NCAAbbs

Good luck tonight. I think you'll beat ETSU.

Thanks. It's awfully hard to beat a good team 3 times in a season. ETSU has the most talent in the league IMO. Unfortunately, I am predicting a close ETSU win.

I think ETSU wins also, (predicted it on their forum before the tournament)..unfortunately I think that will also empower some of the psychotic components of their fanbase to become even more disallusioned with the state of their program with respect to the rest of the conference.

NorthsideBruin, ye of little faith. Belmont will pull out the win and will face a 2nd rate team in the championship. The ETSU game will be harder than the championship game. We've had a day of rest and don't have to play back-to-back, tough games. Plus, our guys slept in their own beds.

However, if Belmont does lose, I am humble enough to eat my own words.

That hasnt helped anyone else since 2001. I personally hope we beat the crap out of you and send you to the NIT like you did us last year, but I doubt that will happen. Hopefully atleast we keep it close.

Anything for a competitive edge! Ha!

Sometimes being at home is the worst thing during a tournament. Hotel rooms and travel provide a schedule or rest ... when you are at home, the player's schedule is somewhat up to them unless the coach's restrict them with severe curfews. I said it before the tournament, and I repeat it now...ETSU is winning the whole thing this year (unfortunately).

Good Luck! It will be a tough game. I do wish the A-sun would play the tournament on a neutral court.

FUnny thing is, both years we had the tourney the team stayed at a hotel.

That was a smart move...when you are trying to win 3 games in 5 days, the coaches need to have a pretty good bit of control on the player's schedules...getting the hotel room helps that because they can observe curfew and eating schedules.

Congrats to Belmont.............. I guess

Most painful loss in recent memory...the good sportsman in me wants to wish you good luck; however, we deserved to win this one.

I agree that is a painful loss. I am a Belmont grad and fan. While I am glad with the outcome in the end, that is not a game I thought we deserved to win.

The good news is that I think your team realized you can play man-to-man against us.

Most fans have been screaming for man to man for 3+ years now, our coach may have just realized that we can play man to man.

I don't care what kind of Belmont fan you are, we did not earn that win tonight.

I'm going to disagree a bit here. Offensively we did not earn the win however, defensively, we did, as it kept us close enough in the end to make free throws and for Henry Harris to have the best game of his career here. No question the T was questionable and I'd be furious if it happened to us, (unless it was deserved as I did not hear what was said nor did I see anything that was deserving a T)however there was still time on the clock and ETSU had free throws they could have hit. Defensively it was our best game of the year and was deserving of the win. Overall not a thing of beauty but a terrific tournament game. Had we lost it still would have been a terrific basketball game. We may not have enough left emotionally to take advantage of the win today. btw, try not to laugh the jax band to loudly.

See here's the thing, yeah that BS tech was huge, but Belmont didn`t score a single FG in the last 2mins of the game. The refs all but gave you your last 8 pts, plus the T. Belmont was in the double bonus midway through the game, mostly based on very crappy over the back calls. Meanwhile the refs let Justin Hare throw Pigram to the ground and hack him the entire second half.

The refs were making bad calls on both sides. Did no one else matthew dotson catapult to the floor right when the ball was being passed to him without any foul being called? Also, I keep seeing people say that belmont did not make a field goal in the last two minutes. How many did ETSU make in the last SIX minutes!? Although the technical foul did have a huge role in the way the final score turned out, that's not to say that the game was not close before it was called. Unfortunately, Belmont always plays to its opponent and will play to the end, and most of the time pulls something out to win.
I also keep seeing people say that ETSU has more talent than Belmont. That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. ETSU has some great players and so does Belmont. However, both teams play a completely different game of basketball. Fortunately, Belmont is coached WAY better, which has played a big role in the fact that we have beaten ETSU three out of three times this year and two out of three last year. To say that Belmont does not deserve to win this tournament is outrageous.

Go Belmont!

First, I will commend your university and basketball team for its consistency and progress as a D1 program. Coach Byrd is an exceptional coach; you are lucky to have him. Most importantly, he runs a clean program and graduates his players.

As for the game, I think the game was not called evenly. You received some bad calls too, but the preponderance of bad calls were against us, most notably the 'T'. These refs were abysmal all week, BU fans on here have also said this. We put ourselves in a horrible position--give credit to your 'D'--but the undeniable fact was that that call changed the course of the game.

As for talent, I think we are most talented team in the league. Many coaches around the ASUN have said this time and time again. However, I fully acknowledge that talent doesn't always equal the best team. Belmont exemplifies what it means to be a great team. I respect that.