Belmont's offense

As most of you probably already know about Belmont, this is a very dangerous game on Friday night. Coach Rick Byrd has won 700+ games in his career (and as a Tennessee alum the Vols were foolish to constantly overlook him each time the job came open).

Last March in the tournament, they hung tough with Virgina and lost 67-79. Consider this -- looking at Virginia's schedule last year, only 4 teams scored more against them and their stingy D than Belmont did: Duke (69), UNC (71) Davidson (72), and Miami (80 in double OT - tied at 63 end of regulation). So, only three teams scored more technically.

Going to be a big challenge for the young squad!

No doubt a tough game. I was reading a brief preview on Belmont in Lindy's preview magazine. Craig Bradshaw (6'3") is the preseason Ohio Valley Conference player of the year. Belmont has a 2nd-team all conference selection who is 6'7". Belmont has a freshman that is 6'11", but otherwise does not seem to have much size. I think MU's game plan should be establishing Fischer in the post early and often (Henry as well). Luke can make a post move or pass out from the post. I wonder if Belmont will play a compact zone to try to take away the paint. Good thing MU is a better 3-point shooting team than years past.

We will need solid man defense on their shooters that can get a hand in their face without fouling, and we need to keep our bigs out of foul trouble so we can exploit our size advantage.

Also need to keep them off the line. While Belmont was only average (69.1%) from the line last year, they were in the top-60 in the country each of the 5 years before that. I expect they won't miss many at the line.

What is Belmont's depth like? With the new rules, I would love to see Duane, Cheatham, JJJ and Carter drive and maybe draw some fouls. If Belmont doesn't have depth, the tighter calls could work in our favor.

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Originally Posted by IrwinFletcher

What is Belmont's depth like? With the new rules, I would love to see Duane, Cheatham, JJJ and Carter drive and maybe draw some fouls. If Belmont doesn't have depth, the tighter calls could work in our favor.

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Not sure how their bench was last year or how their incoming class is, but they had 7 guys play 10+ minutes per game last year. They return 5 of those players. The big loss is Reece Chamberlain, their starting PG from last year who averaged 9 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds per game. They return their 3 leading scorers.

Bradshaw averaged 18 points a game and shot 42% from 3. As a team they shot 38% from 3 and averaged making about 10 a game.