Belmont ?

[Birdfan2018]

We’re here, just lurking!

Will muszynski and Murphy be returning for the 2022-23 season? With those two, Shepherd, and Richard, Belmont looks to have a tough team next season.

[BelmontFansExist]

We’re here, just lurking!

Will muszynski and Murphy be returning for the 2022-23 season? With those two, Shepherd, and Richard, Belmont looks to have a tough team next season.

That's a great question. I haven't heard any word on that (although I'm almost a decade post-graduating, so I'm not plugged into rumors on the campus itself). If just one of them comes back, I'd put Belmont near the top of the conference next year. If both, then they right there with anyone else. If neither, I still think they'll be solid, but maybe not the very top. Richard is something special, and his game will continue to evolve. He reminds me a lot of Dylan Windler, who was drafted a few years ago in the first round. But I think losing Murphy would be the biggest deal. Wood is in line to see more time in that scenario, but he's more of a scoring guard. Murphy just does EVERYTHING, and excels at it all. A very mature game that I don't see any other current players replicating easily.

[Roberts Stadium]

Despite having a winning team their fans just don't seem to travel well or at least that's the case the last several OVC tournaments. They had one small section, Murray had the rest. It reminded me of when Florida and Kentucky would play in the SEC tournaments in Atlanta back in the day. I went to a Belmont game last year at Belmont and if you took away the students it was a small crowd. I get that they are a small private university but any team in a market the size of Nashville that is competitive year in and year out should have more of a presence. I expect the move to the MVC to change that.

[BelmontBoulevardier]

We’re here, just lurking!

Will muszynski and Murphy be returning for the 2022-23 season? With those two, Shepherd, and Richard, Belmont looks to have a tough team next season.

Moose and Murphy will not be returning next year. They both not only have their degrees, but will have completed their master's at the end of this semester.

Next year Belmont is going to look very different than we do now but we still have an opportunity to be good, perhaps even very good. Richard will be a sophomore and will (hopefully) continue to improve. Shepherd (our leading scorer) will be a senior. He put up 41 against Tennessee Tech last week and has gotten better every year, should be a monster next season for us. Jacobi Wood is lightning in a bottle and will run the point. He's fantastic at times and gets completely lost at times, fully capable of going off for 25 points or going scoreless. Hopefully he will mature into a team leader, he'll certainly getd the minutes to do so.

Beyond those three it gets a little sketchier. We've got a couple of guys coming in that will contribute immediately, specifically Kyler Vanderjagt and Ja'Kobi Gillespie out of Greeneville, TN - Gillespie is an amazing talent and will be All-Conference by the time he graduates. The bigs are where we're going to struggle. Evan Brauns and Frank Jakubecik have shown flashes, but the fact that we will be relying on those guys and Sabin in the post it what makes me super-nervous. If we can figure out the low-block sitch we will be solid, if not.....eek.