MEN'S BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
Vermont (13-5, 3-0) traveled to Binghamton (9-9, 0-3) on Wednesday (Jan. 11) and returns home on Friday (Jan. 13) to host UMBC (12-4, 3-0). Single game tickets are available at UVMathletics.com/Tickets or at the Patrick Gym Box Office on gameday. All UVM men's basketball games can be heard on ESPN 101.3 FM and online at 1013ESPN.com with Sam Hyman on the call. 

TELEVISION COVERAGE
Free live video for Friday's game versus UMBC will be available in HD at AmericaEast.TV.
 
RELATED LINKS
Binghamton: Video | Live Stats | Audio 
UMBC: Video | Live Stats | Audio 
Power Rankings: CollegeInsider.com | Mid-MajorMadness.com
Game Notes: Vermont (.pdf) | UMBC (.pdf)
 
SETTING THE SCENE
Friday night features the top two teams in the America East standings. The Catamounts are riding a five-game winning streak for the third straight season. The green and gold are the only team in New England with 13 wins as UMass, Providence, and Northeastern follow with 11 victories. For the third time in the last four years, Vermont has started the America East slate at 3-0. In conference play, UMBC owns the top scoring offense in the league at 81.3 points per game while Vermont possesses the top scoring defense in America East by holding its opponents to 60.3 points per game. Darren Payen leads the league with a 94.1% field goal percentage and has scored double figures in four out of the last five games. Trae Bell-Haynes follows in a sixth place tie at 61.5% and has dished out the fourth-most assists (14). Kurt Steidl sits in a fourth-place tie with six steals and in a fifth-place tie with teammate Ernie Duncan by sinking eight shots from long range. 

CATAMOUNT TRIBUNE | "Life Lessons Through Basketball" by Nate Rohrer
Vermont Athletics launched "Catamount Tribune," this week which is a monthly avenue for UVM athletes, coaches, staff and fans to tell stories in their own words. The first edition features redshirt junior Nate Rohrer and his journey to become a Division I basketball player.
 

STEIDL EYES 200 THREE-POINTERS
After surpassing the 1,000-career point plateau last week at Maine, Kurt Steidl is only one three-pointer shy of making No. 200 for his career. Steidl would become only the sixth Catamount to accomplish the feat as he ranks sixth on the all-time career three-pointers list. 

MID-MAJOR POWER RANKINGS
The Catamounts are the only Division I team in New England to have 12 wins this season which helped the squad get recognized in a pair of mid-major power rankings. In the CollegeInsider.com Power Rankings, UVM is ranked as the No. 25 team among the nation's top mid-major programs. In the MidMajorMadness.com Power Rankings, the green and gold jumped 15 spots from a week ago and landed in the No. 27 spot.
 
SEND IN THE REINFORCEMENTS
Over the last five games, all Vermont wins, the Vermont bench has come alive by averaging 36.0 points per game. Over the first 13 games of the season, the Vermont bench averaged just 17.6 points per game.

LAST TIME OUT | Hartford Highlights
The Catamounts led the entire game and cruised to an 85-54 win in the America East home opener on Sunday afternoon at Patrick Gym. The 31-point win is the largest margin of victory for a conference home opener in program history since joining America East in 1979-80. Payen recorded his fourth straight game with double figures as the redshirt senior scored a team-high 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Bell-Haynes followed with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting and dished out five assists. Payton Henson added 11 points and five rebounds in his first game back since Dec. 10 after nursing a leg injury. Ernie Duncan and Steidl each shot 3-for-5 from long distance for nine points.
 
SCOUTING BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats are looking to avoid starting 0-3 in conference play for the second straight season. Binghamton leads the league with 246 assists this season, thanks in large part to Timmy Rose who ranks third in America East with 65 assists. In the America East overall stats, Binghamton has the fourth-best scoring offense and defense in the conference. The Bearcats are racking up 72.6 points per game while holding their opponents to 72.0 points per contest. From long distance, Binghamton has the third-best field-goal percentage at 38.3%. On the defensive end, the Bearcats are holding their foes to 34.4% from beyond the arc - the second-best percentage in the conference. J.C. Show leads the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game. Bobby Ahearn sits third in America East with a 59.0% shooting pct.
 
SCOUTING UMBC
Friday's meeting will feature the top two teams in the America East standings. The Retrievers are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country. UMBC owns the 14th-best percentage at 40.3% from long distance and has made the 25th-most three-pointers per game (9.6). The Retrievers average 82.3 points per contest which is the 34th-highest scoring average in the nation. UMBC has a pair of the top shooters in Division I – Jairus Lyles and Joe Sherburne. Lyles posts 21.3 points per game which ranks 19th in the land. Sherburne is the nation's leader in three-point percentage (55.1%) and sits 60th with 2.87 three-pointers made per game. Nolan Gerrity causes havoc for opponents in the paint as the conference leader in blocks per game (1.27) and he is the sixth-best offensive rebounder per game in the league (2.20).  

SERIES HISTORY
The Catamounts lead the all-time series 26-8 since the Bearcats joined America East and became a Division I program in 2001-02. Vermont has won 11 of the last 13 overall meetings. UVM head coach John Becker is 8-2 against the Bearcats during his tenure in Catamount Country. From the eight defeats suffered by UVM, six have come on the road in Vestal, N.Y.
 
Vermont has won 19 straight games against UMBC dating back to the 2008-09 season. The 19-game winning streak is the longest active for the Cats against a Division I opponent and UVM owns the all-time series 28-4. The Retrievers beat the green and gold three times in a two-month span during the 2007-08 season, their most successful stretch against their conference rival. The Catamounts opened the series with six straight wins and nine victories in the first 10 meetings.

WHO'S NEXT
Vermont hits the road on Monday (Jan. 16) to face twin state rival New Hampshire at 1 p.m. All UVM men's basketball games can be heard on ESPN 101.3 FM and online at 1013ESPN.com with Sam Hyman on the call. The game will be streamed on ESPN3 and the watchESPN app by logging in with your cable provider.

Canon Solutions America is the presenting sponsor of the 2016-17 men's basketball season.