With a couple of transfers from Kentucky on its roster, Washington might already have a little insight into Bellarmine, the team the Huskies will play host to Monday in their season opener in Seattle.
UW would be wise not to overlook the Knights, who won the 2021-22 ASUN Conference Tournament and defeated Louisville in a cross-town showdown in last year’s opener.
Forward Keion Brooks Jr., a Pac-12 preseason first-team selection, and point guard Sahvir Wheeler are the top players for the Huskies, who went 16-16 last season. Brooks averaged a team-high 17.7 points last year while Wheeler had 7.7 points and 5.6 assists per game at Kentucky.
“In recruiting, a lot of it comes down to trust and opportunity,” Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said. “When Sahvir was available, he played with Keion Brooks at Kentucky, and it comes back to relationships. … Sometimes in the portal when you get a lot of guys that haven’t played together, you’re trying to build that. They already have a great relationship. They’ve played together. There’s a mutual respect for each other and some chemistry.”
Hopkins, who is in his seventh season as the Huskies’ coach, appears to be moving away from the zone defense he learned as an assistant at Syracuse under Jim Boeheim.
“I think a big thing is the personnel that we got,” Hopkins said of the reason for the switch to more man-to-man defense. “Sahvir Wheeler is an elite defensive player, puts a lot of pressure on the ball. We’ve got great rim protection. We’ve got good size on the wings. So I think style. Just wanted to play a little bit more up tempo, a little bit faster.”
Bellarmine, which is in its fourth and final season of transition from NCAA Division II, went 15-18 in 2022-23.
The Knights’ top returnee is guard Garrett Tipton, an ASUN preseason all-conference pick who averaged a team-high 12.7 points last year. Bellarmine cruised to a 75-44 exhibition victory against Division III Transylvania on Oct. 24.
Guard Billy Smith, a transfer from Miami (Ohio), led the Knights with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field.
“We scripted the playing time and that’s why we played all the combinations,” said Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport, who used 15 players in the exhibition, with 10 appearing for more than 13 minutes. “This was a great learning experience; we couldn’t simulate that in practice.”
–Field Level Media