Upcoming: Vermont at Stony Brook

It's sneaking up on me, but the first game of 2011 for the Victoria Times Ryan's Random Road tRip is coming up on Tuesday. Do to extenuating circumstances, I will be unable to get to the game, so instead I will be watching it from home online. The team selected was the Vermont Catamounts, and their 13th game of the season, which ends up being their America East conference opener against Stony Brook, a New York school on Long Island.

Vermont, the road team in this competition, has pretty much handled their business this year. They went 9-3 in the non conference portion of the schedule, with their three losses to a now ranked Connecticut team, Brigham Young and at Fairfield. Vermont doesn't really have a marquee win to their credit, so it's hard to say what their talent level is at, though blow out losses to BYU and the loss at Fairfield don't say anything good. Evan Fjeld is probably the premier player for the Catamounts, averaging 17.2 points a game from his spot as forward. The senior also posts a strong 7 rebounds a game, which is second to freshman forward Brian Voelkel's 10 a game. Joey Accaoui is a secondary scorer for Vermont with 13.5 a game, while little used Sandro Carissimo is the winner of the "best name" contest.

The Seawolves are a different story. It's pretty easy to see where they stand. Stony Brook isn't so good. They stand at 5-6 and actually start their America East schedule today against Maryland-Baltimore County. They definitely have no good wins and certainly a handful of bad losses, like games against Wagner, Lehigh, Columbia, Sacred Heart and an 88-62 dismantling at the hands of Notre Dame. The leading scorer for Stony Brook is Bryan Dougher at about 15 points a game. #2 on the list is Chris Martin, who is presently injured, and even so only has a bit more than 8 points a game. Dallas Joyner is the leading rebounder, with about 7 a game. It's hard to say that this team has a star. Preye Preboye is the strongest name in this bunch.

I think the Seawolves injury issues and lack of a true identity will lead them to struggle against Vermont. I don't really have faith in the Catamounts, though, either, especially on the road. If the Vermont scorers can get going and stay out of foul trouble (a problem for Fjeld at times), they should be able to come away with the victory, but I am going to go with Stony Brook as my official prediction.