After watching Kentucky lose to another top 25 team (UNC), I'm not even going to waste time dissecting it or even discussing it. So here is a look at the next opponent, Belmont University…
Belmont comes into this game with a record of 8-4 with one of those wins being a 83-80 victory over North Carolina in Chapel Hill. They are coming off a loss to Denver 90-62 so there's no real way to tell which team will show up in Rupp Arena to face the Cats. One thing I will tell you is big time venues don't phase Belmont considering the fact they beat UNC in the Dean Dome, so a Rupp Arena advantage looks to be a long shot.
Here's a look at some history of Belmont University…
EST: 1890
RELIGIOUS: Christian
ENROLLMENT: 6,918
LOCATION: Nashville, TN
COLORS: Red/Blue
NICKNAME: Bruins after changing from the 'Rebels' in the mid 90's because of the connection to the Confederacy.
MASCOT: Bruiser the Bruin
CONFERENCE: Ohio Valley Conference
Interesting fact; Belmont was the site of Nashville's first radio station 'WDAA' after 16 year old John Dewitt installed a twenty-watt transmitter at Belmont. April 18, 1922 marked the first time a music program was broadcast in Nashville and it came on 'WDAA". Wikipedia is full of all kinds of stuff…
NOTABLE ALUMI:
Belmont is like a who's who of country music or just music in general when it comes to alumni. So I just picked out some names to list this could've been much longer…
Brad Paisley- Country Music Artist
Brian Kelley- Half of Florida Georgia Line
Josh Turner- Country Music Artist
Larry Stewart- Lead singer for the music group Restless Heart
Lee Ann Womack- Country Music Artist
Lila Aoheson Wallace- Co-founder of 'Reader's Digest'
Minnie Pearl- Grand Ole Opry and Hee-Haw fame
Pam Tillis- Country Music Artist
Trisha Yearwood- Country Music Artist
Tyler Hubbard- Half of Florida Georgia Line
and if that list isn't impressive enough for you, I forgot to mention that Belmont has produced 5 finalists on America's Got Talent…
Bruins Cats
PPG: 80 80
RPG: 32 44
APG: 16 13
SPG: 8 4
BPG: 2 8
TPG: 14 14
FG%: 49 47
FT%: 72 67
3P%: 38 32
After looking at the stats a few things sticks out. First of all, neither team normally lights it up from outside, but we all know how opponents usually shoot inside Rupp Arena. The second stat to pay some attention to is the fact that Belmont averages 8 steals a game and the Cats average 14 turnovers. If Kentucky have many unforced turnovers like they did against UNC you can expect similar results. Something else to keep an eye on is the fact that Belmont has Lexington, KY native, Taylor Barnette on their roster. Now, Barnette is only a sophomore and doesn't see much playing time averaging only about 9 minutes a game, but you can bet that he will see some time while playing in Rupp and you can go ahead and mark it down that he will have a career night…
SERIES HISTORY:
No history to speak of as this will make the first ever meeting between the two schools
With Kentucky losing to all three ranked opponents they have played thus far, chances for quality wins are quickly fading. I never thought the Cats would be playing for NCAA Tournament seeding in December, but that's exactly what they are doing. Some of it is their own fault, but the fact that the SEC is extremely down this year doesn't help matters any.
I'm not sure what it will take for Calipari to get this teams attention and get them ALL ON THE SAME PAGE, but they had better do it quickly because that Louisville game on the 28th will be ugly if we see anything like we have seen against the other ranked teams they have faced this season.
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