Belmont ‘Grand Slam’ Has Bruins Ready

Bradds Held on to Key Contributors

(St. Louis, MO) – New Belmont head coach Evan Bradds landed what he called a ‘grand slam’ when Jack Smiley, Eoin Dillon, Jabez Jenkins and Isaiah West stayed with the program. Several other ‘lesser known’ players also returned, so Bradds has a firm Belmont foundation on which to build.

Smiley and Dillon were two of the Missouri Valley Conference’s very best freshmen last season and Jenkins and West were key contributors to last year’s regular season championship team.

While Smiley averaged 8.5 points and Dillon 7.6, Jenkins is actually the team’s leading returning scorer at nine-points-per-game. He and West appeared in all 32 Belmont games.

Those four return with some very interesting portal and first year player additions. During Bradds’ first offseason as a head coach, having those four players returning made the rest of the roster construction significantly easier.

Smiley and Dillon return as two members of the Valley’s all-freshman team and each shot over forty-percent from three-point distance. These ready-made weapons were impressed by their initial meetings with their new head coach. Smiley says his goals and Bradds’ aligned very well.

Dillon and Smiley are leading by example. The sophomores have taken to offseason work with vigor and passion. Bradds has forced Smiley from the gym at times, just to give his lefty, sharp-shooter a break.

Their leadership in the ‘hard-work’ department has made an impact on their new teammates.

Grand Slam Recruits

During two seasons at Iowa State, 6’6 Kayden Fish rarely left the bench, but averaged over seven points-per-game at Ball State last season. Bradds says Fish, like all of the Belmont newcomers is competitive and cares deeply about the game.

Fish can play on the perimeter and is a matchup problem for Bruin opponents. Bradds says his new players are ultra competitive and has a collective will-to-win.

Aleksa Ristik, Vincent Neugebauer and Matthew Zobrist are each Division 1 transfers. Zobrist is coming from the MVC’s Bradley. Rookies Eli Brown, Cooper Knowles and Charlie Gersmehl are highly rated prep players with what Bradds calls a bright Belmont future.

Murray State Rivalry

One of the Valley’s best rivalries is between Belmont and Murray State. The two teams were arch-rivals during their Ohio Valley Conference days. While Belmont owns a 19-8 record between the teams, the rivalry is real. The two teams went head-to-head on five different occasions in OVC championship games. Murray State won two of the five.

This year’s rivalry contests will include a unique twist. Former Bruin Brigham Rogers has transferred to Murray State. Last year’s starting center is a physical defender and efficient offensive player.

Dillon says the game might get ‘chippy’.

The Racers are the Valley’s top-rated (kenpom.com) team and the preseason favorite to win the conference race. Belmont is picked to finish fourth. The two rivals meet twice in February.

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