By Calvin Wetzel, Her Hoop Stats
 
Getting to the NCAA Tournament as a mid-major isn’t easy. Making the second round is harder yet. Doing it multiple years in a row? That’s a special accomplishment, and it’s one only Belmont can claim over the last two seasons.
 
For sixth-year head coach Bart Brooks, the recipe for getting there has contained two ingredients.
 
“You gotta be willing to play the best and put your program in those situations so it’s not unfamiliar when you get those opportunities in the NCAA Tournament,” Brooks says. “Then the second thing is that we've recruited players who I think all have a really strong belief in who they are as players and maybe were overlooked. Maybe they're a little bit too small. Maybe they were a step slower than other players at their position in high school, but every player on our roster believes they're good enough to compete at that level.”
 
Brooks, who in 2021 became the third-fastest coach in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to reach 100 wins, has delivered on both counts.
 
As far as scheduling, Belmont put together a top-five nonconference schedule based on the NET last season and has set up another gauntlet for this year that includes two teams ranked in the top ten of the preseason AP Top 25 – #4 Iowa and #7 Louisville – and a potential matchup with Baylor in the Gulf Coast Showcase.
 
“We’ve taken some severe beatings,” Brooks says, pointing out that his team lost to Maryland by 64 points in 2019. “But I think [those games] really challenged and tested us.”
 
Then there’s the recruiting piece – bringing in “edgy” under-the-radar players who, as Brooks puts it, “have got something to prove.”
 
Two of those players are junior guards Destinee Wells and Tuti Jones, who Brooks says “have a little more swag in their walk” this year.
 
“Seeing their growth as young women has been really cool for me as two players who came in shy in the middle of a COVID season where you couldn't see anyone's face and you couldn't hang out with each other, and now they're really two of the more impactful leaders on our team,” Brooks says. “Neither one is an overly vocal leader, but when they use their words, their words carry weight.”
 
“I’m more of a ‘lead by example’ type – still working on the vocal part,” Wells adds. “But I’m willing to do whatever it takes for us to win.”
 
In just two seasons, the 5-foot-6 Wells and 5-foot-7 Jones have already stacked up an impressive list of accomplishments, including three All-OVC First Team nods between them. Wells, the preseason MVC Player of the Year, also has two OVC Tournament MVPs and an OVC Freshman of the Year to her name, while Jones is the reigning OVC Defensive Player of the Year.
 
Also returning in the backcourt are sophomore Kilyn McGuff, junior Blair Schoenwald, and senior Nikki Baird.
 
Brooks sees the game slowing down for McGuff as she enters her second season.
 
“She’s had a lot more confidence in what she’s doing and what we’re doing – everything that she was thinking about last year now she’s just doing without thinking about it,” Brooks says. “That’s a beautiful thing, because when she doesn’t think she’s really good at playing.”
 
Schoenwald and Baird are also two players Brooks says are integral to his team’s success.
 
“They show up every day and just do their job,” Brooks says. “Sometimes that’s the best ability that you got is just being available and dependable.”
 
Brooks feels that a turning point for his team’s season last year was when he “got out of their way and gave them more consistent minutes down the stretch” and that both have “elevated their game [enough to] put themselves on the floor” this season.
 
“They're so stable and rock solid,” Brooks adds. “They might not do anything that would make SportsCenter, but man they help you win.”
 
Back as listed forwards are junior Madison Bartley and sophomore Tessa Miller, although Bartley should spend plenty of time on the perimeter when Belmont runs five-out sets. “[Bartley] is showing more [this year] that she has guard skills,” Wells says.
 
Miller made significant contributions already as a freshman last year, leading the team in minutes off the bench, but she looks ready to increase her role even more.
 
“I don’t know what happened to her over the summer, but she’s gotten good,” Jones says. “Rebounding, scoring, shooting the ball – she’s making some huge strides.”
 
In addition to the returners, the Bruins add two transfers and three freshmen. Most notably, Nashville native Sydni Harvey will finish her career in her hometown after four stellar seasons at South Florida. The 5-foot-10 guard should help alleviate some of the point guard pressure on Wells.
 
“She’s a great handler,” Wells says. “I don’t have to bring the ball up the floor every time, I can let her do it.”
 
Harvey amassed over 1,000 points at South Florida, including a terrific run at last season’s Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship in which she scored a combined 37 in wins against top-10 opponents Oregon and Stanford and hit the game winner against the Cardinal with under four seconds remaining.
 
“She’s unbelievably experienced, and experience in college basketball is so valuable,” Brooks says. “You can be good when you’re young, but [she’s] been in those environments, played against that level of competition … She’s hit a ton of big shots in a ton of big games.”
 
Brooks adds Vanderbilt transfer Kendal Cheesman as well, a stretch forward who he says will be a perfect fit for his system.
 
“She’s really good at the things we need in that position … She's already seamlessly fit what we're doing this year,” Brooks says. “She’s a great three-point shooter, [and] her motor, her effort, and her work ethic are second to none.”
 
Also new to this year’s roster are freshmen Kate Hollifield, Brooke Highmark, and Caroline Bachus. Brooks believes Hollifield has a chance to make an impact right away: “She’s playing behind a lot of really good, experienced guards coming in as a freshman, but I think she’s going to put herself in position to get minutes this year and be a contributor on the floor.”
 
Hollifield, who Brooks calls an “instinctive guard,” has already put the full offensive arsenal on display in practice.
 
“Her best attribute is she can do a lot of things,” Brooks says. “She can shoot it, she can finish, she's got a pull-up game, she's got the ability to make plays off the bounce.”
 
Highmark is getting back up to speed after an ACL injury in her senior year of high school, but she looks to be yet another weapon in the Bruins’ already deep wealth of skilled on-ball guards.
 
“Brooke’s got a pretty good handle – I think she’s gonna help us a lot,” Jones says. “[She’s] picking up the concepts pretty fast … especially coming in as a freshman.”
 
Bachus, a 6-foot-2 forward who Brooks says has the longest wingspan on the team, will round out the depth up front after enrolling last January and using the extra semester to adjust to the college level.
 
“Caroline can help us with rebounding, because obviously we struggled with that last year,” Jones says.
 
Struggles on the boards are typically part of the deal when you play Belmont’s small-ball style and aggressive defensive scheme. They’ve been able to overcome it by forcing turnovers and hitting shots, the latter of which is ingrained in the fabric of the team’s identity.
 
“That’s what we do here,” Wells says. “We like to shoot 3s.”
 
The Bruins put their money where their mouth is in that regard. Their 3-point shooting prowess shows up everywhere from their stats – they’ve ranked in the top 35 in 3-point rate in every season under Brooks – to their social media accounts, where the Nashville-based team brands itself as “Splashville.”
 
If Belmont’s style wasn’t fun enough already, this season’s squad may be the most entertaining version yet for fans of offense.
 
“I think we might set a record for points scored this year and points given up all at once,” Brooks says. “We've got probably more offensive talent than we've had since I've been here … The biggest thing for me is how in the world we're going to guard anyone.”
 
Brooks notes that the two departures from last season’s rotation – three-year starters Jamilyn Kinney and Conley Chinn – were “two of [Belmont’s] most dependable, trustworthy defenders” and that others will need to step up in their absence.
 
“Replacing their dependability and consistency defensively – I think that'll ultimately determine how far we go and how good we get,” he says.
 
As the Bruins aim to continue their run of national success, they will do so in a new league that will allow them to test themselves beyond their highly-ranked nonconference slate. Belmont enters its first season in the Missouri Valley as the favorites in the preseason poll.
 
The Bruins’ chances to bring home a title may depend on whether Brooks can find enough defense and rebounding to complement his team’s lethal shooting. If he can, the name no NCAA Tournament team wants to draw come Selection Sunday will once again be Belmont University.