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Team: Belmont Bruins
Sport: NCAA Division I Men's Basketball
Conference: Ohio Valley Conference
Arena: The Curb Event Center
2018-19 Record: 27-6
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 8
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'The Belmont Bruins have become a regional mid-major power over the past decade. Based in Nashville, the Bruins have posted solid records since joining Division I. In fact, the Bruins have had only one season since 2005 where they have failed to win at least 20 games. While the Bruins have suffered several upsets in the conference tournament recently that have kept them from more spots in the Big Dance, they have lost a total of six conference games from 2016 through 2019. The Bruins win by playing a racehorse style of basketball that pleases the fans at the Curb Event Center. In 2019, the team broke through for its first NCAA Tournament victory and almost took out Maryland in the Big Dance as well. Now, the team enters a period of transition with a new head coach but figures to remain at the top of the Ohio Valley Conference. Grab your Belmont Bruins' basketball tickets at StubHub today.'
'Bruins' fans have had to undergo a major change in 2019-20. Rick Byrd, who built the program at Belmont into a mid-major power, retired after 33 years at the helm of the Bruins. Casey Alexander is the new head coach of the team, but he is hardly a stranger to Bruins' fans. He was a 16-year member of Byrd's staff as an assistant.'
'The Bruins have appeared in eight NCAA Tournaments. All of their appearances have come since 2006. In 2019, the Bruins won for the first time in the NCAA Tournament, defeating Temple in the First Four. Belmont is always feared in the Big Dance and is usually a popular pick in brackets to pull a first-round upset, which happened against Temple in 2019. Belmont is perhaps most famous for the win that it did not get in 2008 when the Bruins led the Duke Blue Devils with nine seconds left in a first-round tournament game before falling back.'
'The Bruins now play in the Ohio Valley Conference. They moved up to Division I in 1996 after originally playing in the NAIA. After five seasons playing as an independent, the Bruins initially joined the Atlantic Sun Conference. After dominating the Atlantic Sun over a seven-year span, the Bruins switched to the OVC in 2012.'
'Ian Clark played for seven seasons in the NBA before going overseas to play in China. As a member of the Golden State Warriors, he won an NBA Championship and played in one more NBA Finals. At Belmont, Clark was a co-OVC Player of the Year in 2013.'
'The school's all-time leading scorer is Joe Behling. While Behling's numbers came before the school ascended to Division I, he is still the most prolific scorer by far in school history, having put up 2,823 points and averaged over 30 points per game in 1989.'
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While the school plays in the OVC, its major rival is
Lipscomb
, which plays in another conference. The two schools are both located in Nashville and play an annual game known as the Battle of the Boulevard. The rivalry between the two schools was compounded when Belmont swooped in to hire Alexander from Lipscomb to fill their coaching vacancy when Byrd retired. In the OVC, Belmont plays twice each year against
Tennessee State
and East Tennessee State.
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