The Basics
The Drake (22-6, 13-4 in Missouri Valley Conference play) men's basketball team will welcome Belmont (19-9, 12-5) to the Knapp Center for the very first time on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 3 p.m.
Broadcast Information
Sunday's game will be televised live on CBS Sports Network with play-by-play broadcaster Alex Del Barrio and analyst Steve Wolf.
102.1/1350 ESPN Des Moines is the radio home of Drake men's basketball with Michael Admire back to describe the play-by-play with Paul Doerrfeld providing analysis.
Scouting Belmont
Belmont has won back-to-back games after comfortable victories over UIC (98-71) and Evansville (95-63).
All five starters scored in double figures against Evansville led by senior guard Ben Sheppard
with 16 points. Iowa City native Even Brauns put together a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds on Wednesday.
Sheppard is right behind
Tucker DeVries as the top scorer in the Missouri Valley Conference aver- aging 19.3 points while hauling in a team-high 5.2 rebounds. Graduate student forward Drew Friberg shoots from behind the arc at a 47.2 percent clip (92-for-195) while dropping 11.8 points a night. Freshman forward Cade Tyson has had a terrific debut campaign averaging 13.5 points and 4.7 boards.
Belmont is only a game back of first place in the MVC standings in its first season as a conference member after departing the Ohio Valley Conference.
Belmont alumnus Casey Alexander is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Bruins after coaching across town at Lipscomb from 2013-19. Alexander was an assistant for Rick Byrd at Belmont from 1995-2011.
Series vs. Belmont
The all-time series is even, 1-1 after Drake's 79- 61 win at Belmont earlier this season on Jan. 29.
Belmont defeated Drake last season on Nov. 25, 2021 by a final score of 74-69 at the ESPN Events Invitational.
Magic Number is 80
Drake is 53-1 during the
Darian DeVries era when scoring 80 points or more in a game including 11-0 this season. The Bulldogs have scored at least 80 points in five consecutive games.
WWWWWWWWay to Go
Drake men's basketball's eight-game winning streak is its longest since beginning the 2020-21 season 18-0.
Up Next
Drake will host Illinois State at the Knapp Center for Senior Night on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
