Belmont coach Rick Byrd, above, cuts down the net after his team defeated league favorite Murray State in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship game earlier this month in Nashville, Tenn. (AP photo)
Wes Burtner didn’t compete in the NCAA Tournament as a player, but he is reaping the benefits as an administrator at Belmont University.
The 1998 George Rogers Clark High School graduate and former Belmont standout serves as director of athletic fundraising at his alma mater,. He will anxiously await the Belmont’s destination for the NCAA Tournament when the pairings are released Sunday. Burtner said the team’s first-round opponent and seeding is “impossible to predict.”
“Based on the year we had, I think we’ll fall somewhere as an 11 or 12 seed,” he said. “I’d be a little surprised and even disappointed if we fell lower than that. We’ve been a 13 seed the past few years and (didn’t have as good of a team or record) as we had this year. I’m pulling for an 11 or 12 seed and beyond that, where you play, all that is pretty much up to the committee where they seed you and who they want to match you up with.”
Burtner hopes the selection committee keeps Belmont close to home, which means a potential visit to Rupp Arena in Lexington site of the second- and third-round games in the Midwest Regional. Dayton also will host second- and third-round games in the East Regional.
“We would love it if we came to Lexington because that’s the closest site for our fans and I think a lot of our fans will travel to see the team,” he said. “The tournament is all about going where they send you and playing who they tell you to play. Our guys will be prepared to do that.”
The Bruins (26-6) will compete in the Big Dance for the sixth time in school history and first as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference. In its first season in the OVC, Belmont, formerly of the Atlantic Sun Conference, won both the regular season and tournament titles and claimed the league’s automatic berth into the prestigious tournament with a 70-68 overtime victory over perennial league power Murray State last weekend in Nashville.
“With all of the success that we had in the Atlantic Sun Conference, we felt like we were prepared to compete in the OVC. We knew we would be getting an upgrade in competiveness and we felt like we were ready to do it. It was an exciting year to finish in first place during the regular season and to be able to pull out the win in the tournament. It’s a testament to the job the coaching staff did, the players on the team and how they were just ready to play. They weren’t ready to end their season and wanted to finish with a win. It was very exciting.”
Belmont’s tournament resume includes a 13-0 record at home, an RPI rating of 18, along with a road win over Pac-12 member Stanford. The Bruins went 14-2 in the OVC and lost to Kansas in Lawrence during the regular season.
“It’s s senior-heavy team,” Burtner said. “The starting lineup has three seniors and two seniors play a lot also. Those guys have seen a lot of good games and been in a lot of situations.”
Regardless of the seeding and placement, Burtner said the Bruins are ready for the task at hand.
“It won’t matter to them where they will go or who they will have to play,” Burtner said. “They will be ready to play. They’re going to show up and play.”
Burtner also is ready to sit back and enjoy the ride as a member of the school’s athletic staff.
“It’s really neat,” he said. “To see the success the team has had since I graduate has been pretty special. To see the games they’ve won and they places they’ve played is pretty is pretty cool as a former player and a fan and add on the fact that I work for the university and I’m an administrator for the university, is pretty special. It’s neat to see the program begin to get the national recognition it deserves.”
