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BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Vermont Catamounts open the 2014-15 season with a two-game swing through the state of New York. UVM will take on Canisius on Saturday (Nov. 15) in the season opener at 2 p.m. in Buffalo.
 
The Canisius game will be streamed via the GoGriffs.com website on a pay-per-view basis. The game can also be heard on ESPN 101.3 FM (online: 1013ESPN.com) with A.J. Kanell calling the action.
 
RELATED LINKS
2014-15 Schedule
Game Notes (.pdf)
Game Coverage – Live Stats | Live Video ($$) | Live Audio (ESPN 101.3 FM)
Concordia Exhibition Game CatamounTV Highlights
Saint Michael's Exhibition Game CatamounTV Highlights
 
PRESEASON PICKS
Vermont was picked to finish fourth in the America East Preseason Poll. The Catamounts are the defending America East Regular Season champs after going 22-11 overall and 15-1 in league play last season.
 
Canisius was picked to finish 10th in the MAAC Preseason Poll. The Golden Griffins went 21-13 last season (14-6 MAAC) and ended the year with their second straight CIT berth.
 
ABOUT CANISIUS
The Golden Griffins return five letterwinners and one starter from last year's team. Sophomore Zach Lewis is the top returning scorer. He averaged 9.5 points per game and his 303 total points as a rookie ranked sixth-best among Canisius freshmen all-time. The Canisius roster features seven players who have never played a Division I game, including three redshirt freshmen.
 
THE SERIES
This is the 19th meeting between the two teams and a return game from Vermont after the two teams faced each other at Patrick Gymnasium in an ESPN BracketBuster Game on Feb. 23, 2012 an 87-79 win by Vermont. Canisius owns a 16-2 advantage in the all-time series. The two teams used to be members of the North Atlantic Conference (now America East) between 1981-89. The last time the Catamounts played at Canisius was Jan. 28, 1991.
 
CATAMOUNTS SHORT ON EXPERIENCE
Junior Ethan O'Day is the only player on the roster with more than one year's worth of game experience in the Vermont program. UVM has eight newcomers, seven freshman and Hofstra transfer Darren Payen. Redshirt sophomore Brendan Kilpatrick sat out last season with a foot injury and seniors Hector Harold and Ryan Pierson were transfers into the program. The 2013-14 season marked their first year seeing game action. Kurt Steidl and Dre Wills were freshmen last season.
 
O'Day is the only starter returning to the UVM lineup and has 44 career starts in 58 games. The rest of the Catamounts combine for three starts (Kilpatrick – 1/Steidl-2).
 
WHO'S NEXT
The Catamounts will also face Siena on Monday (Nov. 17) at 7 p.m. at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York.
 
LINKS TO VERMONT MEN'S BASKETBALL COVERAGE
Local 22: Catamount Country Basketball Countdown
Burlington Free Press: Rising with fire – Ethan O'Day feature
Burlington Free Press: Becker, UVM welcome 7 freshmen
Burlington Free Press: 'Newness' Rules for Vermont men's basketball
America East Preview
Media Day Coverage: WCAX | WPTZ
CollegeHoopsDaily.com – Ethan O'Day Interview
CollegeHoopsDaily.com – Hector Harold Interview
NYCBuckets.com – Hector Harold Interview
NYCBuckets.com – Ernie Duncan Interview