With 4:10 left, Mercer guard Jeff Smith hit a long three-pointer to give the Bears their first lead of the game, 71-68.  Mercer rode the momentum—and their home crowd—through the end of the game and into the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun tournament, eliminating Belmont 87-81. The Bruins started...

History repeats itself—especially if lessons aren’t learned from the past. Take the Britannic.  Everyone remembers it’s sister ship—the Titanic—an unfortunate vessel that in 1912 hit an iceberg and sank tragically (sans frozen Leonardo DiCaprio, contrary to some interpretations). The Britannic...

Well, the Atlantic Sun has finished up another crazy year with an astounding FOUR co-champions.  Lipscomb, won the tiebreaker and will be the No. 1 seed going into the A-Sun tournament.  Jacksonville and Belmont follow close behind at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively, and Campbell—who came into the weekend...

The theme for Homecoming 2010 is “from anywhere to here,” and for the current student athletes, “here” is the Curb’s hardwood court where they will face opponents from Mercer on Thursday and Kennesaw State on Saturday. Here’s a look at the games and the players: What’s at stake for the...

Lipscomb juniors Josh Slater and Adnan Hodzic teamed up for 51 points as the Bisons came back from a 13-point deficit to beat Belmont 78-72 at the Curb Event Center.  Hodzic—who finished with 25 points—scored 12 of the Bisons’ last 16 points. “Their two best players just had their way...

Shooting 35 percent from the floor, 12 percent from three-point range and 42 percent from the free throw line isn’t the way to beat your biggest rival on their home court.  Belmont found that out the hard way, losing to Lipscomb 64-53 on Monday night at Allen Arena. “It was the worst offensive performance...

Just another game. That’s the message Belmont head coach Rick Byrd is sending to his players in preparation for Monday night’s conference matchup against archrival Lipscomb. “They are going to hear enough from their friends, family, alumni, and everybody else that it’s a big deal,” Byrd said. “So...

Things don’t always go as planned.  It’s a fact of life.  It’s a lot of what this blog has stood for from the beginning.  The Long Road is hardly ever straight and narrow. But on this night, everything went according to plan.  The bigger, more athletic team won the game.  The school that spends...

A week before leaving for the Athletes in Action Classic in Seattle, Wash., Rick Byrd, Belmont basketball head coach, knew exactly what he wanted to get out of the weekend. “I don’t place a lot of importance on these first three [games],” Byrd said. “I think it’s an opportunity to play three...

Vision reporter Pierce Greenberg attended Belmont Basketball’s “Meet the Bruins” day to get a sense of how the team will fare this season after the departure of several star seniors. The team’s first home game of the season is Nov. 21.