December 6, 2009 - 7:31am
If you haven't been watching the scores, you might think this contest involved just another bad team. And you would be wrong. In the past week, the Catamounts beat both Boston College and NC State.mNow, neither is a Top-25 team, but they are solid ACC clubs, and Vermont entered their game against the Huskies 4-0. But with the way UConn is playing, even good teams look pretty bad. Except for Courtney Pilypaitis, Vermont looked bad.
The University of Vermont is universally called UVM (when initials are used), and I always assumed that it came from the letters in the word VerMont. Wrong. UVM stands for Univesitatis Viridis Montis (University of the Green Mountains). I didn't know that until reading the game notes, even though I have lived in New England for more than 30 years, and, more importantly, my daughter attends medical school there.
The Catamount women have four Vermonters on the roster, but they also have six players from Ontario, Canada, including three starters -- leading scorers Courtney Pilypaitis and May Kotsopoulos, and freshman Kendra Seto. Pilypaitis and Kotsopoulos have both averaged over 20 points per game in four games, and have hit all but two of the team's 21 three-pointers.
Courtney Pilypaitis would be a welcome addition to any team in the country, and would start on almost all of them. She is relentless, defends the point, creates her own shot, and scores most of the points. Sofia Iwobi is the team's leading rebounder at 5'9 (6.5 rebounds per game). She hails from Maharishi School (really) in Fairfield, Iowa.
Those with a decent memory will remember that Vermont pushed UConn hard in the NCAA tournament last season, even though they eventually lost 104-65. Tina Charles had 32 in that contest, but Pilypaitis had 24 for Vermont. Four of the Catamount starters are now seniors who played in that game. In March the team shot 46.4 percent from the field, far above the average UConn allowed its opponents last season. Unfortunately, for Vermont fans, the Huskies shot 63 percent, boosted by Charles's 13-for-14 from the field.
Now Vermont is back for more, agreeing to play again at Gampel Pavilion, where the Huskies have won 32 straight games, and 97 of their last 99. Playing lots of good teams is, obviously, a way to improve your club, and the schedule Coach Sharon Dawley has arranged for the Catamounts will more than get them ready for the America East Conference. They have already been picked to finish first (and gain the automatic, and likely the only, bid) in the Conference.
This time out, Vermont shot just 31 percent, UConn 59 percent. The final margin was the same, though the scores were lower for both teams.