CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - A year from now, Belmont will be a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, a yearly foe for Austin Peay's basketball team.
After running roughshod over the Atlantic Sun a year ago in going 15-1 in league play and 30-5 overall, the Bruins again are the overwhelming favorite to capture the league title in their final year in that conference. The Bruins return four starters from last season's storied campaign.
In fact, Belmont already is 2-0 in the 2011-12 A-Sun campaign and has a win against OVC foe Tennessee State earlier this month.
Belmont, with all the deserved platitudes regarding its club, already has as many losses in 2011-12 as it had all last season. Belmont will enter Wednesday's 7:30 p.m. contest with a 7-5 record, Granted two of the losses came out of the chute at Duke and Memphis. But the Bruins also are coming off consecutive losses at Miami (Ohio,) 65-61, Saturday and Marshall, 87-86, Monday.
In other words, the Bruins will enter Dave Aaron Arena wanting to make sure they don't enter the Christmas break amidst a three-game losing streak.
Belmont is a deep club, with nine players playing at least 10 minutes per game. They also are balanced, with six players averaging more than 8.0 ppg. Guard Kerron Johnson leads the way, averaging 14.9 ppg while dishing out an impressive 5.3 apg.
Fellow guard Ian Clark is at 11.7 ppg while guard/forward JJ Mann is at 11.8 ppg off the bench.
The Bruins also own size as 6-10 Scott Saunders (9.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg) and 6-9 Mick Hedgepeth (8.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg) pose problems underneath.
The Bruins rely heavily on the three-point basket, ranking 12th in the country with 9.0 makes per game.
Austin Peay, meanwhile, is coming off its third straight victory as it defeated Rochester, 72-50, in a game that saw APSU struggle in the first half. The Govs cannot afford that type lapse against the veteran Bruins. TyShwan Edmondson's 28-point effort helped bail out the Governors in the final half.
Governors Pardon
- This is Austin Peay's 80th season of basketball.
- Dave Loos, APSU's all-time winningest basketball coach, also is the OVC's all-time wins leader with 353 victories. He also has 435 career coaching wins.
- The Dave Aaron Arena playing floor was named Dave Loos Court, Summer 2007. Loos is believed to be one of only three current Division I men's coaches who are coaching on courts that bear their respective names-Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim-are the other two. Valparaiso's Homer Drew, who retired after the 2010-11 season, had the floor named after him last season.
- Since 1993-94, Austin Peay has finished no worse than fifth in the OVC standings.
