Defense, rebounding carries Vermont women's basketball to NCAA Tournament

The University of Vermont women’s basketball coach Alisa Kresge chalked up the Catamounts’ rebounding success to one night in the dorms.

During the news conference after Vermont captured the America East crown Kresge, jokingly, said the Catamounts agreed to rebound for their coach in fear that she might hurt them if they don’t. The Catamounts cleaned the glass 53-36 against Albany, which led the league in rebounding margin, to tie a championship record for boards in a game.

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The success on the glass was across the conference tournament as Vermont out-rebounded the competition by 13 on average over the three contests. That, and a top 10 leading defense has the No. 15 Catamounts (25-6) in their first March Madness in 13 years and travelling to Storrs, Connecticut to face No. 2 UConn.

“The last five, six games this team has bought in (to rebounding),” Kresge said. “To be honest, I'm not really sure what shifted. We've talked about it, we showed them, we're coaching them but one night they must’ve talked it through and said we are going to rebound for coach.”

Rebounding at a glance

In the four games leading to the conference tournament Vermont averaged 37.5 rebounds per contest and won the margins in each game. That average would have led the conference by nearly a rebound per game over the year and was two more than UVM’s seasonal margin. The Catamounts finished fourth in combined team rebounds in the conference.

UVM started the season 1-4 in the rebounding column, granted against non-conference opponents, and started the season 2-3. When conference play began Vermont was dominated on the glass again and dropped back-to-back games before winning 17 straight contests.

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Kresge doesn’t know what has UVM rebounding so well down the stretch, but behind its defense Vermont is closing out on shooters and limiting extra possessions at a winning clip this winter.

“We're very dangerous on the defensive end and on the offensive end, when we get going we have a lot of confidence in all five players on the floor,” Emma Utterback said.

The daunting defense

Vermont’s 8th ranked defense in the country was needed against Albany in the conference championship. The Catamounts held the Great Danes to a season-low 36 points and 24.6% shooting from the floor.

They’ll need it again and more in the NCAA Tournament.

“We can't be afraid,” Kresge said. “I felt like kind of in the Albany game when it got real tight, we played tight, we can't do that. We’ve got to take the open shots. We have to trust in our abilities. We're gonna have to play with some swag.”

Opponents are scoring just 52.8 points per game against Vermont, the 20th-ranked mid-major program on College Insider. But the offense has yet to click at the same rate, managing just 61.6 ppg, third best in the conference.

Kresge on how to win on Saturday: “I think it's going to be a combination of our defense and playing with so much confidence offensively.”

Kresge on facing UConn

The Catamounts visited Indiana, the 11th-anked team in the country at the time, for the first game of the season. UVM had a taste of the country’s best as the Hoosiers finished with the top seed in the Greenville 2 bracket.

The Cats kept it close at halftime (42-27) and Kresge felt that they came away feeling her team fought for 40 minutes.

“I was really proud of a lot of things there that we did early,” Kresge said of the Indiana matchup. “We got to remember that I thought when adversity hit, we didn't hang our heads and during the season at times when it was not an opponent like Indiana, we're hanging our head.”

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How the team handles changes over the course of the game will be key, according to Kresge.

“We're the underdog. There's the nothing to lose mentality, which I always think was an easy way to go and play loose because nobody's expecting anything from us,” Kresge said.

Contact Jacob Rousseau at JRousseau@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter: @ByJacobRousseau

TV, radio, stream information

Teams: (15) Vermont vs. (2) Connecticut

Site: Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut

Date: Saturday, March 18

Tip-off: 3 p.m. eastern (approx.)

TV: ABC

Stream: ESPN3

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: NCAA Tournament: How Vermont women's basketball made March Madness