March Madness Fonthill style
March Madness was always a big deal in the Hurley household in Fonthill.
“It is one of my favourite times of the year and my favourite sporting event in the world, for sure,” T.J. Hurley said.
Father Mike Hurley annually runs a large bracket pool and son T.J. would fill out his bracket and intensely follow the tournament with one eye on the games and the other on his bracket.
“My dad has always been a North Carolina guy and I kind of grew up in a North Carolina house so I have alway been a fan,” T.J. said. “Now the whole house is Vermont.”
That switch in allegiance to the Vermont Catamounts from the North Carolina Tar Heels is the result of the 18-year-old Fonthill resident signing with the NCAA Division 1 school last year.
The Hurley household won’t be glued to its television set in Fonthill when the tournament kicks off Thursday. Instead, the Hurleys and a handful of friends will be in Columbus, Ohio, watching T.J. and his teammates take on heavily favoured Marquette in the opening round of March Madness on Friday. Vermont is seeded 15th in the East Region and Marquette is seeded second.
“It is a dream come true for me. I always remember watching the tournament growing up and to be where those guys I watched are is surreal,” Hurley said.
Getting to share the moment in person with family and friends will make the games even more memorable.
“I have had great support all year long and lots of people come to all of my games. And now for it to be March Madness, it is a whole other level,” he said. “I am super thankful for all the support I have gotten this year and will continue to get in Columbus.”
Vermont punched its ticket into March Madness by winning the America East championship. It was Hurley’s highlight of the season so far.
“It was that feeling of winning our tournament and cutting the nets down. It was what I had always dreamed of. Then watching Selection Sunday this past Sunday and seeing Vermont being called up on TV was amazing. It still hasn’t sunk in with me that we’re going to March Madness but seeing our name up there on TV made it all the more real.”
Marquette is the sixth-ranked team in the country and Vermont is a heavy underdog but Hurley and his teammates aren’t conceding anything.
“This entire year we have had an underdog mentality and coming in we are the underdog. We are going to go out and have fun but we are still playing to win and we think this is a winnable game for us. We are going to try and go out and get that win.”
Vermont has plenty of confidence going into the game as it is riding a 15-game winning streak.
“We have been playing really well together recently and we have great chemistry. That will transfer over to the Marquette game and hopefully even further into the tournament.”
The 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard has had an excellent freshman season for the Catamounts, averaging 5.3 points, 1.7 rebounds and 16.4 minutes of playing time per game.
“Coming into this year, I really had no idea what it would look like and everyone talked about how freshman year would be super tough and I would really have to work for minutes,” the former E.L. Crossley student said. “It was tough at times getting on the floor and getting touches in games but overall it was an awesome opportunity any time I got on the floor.”
He credited the Vermont coaching staff for those opportunities.
“My coaches were really good at putting me in the best position to be successful. Our coaching staff is one of the best if not the best in the country, in my opinion, and they allow guys who come through the Vermont program to be successful.”
Hurley shot 40 per cent overall from the floor and 41.2 per cent from three-point range.
“I don’t think I shot as many twos as I did threes and most of my threes were more open than my twos.”
Hurley learned a lot of things in his freshman year, none more important than how difficult it is to win games at the NCAA Division 1 level.
“We started the season 2-7 and it is really hard to win in college basketball games. Vermont has been a dynasty and wins in a lot of the years so a lot people coming into Vermont thought we would win just because we had that Vermont jersey on,” said the participant in the 2022 Biosteel All-Canadian game. “We learned that it doesn’t work that way. You have to work for every single win and the older guys helped me with learning that. It was teaching us about the culture and all the little things you have to do to win a conference title.”
Those little things are not evident from the outside looking in.
“It’s things like showing up on time for a breakfast in June. They all add up to the big goals like winning a championship.”
One area that Hurley made a smooth transition to was dealing with the physicality of Division 1 college basketball.
“It was a whole other level than high school but I didn’t find that too challenging for me because I never really relied on my athleticism, speed or size to help me in basketball,” the 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard said. “I was always one of the smallest kids growing up and I had to learn how to play against older guys early on and that was a big advantage for me in my freshman year. I was used to being the smaller, less physical player.”
He already knows what needs to work in the off-season to get ready for his sophomore campaign.
“It’s continuing to improve on scoring and finding more ways to create shots for myself. We had a lot of older and really good guards on the team this year and I played more off the ball,” he said. “With a couple of guards leaving this year, I will probably be a little more on the ball so I have to continue to work on having my hands on the ball more, working on my handle and finding more ways to create for myself and my teammates.”
