A Man Named Smith

Belmont’s Surprising Luke Smith

(St. Louis, MO) – Luke Smith’s transfer to Belmont didn’t come with bands playing and confetti flying. He was a man named Smith from a Division 3 school hoping to contribute to Belmont’s success. Little did he know who would leave the team, how his role would change or how big a role he would play.

While performing at a high level in high school, Smith had received no Division 1 scholarship offers so he went to play at D3 University of the South. After two successful seasons under former Bruin Mick Hedgepeth, he transferred to Belmont. Hedepeth had become the team’s Director of Operations and Smith had to sit out last season.

Belmont won the Ohio Valley Tournament, guard Adam Kunkel was an emerging star and a man named Smith figured to be point guard Grayson Murphy’s primary back-up. Kunkel transferred to Xavier and Smith’s role changed immediately.

 

 

Respect for Casey Alexander

Belmont coach Casey Alexander replaced a legend in Rick Byrd and kept the Ferrari running perfectly. The Bruins won 26 games, tied for the OVC regular season title and won the conference tournament. Belmont (13-1, 7-0) has won ten straight games and 25 of its last 26 contests.

Smith loves to brag about Alexander and the entire coaching staff. Alexander’s passion, attention to detail and relentless drive are his strengths. The 6′ Smith wants to go into coaching and believes he is being receiving incredible training.

 

 

Smith believes his former head coach Hedgepeth is rising coaching star. The former Bruin led the University of the South to great success before coming back to Nashville to serve on the Bruin staff.

A Man Named Smith Talks About Teammates

All-conference performers Nick Muszynski and Grayson Murphy are the stars of this year’s team. ‘Moose’ is the team’s leading scorer at 15.9 points per game. Point guard Murphy leads the team and is second in the OVC in rebounds (8 per game) and is in the top five in the conference in assists (4.6 per game).

Smith has always been an efficient three-point shooter, but in the Belmont offense he has become a prolific long range bomber. His 45 triples lead the OVC and his .437 outside percentage opens the offense for his teammates.

Smith says with dynamic players like Muszynski and Murphy around, his job is easy. After his hot start, OVC teams are defending him differently and his open opportunities don’t come as often. All three of his single-digit scoring performances have come in conference games.

 

 

The Knoxville native has won two, OVC ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ awards and one ‘Player of the Week‘ award and leads his team in steals, minutes played and free throw percentage. This man named Smith is impossible to miss.

Like Smith, JaCobi Wood is having a flashy first season. After averaging 29 points per game in high school, Wood is the team’s third leading scorer (12.9 ppg) and is one of five Bruins averaging 9.8 points per game or higher. Wood was Tennessee’s AAA ‘Mr. Basketball’.

Ben Sheppard started slowly, but has been emerging. The 6’6 sophomore recorded back-to-back 21-point games over New Years and earned the OVC’s ‘Player of the Week‘ award. Sheppard missed the first three games of the season and Smith says the Atlanta native is the best defender in the league.

 

 

The Future for a Man Named Smith

Smith wants to become a coach. He says coming to Belmont to play basketball is also a great opportunity to learn how to coach basketball. While coronavirus has opened up the possibility to play a sixth year for the junior, he thinks more about beginning his coaching career, than one more year of playing.

During our conversation he talked about his large family, playing for coach Hedgepeth, wanting to coach and how the Bruins have dealt with covid-19. Click here o listen to our latest podcast with this man named Smith.

This man named Smith wants to help Belmont get back to the NCAA Tournament.

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Editor: Feature photo courtesy of BelmontBruins.com