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VERMONT MEN’S BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
The Vermont men's basketball team opens the 2009-10 regular season on Friday when it travels to face Loyola (Md.) starting at 7 p.m. The Catamounts won both of their preseason contests, defeating Concordia (Montreal) and neighboring Saint Michael’s. Vermont and Loyola will square off for the third straight season, as the home team has been victorious in each of the first two meetings.

Friday's game can be heard live on 96.7 DOT-FM, The Zone 960 AM and WSTJ-1320 AM (Randolph), and on the internet at www.UVMathletics.com with the audio stream provided by SportsJuice.com.

LAST TIME OUT: Seniors Marqus Blakely and Nick Vier combined for 25 points to lead Vermont to a 73-44 victory over Saint Michael’s in preseason action on Saturday afternoon. The Cats broke the game open with a 24-5 run that extended over the two halves. Blakely finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, while Vier added 11 points and three assists. Vermont held the Purple Knights to shoot only 20.6 percent from the floor for the game and forced them to commit 24 turnovers. Vermont opened the second half with Garvey Young stealing the ball and taking it the other way for a dunk. The Cats scored 16 of the first 21 points in the frame to extend their advantage to 49-23.

LOYOLA: The Greyhounds are coming off a 12-20 season last year and went 7-11 in MAAC play. Junior guard Jamal Barney was selected for the Preseason All-MAAC Second Team and the Greyhounds were tabbed for a tie for fifth place in voting by the league's coaches this season. Barney is the team’s top returning scorer from last year as he averaged 18.1 points per game as a sophomore. Barney will team up with Brett Harvey in the backcourt, as Harvey was the only other Greyhound to average double figures last season with 12.4 per contest. A young team last year, Loyola returns three-quarters of its scoring this season. Vermont and Loyola have met twice all-time as they have squared off in each of the last two seasons, with the home team winning both.

LAST TIME VS. LOYOLA: Four Catamounts reached double figures as Vermont held off Loyola (Md.) 64-62 on November 29 at Patrick Gym. Back-to-back threes by seniors Mike Trimboli and Colin McIntosh gave the Cats a 59-54 lead with 4:07 left as they would hold on for the win. Trimboli, McIntosh and Marqus Blakely each led Vermont with 12 points apiece, while Evan Fjeld went for a season-high 10 off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting.

PRESEASON POLL: Vermont was picked to finish second in the 2009-10 America East Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll, while senior Marqus Blakely was named to the preseason all-conference team. The conference released the poll and all-conference team at America East Basketball Media Day. Boston University received all eight possible first-place votes (coaches were not allowed to vote for their team) and 64 points to be named the preseason favorite, followed by Vermont, which received the remaining first-place vote and 56 points. Albany barely edged Stony Brook for third place with 43 points, while the Seawolves came in one point behind with 42, just ahead of New Hampshire’s 39. Hartford and UMBC tied for sixth with 28 points apiece, while Maine (14 points) and Binghamton University (12) rounded out the poll. Blakely joined Boston University’s Corey Lowe and John Holland as the only unanimous selections for the preseason all-conference squad. The trio was joined by Albany’s Tim Ambrose, Joe Zeglinski of Hartford and Muhammad El-Amin of Stony Brook. Ambrose and Zeglinski tied for the final spot.

SEASON OPENERS: Vermont is 25-24 since 1960 in season openers and has been victorious in 15 of its last 21. The Catamounts fell to George Mason in their opener last year at home in overtime, 80-79.

ROAD TRIP: The Catamounts’ two preseason games were the only chance to catch them at home prior to December 13, as they will play their first 10 straight and 14 of their first 17 regular season games of the year on the road. Vermont opens the regular season on Friday, November 13 at Loyola (Md.) and will play in seven different states before its home opener on December 13 vs. Quinnipiac. Two years ago the Cats started the season with eight of their first nine away from Patrick Gym. Last season Vermont ended the year by winning eight of its final 10 road contests, with the only two losses during that stretch coming in overtime.

NATIONAL RECOGNITION: Senior Marqus Blakely was selected as one of the top 10 rebounders in the nation in a recent story on ESPN.com by Jay Bilas. Bilas ranks Blakely at #10 in the country, as at 6-foot-5 he is also the shortest player in the top 10. Blakely was also mentioned in another ESPN.com story by Fran Fraschilla that looked at some of the top defenders in the nation, as he ranked just outside of Franschilla’s top 10. Junior Joey Accaoui was also named one of the top 50 shooters in the nation this season by Jeff Goodman of Foxsports.com. Accaoui came in 23rd in the nation in the ranking.

BRACKETBUSTERS: Vermont has been selected to the pool of teams to participate in the eighth-annual ESPN BracketBusters series, which will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU on Friday-Saturday, February 19-20. Vermont will host a game for the second straight season, and is the only America East team to have a home game as part of the BracketBusters series this year. In all, a total of 98 teams will compete in the 49-game, two-day event with 11 of the 49 match-ups pitting potential NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other will be televised nationally, highlighted by six games on ESPN2 and five on ESPNU. The BracketBusters event will feature three America East teams as Boston University and New Hampshire join Vermont. An America East team has played in a BracketBusters televised game in four of the last five years, as the Catamounts played Buffalo last year and Nevada in 2005, while Albany played Boise State in 2007 and Virginia Commonwealth in 2006. Last year in front of a sold-out crowd at Patrick Gym on ESPN2, Vermont defeated Buffalo 78-70 as part of the BracketBusters series.

LEGENDS CLASSIC: The 12-team field for the 2009 Legends Classic men’s basketball tournament was announced in September. Vermont will open the regional round on November 22 on the road against Rutgers starting at 4 p.m. The Cats will also play Drexel, Cornell and Toledo in the sub-regional round in Philadelphia, Pa. on November 27-29.

20 WINS: Vermont earned its 24th victory of the season when it topped Green Bay in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational, 76-72. The Cats have now recorded 20 or more wins in six of the last eight seasons, after not accomplishing the feat in the first 87 seasons of the history of the program. UVM finished with 24 wins last year, which were the third-most in a single season in Catamount history. The 2004-05 and 2006-07 teams share the Vermont record for most wins in a season with 25. Head coach Mike Lonergan has recorded 20 or more wins in 10 of his 16 seasons as a head coach, including eight times while he was at Catholic University.

NEW ENGLAND’S BEST: Since the start of the 2001-02 season, the Catamounts have the third-most wins (167) among the 20 Division I schools in New England, trailing only Connecticut (208) and Boston College (172). Vermont also joins UConn and BC as the only schools in New England with at least six 20+ win seasons over the last eight years.

CATAMOUNTS ON TELEVISION: Vermont is guaranteed to play at least six games on television this season. The first Catamount men’s basketball game to be televised will be Vermont vs. Quinnipiac on December 13 at 12 p.m. on the New England Sports Network (NESN). Vermont will play five America East conference games on television starting on January 10 at Albany at 4 p.m., which will be shown in the Albany area on Time Warner Cable (TW3). Both showdowns with Boston University will be televised this year. The first meeting between the Catamounts and Terriers in Burlington on January 17 (2 p.m.) will air on ESPNU and the February 9 game in Boston on Comcast Sports Net at 7 p.m. Vermont will appear on NESN when it travels to face New Hampshire on January 27 at 7 p.m. The Cats also travel to face Stony Brook in a game that will be televised on both NESN and Madison Square Garden Plus (MSG+) on February 24 at 7 p.m. Other potential television appearances include the BracketBuster series on February 19-20 on the ESPN family of networks and the America East Tournament, which will take place March 4-7 on the campus of the University of Hartford. The semifinals on March 7 will be televised and the finals will be held on March 13 at the highest remaining seed and be played on ESPN2. The Cats have played on television 40 times in the last three years.

AROUND THE RIM: Marqus Blakely is the only two-time conference play of the year in the nation to return this season ... Blakely enters his senior season 15th all-time in scoring at Vermont with 1,268 points … Two members of the class of 2009 are now currently continuing their basketball careers overseas, as Mike Trimboli is playing in Poland and Colin McIntosh is playing in Portugal … The men’s basketball team volunteered and participated in the annual Kevin Roberson Run during Homecoming Weekend ... Vermont is averaging 20.9 wins per season over the last eight ... Blakely is the first player to lead the league in rebounding in back-to-back seasons since Malik Rose of Drexel (1994-96) ... Vermont is 10-0 all-time under head coach Mike Lonergan in preseason games, as the Catamounts have won by an average of 22.1 points per contest.

WHO'S NEXT: Vermont is back in action on Sunday when it travels to face Buffalo starting at 5:30 p.m.

FOLLOW OR FRIEND THE CATAMOUNTS ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER: The UVM Athletic Department has a Facebook page. Click here to become a friend of the department to keep up with all the happenings in Catamount Country. Fans can also follow the Catamounts via Twitter. The department has a general Twitter account @UVMAthletics and the men’s basketball team also has a Twitter account @UVM_M_Hoops. Follow @UVMAthletics for general news on the department and/or follow @UVM_M_Hoops for more in-depth coverage of the team, including in-meet updates throughout the season.

CATAMOUNTS ALL-ACCESS: Visit the Catamounts All-Access page at UVMathletics.com for information on how to get results of your favorite Catamount teams minutes after the conclusion of the meet via a text message on your cell phone via eScores. The feature is available to anyone with a cell phone, regardless of cell phone service provider. Also, stay up-to-date with the Catamounts. Sign up for the Vermont men’s basketball eNews, offered free of charge by the Athletic Communications Office. Receive all the latest news and notes, as well as complete game summaries for every contest via your personal e-mail account. Catamounts All-Access also includes links to UVM's other social networking sites like Flickr and YouTube, Vermont's television schedule, live stats, live audio streaming and wallpaper for your computer.

PHOTO STORE: Catamount faithful can purchase athletic pictures at www.UVMathletics.com via the Vermont Photo Store. Pictures make great gifts for holidays, home wall art, or office decorations. Powered by Replay Photos, the website will feature pictures of all 18 sports, including meet action photos from the 2009-10 season once they become available.

GET YOUR GEAR: The UVM athletic department, in conjunction with TeamFanShop, has launched its first-ever merchandise and apparel store through the school's official athletic site at UVMathletics.com. The new online store includes hats, polo shirts, shorts, t-shirts, gifts and much more from several leading manufacturers.