Bryant hosts Vermont Saturday night in home opener (7p)

FULL GAME NOTES
Watch: NECfrontrow.com
Listen: WOON 1240 AM
Live Stats: bryantbulldogs.com
Follow along on Twitter: @BryantGameday

THE PARTICULARS
The Bryant University men's basketball team opens its 14-game home slate Saturday night with a primetime matchup against first-time opponent the University of Vermont. The home opener is set to tip off from the Chace Athletic Center at 7:00 p.m.

THE SERIES
This is the first time the Bulldogs and the Catamounts have met on the hardwood.

SCOUTING THE CATAMOUNTS
Clancy Rugg leads Vermont with 18 points per game on the young 2013-14 season and is second on the team on the glass at 5.5 boards per outing. Brian Voelkel leads that charge with 21 rebounds on two games this season, also averaging 6.0 points each time out. Sandro Carissimo and Candon Rusin average 13 and 10 points per game, respectively, and have combined for seven of the Catamounts' 10 longballs on the year. As a unit, Vermont is shooting 41.1 percent from the floor and 32.3 percent from 3-point land with 11 blocks and 23 assists.

BRYANT vs. THE AMERICA EAST
Saturday's matchup marks the first of three contests against members of the America East in 2013-14, and the Bulldogs enter the game 2-2 against the conference at the Division I level. Bryant went 2-0 against the league in 2012-13, prevailing at home over UNH, 76-64, and Binghamton, 78-56. All-time, Bryant is 4-2 against current members of the America East Conference, having beaten Binghamton twice during in the 2000-01 campaign and suffering its two losses against the same opponent, the University at Albany, both during the 2008-09 season, Bryant's first year of DI play.

BRYANT-UVM CONNECTIONS
Tom O'Shea — the brother of Bryant head coach Tim O'Shea and father of Bulldog starter Joe O'Shea — is a UVM graduate and was a member of the Catamount men's basketball team from 1982-86. Joe O'Shea will also be facing off against friend and former Burlington High School teammate Clancy Rugg in Saturday's home opener.

MAKE IT QUICK
Having posted 35 points in each of his last two games, junior guard Dyami Starks is on pace to score more than 100 points in his first three games alone. If he does hit the 100-point mark Saturday against Vermont, he will become the first player in the Northeast Conference record books to eclipse the century mark in the first three games of the season. LIU Brooklyn's Charles Jones scored 103 in his first three games of the 1997-98 season but missed the team's first two outings. No other player in the NEC has scored 100 or more points in his first three contests.

DYAMI DYNAMITE: STARKS LEADS NATION IN SCORING
While it is still early, junior sharpshooter Dyami Starks currently leads the nation in points per game entering Saturday's home opener (35.0 ppg). Starks looked quite at home in the Kennel in the team's opener, dropping a career-high 35 points on No. 15 Gonzaga Nov. 9, and matched the effort Wednesday on the road against Dartmouth in an 87-77 victory. The back-to-back performances marked the first two 30-point games of his career.

A CONCENTRATED EFFORT
The Bulldogs have certainly added depth in 2013-14, but the Bryant bench has yet to prove that depth on the scoreboard. Through the season's first two games, four Bulldog starters — juniors Dyami Starks and Joe O'Shea and seniors Alex Francis and Corey Maynard — are responsible for nearly 86 percent of Bryant's total scoring (140 of 163 points). If you go outside the starting lineup, Bryant's bench has contributed just 20 points so far this season. Leading the way with 70 points already, Starks alone accounts for 42.9 percent of the team's total offense.
 
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
Another milestone, anyway, for senior forward Alex Francis, who scored his 1,500th-career point during a 13-point performance against the 15th-ranked Zags in last Saturday's opener. The unanimous Preseason All-NEC pick and 2012-13 first teamer enters Saturday's game with 1,518 career points.

1,000 REASONS...
After leading the Bulldogs in nearly every offensive statistic and setting the program's Division I mark for points in a season, junior sharpshooter Dyami Starks could become the third player in a two-year span to join the 1,000-point club. He enters Saturday's contest the season with 706 career points, 88 of those coming during his freshman campaign at Columbia (2010-11). Starks will need to average 10.1 points per game — well below both his Bryant (18.7) and career (13.3) scoring average — to eclipse the milestone by the end of the 2013-14 regular season.

TICKET TO RIDE
Single-game and season ticket packages are still available for the 2013-14 Bryant University men's and women's basketball seasons. Fans can purchase tickets online at bryantbulldogs.com/tickets or by calling the Bryant Athletics Ticket Office at 401-319-TIXX.

CAN'T MAKE IT TO THE GAME?
Bryant University Athletics and the Northeast Conference have partnered with Pack Network to create NEC Front Row, the home for all NEC men's and women's basketball broadcasts in 2013-14. NEC Front Row brings viewers an industry-leading video streaming solution for more than 100 Bryant University home contests during the 2013-14 athletic seasons, including live, free-of-charge broadcasts of all Bulldog home and in-conference road men's basketball games. Live event productions include multiple camera angles, an on-screen scoreboard and state-of-the-art graphics. Visit necfrontrow.com for more information and a schedule of events.

BRYANT HOOPS ON WOON RADIO
For the sixth-consecutive season, all Bryant University basketball home games and select road contests can be heard LIVE on WOON 1240 AM and online at bryantbulldogs.com. Veteran sportscaster Jon Wallach of 98.5 FM The Sports Hub Boston returns to call the action as the voice of the Bulldogs, alongside color analyst Tristan Hobbes.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs return to the road for one of the toughest tests of the season Wednesday, Nov. 20, when they travel north to visit NCAA tournament darling Harvard in a regional matchup at 7 p.m. The Crimson are receiving votes in both national polls.