Belmont guard Taylor Barnette set to take on former Virginia teammates
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Every time Belmont's Taylor Barnette was asked a question about his former school, his teammates sitting beside him would grin and look at each other knowingly. Finally, a reporter asked if the guys had a for-fun betting pool on how many questions Barnette would get.
"Taylor said, 'How may Virginia questions do you think I'm going to get when we walk in here?'" Belmont's Craig Bradshaw relayed, "so we kind of knew that was going to happen."
Barnette played at Virginia in the 2012-13 season. He averaged 2.6 points in limited minutes off the bench, shooting 43.2 percent from the 3-point line and attempting just seven two-pointers all season.
Due to his lack of playing time, he decided to transfer to Belmont. He sat out last season, and this season, he's one of the Bruins' main contributors -- oh, and his 199 3-point attempts lead the team. He's shooting 38.2 percent from the outside.
Safe to say it worked out for both parties. And now, his Bruins are the No. 15 seed facing off against his second-seeded former team.
"Those are some of my best friends from freshman year of college. It will be interesting and it will be fun, and I have a lot of respect for that program and Coach Bennett and all those guys," Barnette said.
Transferring is a reality in today's college basketball landscape, so there are no hard feelings on either side. Bennett said he thinks it might be the first time he's faced a player who's transferred out of his program.
"He's a huge reason why they're here," Bennett said. "Taylor's a good young man and I'm happy for him. I know he really likes Belmont and his sister still plays at UVa. It's a fine family. He's done a real good job for them."
Belmont is one of the nation's top offenses, and mainly because of the great equalizer -- the 3-point shot. But it's also about their ball movement and their spacing. Rick Byrd is one of the better offensive minds nationally, and his teams have perennially pushed higher seeds to the brink.
If there's a hole in Virginia's defense, it's that a team that shoots lights-out from long range is generally going to do better than teams that are average or worse. That's far from a guarantee, and it's not as if Virginia doesn't guard the 3-point line. It's just that good ball movement, spacing and effective shooting from all over the court can exploit holes.
Again, those are big ifs.
"They're the best defensive team in the country, and Coach Bennett is a very good defensively coach, but Coach Byrd has a good game plan and he's going to have us well prepared and we're going to run with what he thinks best is going to work against their defense," Barnette said.
It's not as if Barnette is some ace in the hole for Belmont, though.
Even if he knew all of Virginia's plays, it doesn't really matter. At this point in the season, teams are who they are and while they'll add wrinkles here and there, they don't change much.
Least of all Virginia.
"We obviously have asked Taylor some questions and he's offered opinions about things, but here's the real difference: If you watch Virginia on video, you already know what they do. They're one of those programs that do what they do and they do it great, and they do it consistently, and they're to going to change," Byrd said. "We're not going to see a 1-3-1 zone tomorrow. We didn't get ready for one. But we're going to see a really good man-to-man defense and a team that doesn't do a whole lot of different things on offense.
"Certainly enough to prepare for, but it's right there for you to see."
