WORCESTER, Mass. – Three integral parts of Vermont’s team will be gone once it bows out of the NCAA tournament-star players Taylor Coppenrath and T.J. Sorrentine, as well as coach Tom Brennan, who will retire after 19 seasons as the Catamounts’ mentor.
But the departing Catamounts aren’t viewing Friday’s opening-round game against fourth-seeded Syracuse as their farewell game.
“We still got another game to play,” Coppenrath said. “Until that final buzzer goes off and it’s the last game of our careers, that’s when I think it’ll hit us. There’s more basketball to play.”
This is Vermont’s third straight season in the NCAA tournament after taking the America East title. And although his team was out in the first round the past two years, Brennan said he truly believes the Catamounts can take at least one victory this time. He said this was the best team Vermont has ever had.
Sorrentine said that because it was his final year, he would approach the tournament differently.
“I think we’re a year older and we’re really coming into this feeling that we can win,” Sorrentine said. “I think we felt we could win the last two years, but it’s just a different sense, a different feeling among the guys because we know we don’t have a next year to say, “Oh, we can win one next year.’
“This is it for us seniors-the five of us and coach Brennan. It’s a special time. There’s a sense of urgency, no doubt.”
Sorrentine, too, thinks that his team is more than capable of competing with Syracuse. Asked if he and Coppenrath were the mid-major version of Syracuse’s Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara, Sorrentine said: “We don’t look at ourselves as mid-anything. We’re just basketball players. I think we just go out and play. You guys decide that.”
Warrick, an athletic forward, and McNamara, a sharp-shooting point guard, make up a daunting inside-out attack.
Coppenrath and Sorrentine play similar roles as the Catamounts’ best players. Coppenrath was named America East player of the year and has potential to be a first-round NBA Draft pick.
Still, the light-hearted Brennan joked about the comparison between his one-two punch and Syracuse’s.
“They are the poor man’s McNamara and Warrick,” Brennan said. “I really think that.”
But Brennan also had some very kind words for Coppenrath.
“He’s Larry Bird. He’s Bill Bradley,” Brennan said. “You might just look back and say, “How the hell did they beat Syracuse? How did they do that?’ “
UConn guard hurts elbow: Connecticut point guard Marcus Williams banged his left elbow in practice, but the injury isn’t expected to keep him out of Friday’s first-round NCAA tournament game against Central Florida.
Coach Jim Calhoun mentioned the injury at his news conference Thursday. It was believed to be a minor injury, but any problem for Williams could be a big one for second-seeded UConn because his backup, Antonio Kellogg, was suspended this week for violating team rules.
Ryan Thompson, a 6-foot-6 forward, will play backup at the point.
“He’ll be important to us,” Calhoun said. “He could present some problems to them with his size.”
—
(c) 2005, Detroit Free Press.
Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-03-17-05 2206EST
Comments are no longer available on this story