OVC – Belmont in a Gauntlet

The Round Robin Gauntlet for the Bruin

(St. Louis, MO) – The Ohio Valley Conferences top contenders begin the ‘round-robin’ portion of their schedule with one another. Co-leaders Murray State and Austin Peay are both undefeated in league play and host one-loss Belmont and two-loss Tennessee State this week. This week is truly a gauntlet for the Bruins and Tigers.

Two weeks later the Bruins and Tigers host the Racers and Governors in Nashville. Later in February MSU and APSU visit one another. The OVC plays a divisional schedule without having divisional standings and members have ‘travel partners’. Austin Peay and Murray State travel to the same places and swap opponents most weeks. Tennessee State (4-2) travels with Belmont.

This is the most difficult portion of the schedule for first year Belmont coach Casey Alexander. The Racers and Governors are a combined 15-0 at home. If the Tigers and Bruins get swept on the road this week, they can practically kiss their regular season title hopes good bye.

Belmont (14-5, 5-1) put themselves in a hole by opening league play with a home loss to Southern Illinois Edwardsville. Now they must make up a game against the other top contenders. They can’t afford to split their four games with APSU and Murray.

Since joining the OVC for the 2012-13 season, the Bruins have finished no worse than second place, and that only happened once. During the old divisional set up, Belmont won five straight East Division titles. Heading into this week’s games they linger in third place.

The top three teams are the highest scoring OVC squads and Murray (1) and Belmont are the league’s two best at stopping the opposition. When you include co-fourth place Tennessee State, you find the four best shooting teams. As usual, the Bruins shoot the three better than anyone else. Belmont is also the OVC’s best rebounding team and hands out the most assists.

And yet, they are one game down with a gauntlet before them.

Thursday @ Murray State – 6:00 pm – ESPN2

Alexander’s Bruins have to face Murray’s latest outstanding guard, Tevin Brown. The 6’5 sophomore is averaging 17.7 points per game while leading the league with 2.9 triples. During his league-leading 37 minutes per game Brown is also handing out 3.4 assists per contest and is the undisputed leader of Matt McMahon’s team.

Murray is much more than just Tevin Brown. McMahon, who recently won his 100^th game at Murray, moved former starter K.J. Williams to a relief role and moved Anthony Smith into a starting spot, and both front court players have prospered.

During league play, Smith is third in rebounding (8.8 per game) and 16^th in scoring (14.0), while Williams is 12^th in scoring (15.5) and tenth in rebounding (7.2). Both are making better than 60% of their shots and they combine to retrieve almost six offensive rebounds per game.

These arch rivals are seemingly the top two teams in every statistical category. Both reached last season’s NCAA Tournament and each won a game. Both had a player selected in the NBA Draft and one or the other has won every regular season title since Belmont’s entry in the OVC.

Belmont’s ‘star power’ may run deeper, but their team depth is not. During preseason conversations Alexander told me that Adam Kunkel was his player that was going to surprise people. The 6’3 Kunkel leads the Bruins in scoring (16.9) and has made over 40% of his long distance attempts on his way to connecting 55 times.

Preseason first teamers Nick Muszynski and Grayson Murphy have not disappointed. The 6’11 Muszynski is second to Kunkel in scoring (15.8) and to Murphy in rebounding (6.8). Murphy leads the league in assists (6.2) and the team in rebounding (8.3). Transfer Tyler Scanlon has started every game and averages 11.9 points per game.

The only other Bruin playing at least 20 minutes is Mike Benkert and no one player outside the top five scores more than Nick Hopkins’ 6.1 points per game. If one of the big four is having an off night or is foul trouble the Bruins are a little thin.

Murray counters with four players after their top three that play ample minutes and are big contributors. Jaiveon Eaves averages 10.4 points and Demond Robinson, DaQuan Smith (who is among league-leaders in assists and steals) and Chico Carter JR all average more than six points per game.

Saturday @ Austin Peay – 4:00 pm – ESPN+

Matt Figger’s team has won six straight and boasts of having the league’s best player in Terry Taylor. The preseason ‘Player of the Year’ is leading the OVC in scoring (22.7) rebounding (9.2) and with seven double-doubles. To listen to our full podcast with coach Figger click here.

Freshmen contributors have succeeded for the Governors. Jordyn Adams (15.8 ppg) is the league’s seventh leading scorer and is a five time winner of the ‘Freshman of the Week’ award. He would be running away with full season version of that award if it wasn’t for his teammate Carlo Paez.

The 5’10 Paez is sixth in assists (3.8) first in free throw percentage (.870) and tenth in steals. Paez has garnerd the freshman weekly award three times. He is second only to Murphy in assist/turnover ratio and sophomore Antwuan Butler is fourth. Paez is the OVC’s third leading three-point shooter (.458) while Butler is 12^th in steals. There are numerous ‘below the radar’ players at APSU.

How Belmont fares while fighting through a gauntlet will determine a lot.

Murray State and Austin Peay travel to Nashville for Bruin and Tiger rematches on February 6 and 8. We’ll know a lot about this race by then.

Do Good