Men's Basketball Set to Return Against Duke
Evan Bradds didn’t make things easy on himself when he scheduled No. 2-ranked Duke University for his head coaching debut.
The Bruins are traveling to Cameron Indoor Stadium, one of college basketball’s most iconic venues, to take on the five-time national champion Blue Devils for an exhibition game on Thursday.
After spending last year at Duke as an assistant on head coach Jon Scheyer’s staff, Bradds knows firsthand the atmosphere he and the Bruins will be walking into.
“I think it’s a big-time environment, for obvious reasons,” said Bradds. “So any time you get the chance to go into an environment like that and see what you’re made of, we’ll take it.”
While Bradds will coach against his former employer, former Bruin Drew Scharnowski will face off against Belmont for the first time since his transfer at the end of last season.
“I’m going to give him some crap,” said sophomore Jack Smiley. “But no, I love that kid, and I just can’t wait to see him.”
Scharnowski was one of nine players from last year’s Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship team not to return.
Smiley is one of only six players returning from last year, joining senior Isaiah West and juniors Eoin Dillon, Jabez Jenkins, Cooper Haynes and Graydon Lemke.
With Belmont’s top three scorers from last season all transferring to Power 4 schools, Jenkins is the highest-scoring returning player.
Jenkins started all 32 games last season and averaged 9.0 points per game, and he’s looking to pick up where he left off.
“I’m just continuing what I was doing, but showcasing a lot more things as far as the offensive end, and just continue being the leader that I am,” said Jenkins.
Second in scoring and first in assists among returning players, Smiley is another player poised to take a big step on a team with eight new players and three new assistant coaches.
“I feel like I kind of have something to prove and something to show people that I’ve been working on,” said Smiley.
Despite the turnover, Jenkins said the team isn’t straying from what has made Belmont basketball successful in the past.
“We’re bringing back who we are as Belmont,” said Jenkins. “Shooting threes, playing great offense, but I think we’re taking a lot of pride on the defensive end, and I think that’s something that we can showcase a lot this year.”
While the Bruins’ first chance to showcase their defense won’t count toward their record, Bradds is advocating for Scheyer to put Belmont on Duke’s regular-season schedule in the future.
“I will ask him every single year if he wants to play, and we’ll see if we can get a real game out of it,” said Bradds.
Belmont has historically given the Blue Devils a run for their money.
In the previous two matchups in the 2008 Round of 64 and 2011 Maui Invitational,
Belmont lost by a combined two points, 71-70 and 77-76.
Now, all that’s left is to see if history repeats itself a third time.
This article was written by Sam Dicus
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