This board has been dead for sometime now. Like many of you, I am not a fan of CSNBBS and wish the Byrd Cage would put a forum on their site, but we do need more engagement from our fans. Murray fans have always trashed our boards and attendance numbers. Now EKU is jumping on board.

Here are 2 comments from their forum
"If any Belmont fans read this - what happened to your fan forum? The last post was 11-16-2014. And the last entry on The Byrd Cage was November 21, 2014. Up until mid-November TTU was the only East team without a fan forum. Only half the teams in the West have fan forums. You Belmont fans are starting to make the East look as pathetic as the West."

"Belmont home games-Avg/Game is 1819. Here are their Belmont OVC home games;
TTU Attendance: 2194
JSU Attendance: 1562
UTM Attendance: 2426
SIUE Attendance: 1696
SEMO Attendance: 1597
For a comparison this year EKU home games-Avg/Game is 2331"

I agree our board is weak. However, we have a very young fan base. As for their attendance figures....lets take a look at the last two years (below). We ranked 2nd in attendance in 2013 and 3rd in 2014. As a percent of our arena's capacity, we ranked 2nd in 2013 and 1st in 2014. These numbers are more impressive considering Belmont only recently joined Division 1 in 1997. Since joining division 1, Belmont has won 6 conference tournaments, thus receiving 6 NCAA tournament bids. This compares to EKU who has played in 8 tournament, since 1953. Murray has also had a much lengthier history in Division 1. I will take Belmont's current pace of growth and recent success over any other school in our conference. Lastly, in Belmont's first two seasons in the OVC, we won two regular season championships and one conference tournament, more combined titles than any other team in the conference. So to me it looks like the OVC runs through Belmont.


School Capacity 2014 % of Capacity 2013 % of Capacity
APSU 7,257 2,711 37% 2,532 35%

Belmont 5,085 2,719 53% 2,734 54%

EIU 5,300 926 17% 1,039 20%

EKU 6,500 2,986 46% 2,266 35%

JSU 5,300 1,016 19% 1,859 35%

Morehead 6,500 2,376 37% 2,363 36%

Murray 8,600 3,428 40% 5,436 63%

SEMO 6,972 1,983 28% 2,339 34%

SIUE 4,200 1,755 42% 1,850 44%

TSU 10,500 1,568 15% 1,511 14%

TTU 9,280 1,605 17% 1,919 21%

UTM 4,800 1,720 36% 1,694 35%

(02-05-2015 05:55 PM)BruinsFan31 Wrote:  This board has been dead for sometime now. Like many of you, I am not a fan of CSNBBS and wish the Byrd Cage would put a forum on their site, but we do need more engagement from our fans. Murray fans have always trashed our boards and attendance numbers. Now EKU is jumping on board.

Here are 2 comments from their forum
"If any Belmont fans read this - what happened to your fan forum? The last post was 11-16-2014. And the last entry on The Byrd Cage was November 21, 2014. Up until mid-November TTU was the only East team without a fan forum. Only half the teams in the West have fan forums. You Belmont fans are starting to make the East look as pathetic as the West."

"Belmont home games-Avg/Game is 1819. Here are their Belmont OVC home games;
TTU Attendance: 2194
JSU Attendance: 1562
UTM Attendance: 2426
SIUE Attendance: 1696
SEMO Attendance: 1597
For a comparison this year EKU home games-Avg/Game is 2331"

I agree our board is weak. However, we have a very young fan base. As for their attendance figures....lets take a look at the last two years (below). We ranked 2nd in attendance in 2013 and 3rd in 2014. As a percent of our arena's capacity, we ranked 2nd in 2013 and 1st in 2014. These numbers are more impressive considering Belmont only recently joined Division 1 in 1997. Since joining division 1, Belmont has won 6 conference tournaments, thus receiving 6 NCAA tournament bids. This compares to EKU who has played in 8 tournament, since 1953. Murray has also had a much lengthier history in Division 1. I will take Belmont's current pace of growth and recent success over any other school in our conference. Lastly, in Belmont's first two seasons in the OVC, we won two regular season championships and one conference tournament, more combined titles than any other team in the conference. So to me it looks like the OVC runs through Belmont.


School Capacity 2014 % of Capacity 2013 % of Capacity
APSU 7,257 2,711 37% 2,532 35%

Belmont 5,085 2,719 53% 2,734 54%

EIU 5,300 926 17% 1,039 20%

EKU 6,500 2,986 46% 2,266 35%

JSU 5,300 1,016 19% 1,859 35%

Morehead 6,500 2,376 37% 2,363 36%

Murray 8,600 3,428 40% 5,436 63%

SEMO 6,972 1,983 28% 2,339 34%

SIUE 4,200 1,755 42% 1,850 44%

TSU 10,500 1,568 15% 1,511 14%

TTU 9,280 1,605 17% 1,919 21%

UTM 4,800 1,720 36% 1,694 35%

Nice work. I posted a message on their board.

I am following from a distance now and don't hear as much info to share. I have to depend on the locals there in Nashville to provide some info.

Refs................

I still check in as well but haven't lived in Nashville in several years and all my contacts within the program have moved on. I catch games as often as I can but don't have any inside info like I used to.

Speaking of the Byrd Cage - their domain name ended yesterday so the site's down.

Hopefully they renew the domain. I don't know about you guys but I thought that Caleb played a fantastic game last night. Reece seemed frantic, especially when they confronted him at half court with a trap.

While we aren't as good as we have been in recent years, we are very young and inexperienced. I think this conference will be ours for the taking in the years to come, especially with Murray losing Williams, Fairell, Sapp, and possibly Payne (to the NBA) and EKU losing Walden (NBA?) and Stutz. We really only lose one key player (Reece) next year and although I will miss his hustle and rebounding I think our point guard play will actually improve with Caleb and Austin. Also, I don't if you guys have watched much of Michael Benkert but I expect him to be a great addition to our team next year.

welp, the Byrd Cage is officially dead...

Hey guys,

As a former contributor of the ByrdCage, I can confirm that we have decided to shut it down. Four years ago, we were in a position to provide streamline content on a periodic basis. With increasing job responsibilities, families etc...we just couldn't dedicate ourselves to it anymore.

It is unfortunate we don't have a strong presence in forums...but I think that also correlates to the buzz around the team.This team is just ok. Reece has looked terrible at times (although I've never been a fan) and we are grossly outmatched in athleticism and experience. Dylan Windler and Benkert will be solid pickups and I expect them to contribute sooner rather than later as our pipeline for talent is thin.

Honestly I'm tired of watching guys like Laidig and Mobley contribute nothing to this team. They are not the guys I envisioned to take over after Ian, Kerron and JJ...I would say only Craig and possibly Bradds are deserving of mention.

Thanks for the update. Sad to hear the Byrd Cage is shutting down, but I'll still keep up on Twitter. Thanks for your contribution to Belmont basketball over the last 4 years.

I hate it that our fan engagement is dependent on the buzz and success of our program. Although that may be a significant deterant, I also think that our fan forum should have a Belmont related domain (i.e. RacerNation). Csnbbs is not a domain that people will remember. Anyone want to step up haha? I have no experience in website creation.

I haven't seen much of Windler yet. Can't seem to find any highlights. But from what I've seen from MB, I'm impressed.

I with you on Holden for sure. I think Jeff has played some solid minutes. He was big in the UNC game last year.

Right now i think you are right about Evan and Craig being the only game changers. But further down the road I think Mack and Ze will be significant contributors. I'd hate to move Craig to point but I could envision a very successful squad next year with the following lineup....

1) Craig (he can drive and open the floor up for shooters)
2) Taylor (hopefully he will be more consistent)
3) Evan (he is a natural 3)
4) Amanze (he is a solid stretch 4)
5) Mack (he is getting better and better with his back to the basket)