Of the three teams that clinched berths yesterday, the Belmont Bruins are the one that can probably steal a game in a few weeks. The Bruins won the Atlantic Sun regular season title and the conference tournament, finishing 30-4, 19-1.
Three of the Bruins losses were to Vandy and Tennessee (twice). Belmont's best win was over Miami (OH), who finished second in the MAC East.
Statistically speaking, KenPom ranks them 20th overall. They're 34th in AdjO and 20th in AdjD. Belmont is an offensive minded team that ranks 11th in scoring offense and are 2nd in 3 pointers made, averging nearly 10 a game. They can be sloppy turning it over 14 times a game but that's countered being 3rd in the nation in steals and solid ball rotation (16th in assists). You can't knock them defensively as they're in the top quarter of the nation in most categories.
The two major contributors (Per KenPom) are sophomore G Kerron Johnson and junior big man Scott Saunders but this is a team that has a wide variety of contributors. The leading scorer is Ian Clark but he only plays 24 minutes a game. Clark and senior Jordan Campbell (21 mpg) are the most prolific 3 point shooters. Johnson and Saunders are the guys that get to the line. Then there's junior F Mick Hedgepeth who shoots 53% from the field and gets 6 boards a game. They can come at you with a lot of guys capable of stepping up. They can shoot and they're deep, these guys rotate in and out and they're pretty young.
They haven't beaten anyone of note this season but they breezed through their conference and dismantled North Florida in the tournament championship. Like so many high seeds, they'll be playing with house money and if they come out shooting well (Think Cornell or Ohio last year), they'll beat a 3 or 4. Watch their matchup. They'll be plenty of BCS schools that will not want to see them.
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