Can Anyone Stop Belmont?

(St. Louis, MO) – Ohio Valley Conference fans are wondering can anyone stop Belmont at the conference tournament? In a very unpredictable season the Bruins have once again risen to the top of the league standings. Rick Byrd makes it a habit of winning regular season and tournament titles and the Nashville based school has something of a home court advantage in league championships.

Currently they would be the number one seed for ‘Music City Madness’ and have earned a free pass into the semi-finals.

Murray State leads the West Division at 9-3 so the Racers could catch Belmont for the top spot in tournament bracket, but either way, both teams appear to be ticketed for nothing worse that a semi-final start to the Nashville-based festivities.

After those two teams, the records of OVC teams are all shaky. East Division pre-season favorite Eastern Kentucky is struggling at 7-4 and West Division pre-season favorite Southeast Missouri has hit rock-bottom. The Redhawks are 4-7 and despite some of the best talent in the league the Colonels and SEMO have greatly under achieved.

Ironically two surging OVC teams are Morehead State and Southern Illinois Edwardsville. Morehead State has won two straight and three of their last four games. SIUE has won two in-a-row and four of their last five games. The Cougars have already won more games than last season.

SIUE will be tested this week with road games at Murray State and Austin Peay.

Can anyone stop Belmont?  The Bruins only two league losses were on the road at Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee Tech. In almost two full OVC seasons the Bruins are 24 and four and are the defending tournament champion. Counting their last two seasons in the Atlantic Sun Conference Byrd’s teams are 59 and seven in league contests and have won their last three conference tournaments.

The Bruins’ ariel assault reminds some of the bombing attack on London in World War II. Belmont is knocking down almost 10 three-point-baskets per game.  J.J. Mann, Craig Bradshaw and Drew Windler have combined to drop over 170 long distance shots on their opponents.

Are they battle tested. They’ve already defeated Murray State and Morehead State (both games were at home) and they upset North Carolina, split with a talented Indiana State squad and were respectable in losses to VCU and at Kentucky.

It’s our opinion that the Bruins sweep OVC titles and head back to the NCAA Tournament.

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