Bills host Belmont

The Billikids return to action tonight with a home game against Belmont University of the Atlantic Sun Conference. It is the first meeting between the two programs.
The Bruins are currently 7-2 and riding a six-game winning streak, which includes three consecutive road wins.
Under the direction of veteran coach Rick Byrd, Belmont has been one of the most well-respected mid-major programs in the country. Once a NAIA powerhouse, Belmont made the successful transition to Division I several years ago with Byrd orchestrating the entire process.
They average well over 20 victories a season during the past six years, which included three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. Everyone remembers the near-stunner they pulled off against Duke a couple a years back, losing 71-70 in the last second. For those who follow the game, this is also the same Belmont program that went into Columbia and beat a very talented Mizzou team not too many years ago.
As a side note, Belmont U. (located in Nashville) was also the site for one of the Presidential debates with Barack Obama and John McCain.
The Bruins graduated several key players from their successful run of post-season berths, but they have found several new players to step right in and keep the winning going. That's the sign of a good program.
This year, the Bruins are putting up some pretty impressive numbers. They averaged close to 80 points a game and shoot a robust 49 percent from the field. The Bruins are disciplined and they practice good shot selection. When you shoot that high a percentage from the field, that means that you are executing your offense in a near-flawless manner.
Belmont is big this year, which is different from it's guard-oriented teams of the recent past. Their top scorer is 6'9" senior forward Keaton Belcher, who averages 13.4 points and four rebounds a game. Belcher shoots 49 percent from the field, but he also shoots 40 percent from 3-point range. He leads the team in 3-point attempts and makes.
Mick Hedgepeth is a 6'9" 230-pound sophomore who averages 13.3 points and 5.4 rebounds. He does most of his damage in the paint, where he shoots 67 percent from the field. Another big who averages in double figures is 6'10" 250-pound Scott Saunders, who averages 10 points. That's a nice big-man rotation to have at the four and five spots.
Belmont's top wing threat is 6'3" freshman Ian Clark, who averages 12.9 points while shooting 44 percent from the field. Juniors Jon House (6'6") and Jordan Campbell (6'5") give the Bruins some size and experience on the perimeter.
Sharing the point guard duties are 6'1" freshman Kerron Johnson and 5'11" sophomore Drew Hanlen, a young man we all know so well from his stellar days at Webster Groves High. His little sister Ashley, plays for Shimmy Gray-Miller's women's team at SLU.
There will be a lot of St. Louis folks in the house tonight to see Drew, not only from Webster Groves, but from the STL basketball community, because Drew has really found a niche as a basketball skills development trainer extraordinaire. He has already written a book on basketball skills training and does training all over the country for kids of all ages as part of the Nike family. He is dynaminte in that arena as well as being a fine collegiate player.
Drew is doing an excellent job of getting the ball into the hands of the offensive weapons. In about 21 minutes a game, Drew is averaging four points a game, but he is also averaging a team-high 4.8 assists per game. His assists to turnover ration is nearly three to one, which is tremendous. Johnson provides a little more offensive pop at 7.8 points. He also leads the team in steals.
The Bruins should provide an excellent challenge to the Billikens because of their ability to execute their offense and put the ball in the basket from several different spots on the floor.
Of course, the key to success begins with our ability to defend and disrupt their offensive rhythm. We've done a nice job at home at taking away the major stregths of opposing team's offenses and limiting their shooting percentages to below 40 percent.
I suspect Brian Conklin will get the assignment of guarding Belcher, their top scorer. Brian has done a much better job of guarding bigs that like to roam the perimeter and shoot the 3-pointer. I was very pleased with the job he did on Southern Illinois' top scorer Carlton Fay, who is a big man who can really stroke it from downtown. Belcher will provide a similar challenge as 55 of his 85 field goal attempts are from downtown.
I would also love to see Brian get more involved on the offensive end, like he did in Chicago, when he had two excellent games against Iowa State and Notre Dame. When he and Willie Reed are going well together, it really opens things up for the perimeter guys.
Of course, Willie must continue his excellent play and productivity, plus we must get some positive minutes from freshman Corey Remekun and Jon Smith. If we can play solid defense, it should also create some transition opportunities for the kids, especially for Kwamain Mitchell in the open court and some spot-up 3-pointers.
This should be a very interesting two-game stretch for the kids. I know a lot of people are looking forward to Saturday night's big game against an undefeated Missouri State team, but do not sleep on this Belmont team.
Although it falls in the category of "guarantee" or "buy" game, there will be nothing easy about it. All you have to do is go back to previous "buy" games against Louisiana Tech, Arkansas-Little Rock (coached by current SLU Associate head coach Porter Moser), Oral Roberts and Sam Houston State. All of those unheralded teams left town with a victory over the Billikens. They weren't big-name schools, but they were excellent, well-coached teams that know what they were doing.
I suspect we will see the same type of team in Belmont tonight, but I know our guys will be fully prepared for the Bruins and you should see a much, more focused SLU team tonight than the one we saw last weekend against Rockhoust.
I'm looking forward to tonight. It should be fun.
The fun begins at 7 p.m. Hope to see you all there. If not, you can catch it on the radio with yours truly and my SLU Hall of Fame play-by-play partner Bob Ramsey on the call on 101-ESPN.
Welcome home Drew Hanlen and of course, Go Bills!