see it being a long-term problem.
“Quinnipiac basketball is rebounding basketball,” Harris said. “Being minus 14 on the glass is unacceptable in any game. Being minus 14 is terrible. Overall you will see an increase in guys going to the rim and that margin will be a plus 14 coming in the next few games.”
Moore believes the loss is in part to having four new guards who have never played at the Division I level before.
“When you have four new guards playing their first Division I game, and you go to all four of them, there’s potential when the lights go on for the first time for it to not be good. And it wasn’t good. I believe in these guys and I believe in us and I believe in what we do. We have nine days before we play Columbia, obviously we have a lot to work on.”
Even though it might be hard to watch, Moore knows how much his team can take away from the beat down.
“This will be great tape for us to watch because there are so many things we didn’t do well that got exposed,” Moore said. “So it’s a great learning opportunity and the other takeaway is it’s going to test our togetherness because these guys have worked so hard for so long. You got this group, even though it’s like half new, half old, the half old guys still have a bad taste in their mouth. So all of a sudden this is the first public display…this is the first time a score of ours is going to go out there, and it’s an embarrassing score.”
