Just watched the Belmont vs Louisville game on ESPN PLUS. Both future MT opponents. Will not relay score for those wanting to watch a replay. In advance, this was an excellent game between 2 outstanding teams. Lady Raiders will have hands full with Belmont Wed night. Keep an eye on their guards Wells, Jones, & Harvey. They are players. Louisville is ranked #7 & has big time talent. They had fits with Wells & Jones all night. Look forward to their matchup with Wheeler, Blakely, & Gregory. Should be tremendous game
BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee vs Belmont
- Thread starter MTFAN61
- Start date
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Wednesday N. 16 Belmont Murfreesboro, Tenn. ESPN+ 6 PM
General Information
Location: Nashville, Tenn.
Founded: 1892 Enrollment: 8,696
Colors: Navy, Red & White Nickname: Bruins
Series: MTSU leads 16-3
Facility: Curb Event Center
Head Coach: Bart Brooks Record at Belmont: 123-34 (5) Overall: Same
2021-22 Record: 23-8 2022 Postseason: NCAA Second Round
Starters Ret./Lost: 3-2 Letterwinners R/L: 7/5
General Information
Location: Nashville, Tenn.
Founded: 1892 Enrollment: 8,696
Colors: Navy, Red & White Nickname: Bruins
Series: MTSU leads 16-3
Facility: Curb Event Center
Head Coach: Bart Brooks Record at Belmont: 123-34 (5) Overall: Same
2021-22 Record: 23-8 2022 Postseason: NCAA Second Round
Starters Ret./Lost: 3-2 Letterwinners R/L: 7/5
I watched the game also and Belmont looks very good. In fact, I think they looked better than Louisville for the most part. We may have a hard time matching up with their width inside. We have heighth on them, but their big girls are hefty as well as skilled. I am glad it is at home this year. I love our team, but I would say that Belmont is favored over our team.
Really!?
And my next question would be, how in the hell are they getting better players than Middle!? We're a women's basketball school with a ton of tradition and a hall of fame coach. I would assume they go after a lot of the same players.
I didn't say they had all better players. Their inside players rebound better than ours as they seem to be stronger. Just because they may be favored, I didn't say they would win. They do have everyone back from a team that went 21-6 and won their first round game in the NCAA last year and beat us in 2020 at home. Our 2020 team was the All-Hayes team, so that was a bit different and the 21-6 was in the OVC. We did get our best women player ever from Belmont in 2008, so they don't recruit dregs. They have a veteran team that will give us a good, if not great game. That being said, I hope we beat them by 30 points. 
Very early in the year but this is a big resume building game. Belmont has a quality team, as the Louisville game and their recent history shows. While we hope the Mercer loss continues to be a wake up call, games like this are important to ensure our NCAA ticket gets punched and hopefully helps with seeding too. Traditionaly we get screwed when it comes to seeding but we win games like this, pull off a Louisville upset and take care of business in CUSA and we can get where we want to be. There are a lot of games ahead, each important in its own way. Lots can happen between now and then. All is not won with a single win, nor is the season a loss with a loss. But if this program truly wants to take the next step, the path starts in the Glass House on Wednesday night.
How big an anticipated crowd do you guys think we'll have? I'm thinking we'll get between 3,500 - 4,000 Raider fans & 500 - 1000 Bruin fans. Would love to see lower bowl full, but probably top out around 5k. Any thoughts for higher turn out?
I could be wrong but I’d be shocked if there are that many Belmont fans. They only had 1,800 fans total for their home game against Louisville. Maybe 100-200 of their fans come down but they do not have a huge fan base to begin with. Hopefully there will be a big MT turn out, usually feel like there is for in state rivals especially those who are good teams. I’d guess maybe 4k total tonight if there’s a decent student turn out
half
MT leads 33 to 20.
These refs are criminally bad. They must have rode down on the Belmont team bus.
MT leads 33 to 20.
These refs are criminally bad. They must have rode down on the Belmont team bus.
You were right about tonight's crowd. Defensive battle, hopefully pick up pace in the 3rd
Agree with Space, refs keeping Belmont in it with some horrible calls. The good and bad? Up 13 despite poor free throw shooting and 3 point shooting. We totally took Belmont out of their game with our defense. If they can't adjust at the half and we can get the other phases going we should be in good shape. Remember how Mercer was up on us at the half? Belmont is a good team. Can't slack off.
Up 19 into the 4th. Huge win if we keep the lead. They almost beat Louisville so I’m feeling even better for our game with #6 in a couple weeks
...and we didn't slack off. While Belmont was never really out of it, they weren't in it either as we maintained that double digit lead. I think they had a chance to cut it to single digits once fairly early in the 4th but we pushed it right back out. Kudos to whomever scouted this game. We were all over everything they wanted to do. Big win. Now let's build on it!
That was a big win against a good team. We made them look slow and unathletic the entire game. We out-quicked them, out defended them, and scored almost 50 points in the paint. Were it not for #14 coming in and hitting about 5 3-pointers and the refs giving them a lot of free throw points late, we likely would have won by 30. We also had some offensive lapses at times. Great win...just wish more had been there to see it. HATE these 6:00 starts.
Malashka & Wheeler make for a great one two punch with their ability to slash & drive to rim. Raiders were just the tougher team all night. Belmont coaches facial expression for the whole game showed how puzzled & frustrated he was. As mentioned above they couldn't do anything with us inside the paint
I was never so glad to be wrong. We outrebounded them and Alexis and company shut down 11 and 0. It was a great game.
Texas Tech was upset by Jackson State in Preseason WNIT and went to OT against Colorado. The Lady Red Raiders may not be all that this season.
They have a 6' 6", a 6' 5", a 6' 3", & 3 or 4 6' 2" girls. An absolute huge team. That being said they're 2 - 2 right now. A couple of nice wins ( including Texas Tech victory) & a couple of blow out losses.
Like how you said slightly worse. True it doesn't help our at large status, but as time goes along I still see a number of positives from that loss. 1 it was only a one point road loss to a team that will still likely win its conference & go to a post season tournament of some variety. And 2, I think Mercer is a paper lion. It's a loss that will end up motivating the ladies all year long. Feel strongly if the Raiders got another crack at them it would be a bigger blow out than Belmont. A loss like that stimulates what I call controlled anger, which can be a really good thing
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