Get Your Seats Ready! The Top Teams Clash! Buckle Up for an Epic Battle between UVM and UMBC!
Vermont basketball is playing at UMBC for the 2026 America East crown. Here's how to watch championship on Saturday, March 14.
Second-seed Vermont basketball will play its first road game in the America East playoffs in 10 years when the Catamounts square off against No. 1 UMBC in today's conference title game at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Catonsville, Maryland. The winner between the Catamounts (22-11) and Retrievers (23-8) will also earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Reaching its 11th league final of 15-year coach John Becker's tenure, Vermont is chasing the program's fourth tourney crown in five seasons following last year's semifinal exit. More: Vermont basketball denies NJIT, advances to America East title game Under Becker, the Catamounts have won seven America East crowns (2012, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024). UMBC last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2018 when it ousted Vermont in the league title game and then became the first No.
16 seed to beat a No. 1 (Virginia) in March Madness history. In the Catamounts' last America East tourney game away from Burlington, they lost to Stony Brook in the 2016 final.
Since then, they went 22-3 in league playoff games at Patrick Gym. Vermont and UMBC split this winter's regular-season matchups, each winning on their home floor. The teams are also meeting in the AE final for the third time (2018, 2019, 2026).