Everything you need to know about the Bellarmine basketball program in 2021-2022.
The Bellarmine basketball program’s first season at the Division I level went about as well as one could expect. Bellarmine opened last year at Cameron Indoor Stadium with a loss to Duke before getting their first-ever win at the D1 level over Howard in DC.
The Knights went 14-8 (10-3 ASUN) last year and finished 2nd in the ASUN regular season. Last season was highlighted by a 10 game winning streak in conference play that led to a de facto conference regular-season championship game against Liberty in Freedom Hall.
Since the Knights are in transition, they are ineligible for NCAA tournament play but that didn’t stop them from accepting a bid to the CBI. The reduced field saw 8 teams play in Daytona
Beach where Bellarmine beat Army in the first round before falling to eventual champion Pepperdine in the semifinals.
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Non-conference schedule
The Knights lost their season opener this week in West Lafayette against the 7th ranked Purdue Boilermakers. Next, they’ll return to Kentucky to take on Murray State on the road before heading west.
While out west they will take on WCC opponents St. Mary’s and preseason number one and defending runner-up Gonzaga. The Knights then follow that up with a trip to Las Vegas to take on preseason number two UCLA and Central Michigan on back-to-back nights. UCLA coach Mick Cronin and Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport both served on Rick Pitino’s Louisville staff from 2001-2003.
Bellarmine basketball finally returns home for their first regular-season game at Freedom Hall without attendance limitation when they take on Division III’s Franklin College. The Knights then head on the road to take on the Big XII’s West Virginia. Bellarmine then gets three straight home games against D3 opponents in Defiance, Midway, and Asbury.
Bellarmine returns to taking on D1 opponents with road games against South Dakota and Miami before hosting their only D1 non-conference opponent when they welcome Loyola Marymount to Freedom Hall on Dec 21. The Knights conclude nonconference play with Bradley on the road on Dec 29.
A Sun conference schedule
Bellarmine basketball begins ASUN play with three straight games against conference newcomers by going on the road to Jacksonville State on Jan. 4 before hosting Eastern Kentucky on Jan 8 and hosting Central Arkansas the following week. The knights then head to Nashville to take on Lipscomb where the Knights will look to notch their first win against them after being swept by the Bison last season. After that they’ll return home for a pair of games against North Alabama and Jacksonville before heading to Florida.
While in Florida, Bellarmine will take on Stetson in a rematch of an ASUN quarterfinal matchup that saw the Hatters upset 2nd seeded Bellarmine. The Knights will also take on Florida Gulf Coast before heading back home. While home, Bellarmine will welcome back the Liberty Flames in what is sure to be a highly competitive game before taking on Kennesaw State.
Bellarmine will then head for a three-game road trip with stops against North Florida before rematches with North Alabama and Central Arkansas. The Knights then get a two-game homestand against Jacksonville State and Lipscomb before finishing the season on the road against EKU on Feb. 26.
Roster outlook
The Knights return just about everyone from last year’s squad.
Seniors CJ Fleming and Ethan Claycomb decided to use their extra year of eligibility that was granted to everyone due to COVID last season. The only loss was Pedro Bradshaw who graduated and declined to use his extra eligibility. Bradshaw is now a member of the Salt Lake City Stars (Utah Jazz G-League affiliate).
The roster this year is expected to be led by the two 5th year players and senior Dylan Penn, who was named 1st team all-conference last season. Penn was also the only Knight to be named to the 2021 Preseason All-Conference team.
Bellarmine also returns key contributors with RS-Senior Juston Betz and a ton of Juniors in Bash Wieland, Alec Pfriem, Garrett Tipton, Sam DeVault, Eli Roberts and Baylor Younker.
Scotty Davenport will also welcome in some solid freshman with Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball Ben Johnson from Lexington Catholic and local standout Ayden Mudd from St. Xavier. They also have a few Hoosiers in Curt Hopf, Landin Hacker and Jaylen Fairman
Projected starting five
G- CJ Fleming- 5th Year Senior/6’0”/180 lbs
G- Dylan Penn- Senior/6’3”/190 lbs
G- Alec Pfriem- Junior/6’5”/205 lbs
F- Ethan Claycomb- 5th Year Senior/6’7”/205 lbs
F- Nick Thelen- Junior/6’7”/220 lbs
Season outlook
Last year, Bellarmine was able to use an element of surprise and jump out to a surprise run to the two seed in the conference. They were also impacted by COVID pauses either inside the program or with scheduled opponents although that doesn’t appear to be a problem this year. Bellarmine has some tough nonconference games but also some rather easy games against D3 opponents.
Don’t be surprised if Bellarmine enters conference play with a losing record this year as the competition includes three games against preseason top 10 and another power 5 opponent. While Bellarmine is no longer the new kids on the block, they do have a target on their back as they were picked to finish 4th by the coaches and 3rd by the media.
While the loss of Bradshaw is huge, the rest of the roster is still in tact and one thing that has been a staple of Davenport’s tenure is depth. While it does appear that we could see a bit of a regression from last year, I still see Bellarmine being competitive in just about every conference game. With the addition of 3 new schools, including EKU, it will be interesting to see how the season unfolds.
Again, since Bellarmine basketball is still transitioning to D1, they are ineligible for the NCAA and NIT tournaments. They are, however, allowed to compete in the ASUN tournament and can accept bids to the CBI (like they did last year) or the CIT (which canceled its event last year)
Record Prediction: 18-13 (10-6 ASUN) and a berth in the CBI.
