Belmont is a Dangerous Underdog

(St. Louis, MO) – When you’ve won 92 percent of your last 60 conference games you must be doing something right and that’s exactly what Belmont University has done. While the Bruins must replace their top three scorers from last season, does anyone expect them to be anywhere but hovering around first place in the Ohio Valley Conference?

Head Coach Rick Byrd is closing in on 600 career wins at Belmont and 700 in his career. All he does is teach the game, recruit high school players to stay in school four years and win conference championships.

Belmont went 14 and 2 in the OVC last season and haven’t won less than 26 games in the last three seasons. It will be tougher this year.

Gone are Ian Clark (with the Utah Jazz) and Kerron Johnson who brought a combined 32 points to each game. Clark was co-OVC player of the year and has appeared in three of Utah’s first four NBA games this season.

But do you think Byrd is nervous?  I don’t.  He recruits and teaches and wins.

J.J. Mann (10.5), Blake Jenkins (9.6) and Reece Chamberlain are key components to the rebuilding in Nashville.

The Bruins open the season Friday night at Lipscomb and then play a very demanding non-conference schedule. Belmont takes on the consensus number one team in the nation Kentucky in December and battles North Carolina in November. Throw in a contest with VCU and two with Indiana State and you can see that Byrd isn’t too worried about his team’s ability to compete.

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