Vermont-Kentucky is America’s introduction to next big thing Anthony Lamb

Sunday’s matchup between Vermont and Kentucky is a chance for college basketball fans to meet Anthony Lamb.

Previously dim arena lights now shining with the force of a thousand suns. A rhythmic beating of a ball bouncing off the hardwood floor. Sneakers squeaking off in the distance. Grown men yelling obscenities at the free teenage labor.

College basketball is back!

With the official start of the season taking place on Friday, most of the attention will be paid to the blue-blood programs of the world. A Duke Blue Devils here, a North Carolina Tar Heels over there, and so on. It is a tradition of ignoring low-major hoops unlike any other.

It is due to one of the blue-bloods, however, that the nation will leave the sport’s opening-weekend with its collective mouth gaped open, as a basketball loving America will meet Vermont sophomore Anthony Lamb, when the Catamounts play the Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday.

Big Blue Nation provides the stage. Make no bones about that. Few people outside the Vermont super-fan bubble would be tuning in on Sunday to see the Catamounts if they were playing any team other than the Wildcats.

That’s fine. Fair, even. But if Kentucky is helping to set the stage for a wildly solid under-the-radar Sunday game, it will be Anthony Lamb who will end up leaving it as the headliner.

In this analogy, Kentucky might be the big Hollywood blockbuster movie directed by, well, whoever is left after the scandal left in the entertainment industry’s wake. Vermont, though, is that character actor only given a few lines who will steal each scene he is in.

(Kentucky is The Adjustment Bureau and Vermont is Anthony Mackie, essentially)

As a freshman last season, Lamb was both prolific and ahead of his developmental curve.

Helping lead a Vermont team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012, the undersized forward averaged 12.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per outing. Those aren’t the counting-stats that scream future star, but the box-score tallies Lamb consistently acquired in his first season simply fail in doing his game justice.

A, supposedly, 6-foot-6 power forward, Lamb stunts across collegiate hardwoods majoring in bully ball. Few players, no matter the size, are able to dominate near the rim as the now sophomore.

That’s the already known about the sophomore. As it often is with a player looking to showcase an improved skill set from one season to another, it is the flashes of brilliance he showed last season that provide that glimmer of hope that he’s about to become a national sensation.

The sample-size is smaller than the hole in the middle of a donut, but when Lamb did venture beyond the arc last season, he hit a rather an astounding 41 percent of his shots. Again, it has to be noted that he attempted under two of those a game.

Yet the point remains. If Lamb can develop into a slightly less position dictated forward, as opposed to being shoehorned near the rim, he will become less a bully-ball-centric, undersized forward and more a dynamic, hybrid talent who will have his limit know no bounds.

Don’t allow the semantics of hopeful projections ruin the hyperbole that’s about to be jammed down your throat. You ready? Grab a glass of water and take a deep breath. I’ll wait …

Good? Good.

With more than 95 percent of the nation putting on ESPN to witness Kentucky do Big Blue Nation things on Sunday, facing the AEC favorite Catamounts, the people witnessing Anthony Lamb for the first time will feel similarly to the first time they saw Steph Curry at Davidson.

Wait … Don’t leave just yet. This handsome Internet Scribbler is not saying Lamb is anywhere near as good, or similar in terms of style to Curry. What I would advocate for, in a slightly roundabout way, is that Lamb will be the nation’s top mid-major star for the 2017-18 season until he either leaves for the NBA early or exhausts his eligibility three seasons down the road.

This isn’t even a hot-take, mind you. Expecting Lamb to be the best mid-major player the next few years is, at worse, a lukewarm take.

That’s what makes this so special. In theory — and even in practice, if we count his stellar freshman campaign — Lamb is going to be around the sport for a minute. He was too small to be recruited by large programs and be considered a one-and-done type talent. Moreover, it will take NBA fanatics, as well as scouts, a few minutes to fully buy Lamb’s professional stock.

Basically, because he isn’t trotting about hardwoods for a perennial power, and lacks size for his natural position (power forward), Lamb will be forced to showcase his greatness for the foreseeable future until he proves he is a viable hybrid-forward.

It is worth noting that it certainly helps Lamb that Vermont enters the Kentucky game as a legitimate foe, and not so much a cupcake game lined up by John Calipari and the Wildcats’ athletic department.

We already mentioned that Vermont went to the Big Dance last season, but what we failed to acknowledge is that the team is returning all but three key players from that team.

To put it in blunt perspective: Head coach John Becker returns four starters. This included Player of the Year Trae Bell-Haynes, Rookie of the Year (and our guy) Anthony Lamb, and third-team All Conference picks Payton Henson and Ernie Duncan. For good measure, seniors Drew Urquhart and Cam Ward are seasoned veterans off the bench.

“But a bunch of guys returning from a low-major, even if an NCAA Tournament team isn’t that big of a deal,” says someone who probably doesn’t understand the historically great season Vermont had last season.

The Catamounts set school and America East Conference records for victories last season and was the first team to ever go 16-0 in AEC league play. Furthermore, UVM’s 21-game winning streak was the longest in the nation and the Catamounts swept every post-season America East award.

That’s a hell of a lot of firepower for a team previously most notable for its coach going from teaching tennis at Gallaudet to taking over the Vermont basketball program.

Are the Kentucky Wildcats the favorite heading into Sunday? Of course. Will John Calipari lead his team to a victory over John Becker’s crew? You bet. To be Camp Crystal Lake clear: No one with a few brain cells would say Vermont is likely to beat Kentucky, and I happen to have a few of those cells still dancing around the insides of my cranium.

Next: FanSided College Basketball Season Preview

That admission can be true, and yet, I remain steadfast in my belief that the people smart enough to consume Sunday’s game will leave it with a belly full of Vermont greatness, and an aftertaste of Anthony Lamb’s looming stardom.

Get to know both Vermont and Anthony Lamb now, America. It actually began in earnest last season, but neither are going anywhere anytime the next three seasons. Might as well get on the bandwagon now.

Joseph has been covering college basketball professionally for nearly a decade. Follow him on the mean streets of Twitter @JosephNardone. If you’re feeling greatness in your soul, check out the Unpaid Laborers Podcast.