Tom Brennan had reached a low point in his professional career. The fledgling coach of the mens basketball team had just completed his third season with a disappointing record of six wins and 21 losses, which, to his dismay, was better than the two seasons preceding it.

Unsure if he had a future at UVM, or at the helm of any other college basketball program, Brennan took his 14-68 record into the office of then-athletic director Denis Lambert and asked about his future.

I told Tom that I had confidence in him and that he was my coach, Lambert says. Vermont is a unique place. We look at things a little differently. Were not Alabama or UCLA. We cant win all the time. So we looked at graduation rates and Tom as a person. He was a very thoughtful and caring guy. He really cared about the students.

At most other Division I programs, 14 wins in three years would have resulted in a pink slip. But Brennan had proven he could win at Yale prior to coming to Vermont. More importantly, he continued to graduate players at a higher rate than the rest of Division I with some of his teams producing collective GPAs higher than the universitys overall student body.

Brennan paid back university officials in 2003 for their support with a winning basketball team that qualified for the NCAA tournament with players who are as proficient in the classroom as they are on the court.

The 2002-2003 Catamounts posted a collective GPA of 3.01 to go along with their 21-12 record, which included a Denis Lambert Championship Trophy in the America East tournament and a chance to play top-ranked Arizona in Vermonts first appearance in the NCAA tournament ever. Andre Anderson, David Hehn, Germain Njila, Scotty Jones, Corey Sullivan and Grant Anderson were named to the America East honor roll.

Im just so grateful for everyone sticking with me, Brennan says. My first three years at UVM we won only 14 games. Yet the support from the school and the community never wavered. Thank God I was given a 17-year window of opportunity to get to this point. Its so nice to reward the people that stuck by me.

Over the hump
Brennan took almost two decades to lead his team through that window. After his first three seasons, his record for the next ten years was 133 wins and 143 losses. Despite the mediocre performance, university administrators stood by the coach for reasons that seemed almost archaic in a time when coaches were routinely fired for simply not winning.

We said, hey, everyone wants to win, but given where were located and the resources we have, this is what we can expect, Lambert says. I think (presidents) Lattie Coor and Tom Salmon both understood the limitations we had and were supportive (of Brennan).

So with minimal expectations for winning, the Brennan era continued. He recruited some talented players over the years, but never a truly dominant overall team. Associate coach Jesse Agel, a 1984 UVM graduate who has been with Brennan for 15 years, says it was around 1999 when he saw the potential for the Catamounts to take their game to the next level.

But that would depend on Agels and Brennans ability to recruit in a state that could easily be ranked among the bottom five for producing major college basketball players. Agel, who had a solid track record for keeping the talent coming out of Vermont at home, knew that landing in-state star Matt Sheftic of Essex High School was critical if the program intended to reach its goal of making the NCAA tournament for the first time in its 102-year history.

I was optimistic when we got Sheftic. Agel says. I felt like he was a very key guy for us.

But the 6-foot-8 Sheftic, who received more than 100 scholarship offers, couldnt take the Cats to their first dance by himself. The following year, a scrawny 6-foot-9 kid from West Barnet, Vt., Tyler Coppenrath, joined the squad.

Coppenrath wasnt seriously recruited by any Division I schools, and hadnt even made the varsity basketball team at St. Johnsbury Academy until his junior year, so his expectations coming into UVM were low.

I never figured Id get this far or even play Division I college basketball, said Coppenrath, now an all-conference star, prior to leaving for the NCAA tournament. Being from Vermont has made it special.

Agel and Brennan added a flashy guard from Rhode Island the same recruiting season who would give the Catamounts a potentially strong threesome. T.J. Sorrentine signed with the Cats early in the recruiting process, avoiding any potential recruiting battles that may have arisen over a state player of the year.

The result was last weeks first-round date with Arizona and two more years of what should be the best in UVM history. The return of Coppenrath and Sorrentine, who sat out the year with wrist injuries, gives the Catamounts two former conference players of the year for the next two seasons — the first time that has happened in NCAA history.

Apropos ending
But even with the bright future ahead, Brennan celebrates the programs past. After UVM defeated Boston University in the America East Championship to earn a trip to the NCAA tourney, he drove the championship trophy to Stowe to the house of the man its named after, the man who gave him the time he needed to build a successful team.

It was an honor, Lambert says. Tom is a good person and deserves all the credit. He really cares about his players.

Hometown heroes

For Germain Njila, who grew up in Yaounde, Cameroon, before playing a year of prep school basketball at the Masters School in West Simsbury, Conn., making the NCAA tournament hasnt received a lot of attention back home where soccer is king. Njila, the first African native to ever play for the Catamounts, says he played some basketball for fun growing up, but that its just not that big a deal in his hometown.

We watched the Final Four growing up, but most people dont know that much about it, Njila says. I played basketball for fun. Its not as big a deal there. I havent heard much about it (from home).

For forward Martin Klimes of Prague, Czech Republic, who sat out most of the season, impressing his family back home isnt as easy as it is for most athletes. His sister, Zuzi Klimesova, plays for the WNBAs Indiana Fever, and his parents played for the Czech Olympic team.

Perhaps the most impressive sibling of Klimes is his grandmother, who is regarded as the greatest all-around female athlete of post-WWII Europe.

In the case of Canadian David Hehn, whose level of notoriety went through the roof after hitting the game-winning shot that put the Cats in the NCAA tourney, the successful season has meant major exposure back home in Sarnia, Ontario where hes the toast of a town that dubs itself the Kissing Capital of the World.

You have no idea, Hehn says in reference to the reaction in Sarina. I couldnt believe the exposure. My dad has been getting phone calls from everyone we ever knew. Its been in the newspapers and on the radio. Its been crazy.

As for hitting the winning shot, the 6-foot-5 sophomore says it was the realization of the ultimate schoolboy basketball fantasy dreamt about by young players across the globe.

Once I let it go, I wasnt thinking about the clock, Hehn says. I remember thinking this dream could come true.

And with less than six seconds left on the clock, and the weight of a century of tournament-less UVM basketball on the line, it did.