Preview:
We have played Belmont once before, at another Las Vegas tournament (Mandalay Bay) in 2017, and prevailed 74-53 behind Alanna Smith’s 23 points. Lindy La Rocque had just joined our staff after being an assistant coach at Belmont for a couple of years.
The game is only available for viewing on Flohoops. Two years ago I paid $12.50 to watch a couple of Flohoops games only to find that they did not even turn the feed on for the first game until it was partly over. I was able to cancel fairly easily. This year you either need to pay $150 for a year or $30 for a month. I won’t do so this time, so I will be listening only for the two Thanksgiving games. It is not even clear if we will have an audio feed for the second game, but we shall see.
The last time we played Belmont they were coached by 1st year coach Bart Brooks, who is now in his 7th year—so he and Tara have squared off against each other before. Nobody is left from those teams, and even coach Lindy has moved on, but the old Cardboard thread is here:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthread.php?tid=15002
Belmont is one of those mid-level major teams that always is very good in their league and often knocks off a major team or two. Last year they were 23-12, 17-3 in their conference, and finished their conference on a 16 game winning streak before losing to Drake and then going to the WNIT and losing in the first round to Ball State. They played #5 Louisville and lost 70-75, and played #4 Iowa and lost 62-73. In short, they are more than capable of playing a top ranked team competitively and have consistently done so.
This year Belmont is 2-2, having beaten Georgia and Wichita State, and lost by 11 at Missouri and by 1 point to Mississippi State. So they are continuing the pattern of playing much bigger programs tight. The win over Georgia and the one point loss to Mississippi State certainly catch my attention. Belmont looks like it would be competitive in the SEC--perhaps in the middle of that league.
Belmont does look rather thin this year. 10 players have played thus far, but only 7 have significant minutes. Their top 4 starters all have double digit scoring, so it won’t be easy shutting down just one or two players. We, however, have more depth and my guess is Tara will try to keep the pace of the game very high for four quarters and attempt to wear them out.
5’9” freshman guard Jailyn Banks leads them with 16ppg. She also leads their assists and nearly leads their minutes. That is a big load for a freshman. I would expect Talana to be on her. But we have been burned by unheralded but talented freshmen before--there is not a lot of tape on them.
6’2” junior forward Tessa Miller is their second leading scorer at 15ppg. But she is supported by another 6’2” junior forward Kendall Chessman at 13 ppg. Chessman has hit 15/28 treys so far this year, so she will need to be a focus on the perimeter too. Maybe 6'2" Agara on her?
So Belmont has a little depth at forward.
Rounding out their starting five are 5’7” redshirt junior guard Tuti Jones at 10 ppg, and 6’0” junior guard Kilyn McGuff at 8 ppg. Jones apparently was a 40% three point shooter but was injured most of last year and has not gotten her shooter's touch back quite yet. Let's hope she doesn't do it against us. And in case you were wondering, yes, Kilyn's father is Kevin McGuff, the Ohio State head coach. Sending his daughter to Belmont is, I think, a mark of confidence in that program.
Most of their games so far are available only on ESPN+ which I do not subscribe to, so I have not been able to watch those replays. Their first loss at Missouri is available here, however:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/0...9c26511991
In watching bits of this game, I noticed a few things. Belmont is not as height-challenged as some teams we have played. We will still have the height advantage inside, but it won’t be like Cal Poly. Belmont also plays some zone, so we may be forced to use our three point shooting more than against Duke. Belmont got some fast breaks, took advantage of some backdoor cuts and other kinds of cuts for that matter. They look like a well coached team, and we should not take them lightly.
We have played Belmont once before, at another Las Vegas tournament (Mandalay Bay) in 2017, and prevailed 74-53 behind Alanna Smith’s 23 points. Lindy La Rocque had just joined our staff after being an assistant coach at Belmont for a couple of years.
The game is only available for viewing on Flohoops. Two years ago I paid $12.50 to watch a couple of Flohoops games only to find that they did not even turn the feed on for the first game until it was partly over. I was able to cancel fairly easily. This year you either need to pay $150 for a year or $30 for a month. I won’t do so this time, so I will be listening only for the two Thanksgiving games. It is not even clear if we will have an audio feed for the second game, but we shall see.
The last time we played Belmont they were coached by 1st year coach Bart Brooks, who is now in his 7th year—so he and Tara have squared off against each other before. Nobody is left from those teams, and even coach Lindy has moved on, but the old Cardboard thread is here:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthread.php?tid=15002
Belmont is one of those mid-level major teams that always is very good in their league and often knocks off a major team or two. Last year they were 23-12, 17-3 in their conference, and finished their conference on a 16 game winning streak before losing to Drake and then going to the WNIT and losing in the first round to Ball State. They played #5 Louisville and lost 70-75, and played #4 Iowa and lost 62-73. In short, they are more than capable of playing a top ranked team competitively and have consistently done so.
This year Belmont is 2-2, having beaten Georgia and Wichita State, and lost by 11 at Missouri and by 1 point to Mississippi State. So they are continuing the pattern of playing much bigger programs tight. The win over Georgia and the one point loss to Mississippi State certainly catch my attention. Belmont looks like it would be competitive in the SEC--perhaps in the middle of that league.
Belmont does look rather thin this year. 10 players have played thus far, but only 7 have significant minutes. Their top 4 starters all have double digit scoring, so it won’t be easy shutting down just one or two players. We, however, have more depth and my guess is Tara will try to keep the pace of the game very high for four quarters and attempt to wear them out.
5’9” freshman guard Jailyn Banks leads them with 16ppg. She also leads their assists and nearly leads their minutes. That is a big load for a freshman. I would expect Talana to be on her. But we have been burned by unheralded but talented freshmen before--there is not a lot of tape on them.
6’2” junior forward Tessa Miller is their second leading scorer at 15ppg. But she is supported by another 6’2” junior forward Kendall Chessman at 13 ppg. Chessman has hit 15/28 treys so far this year, so she will need to be a focus on the perimeter too. Maybe 6'2" Agara on her?
So Belmont has a little depth at forward.
Rounding out their starting five are 5’7” redshirt junior guard Tuti Jones at 10 ppg, and 6’0” junior guard Kilyn McGuff at 8 ppg. Jones apparently was a 40% three point shooter but was injured most of last year and has not gotten her shooter's touch back quite yet. Let's hope she doesn't do it against us. And in case you were wondering, yes, Kilyn's father is Kevin McGuff, the Ohio State head coach. Sending his daughter to Belmont is, I think, a mark of confidence in that program.
Most of their games so far are available only on ESPN+ which I do not subscribe to, so I have not been able to watch those replays. Their first loss at Missouri is available here, however:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/0...9c26511991
In watching bits of this game, I noticed a few things. Belmont is not as height-challenged as some teams we have played. We will still have the height advantage inside, but it won’t be like Cal Poly. Belmont also plays some zone, so we may be forced to use our three point shooting more than against Duke. Belmont got some fast breaks, took advantage of some backdoor cuts and other kinds of cuts for that matter. They look like a well coached team, and we should not take them lightly.