Bre Bellamy’s freshman campaign was the best rookie season for the Tribe since… well, Eva Hodgson in 2018-19. Regardless, Bellamy’s multifaceted skill set and consistent improvement spell good things for the rest of her career.
Ed Swanson is making high-impact freshmen a habit for William and Mary’s women’s basketball program. From Marlena Tremba, to Jenna Green, Bianca Boggs to Victoria Reynolds, Nyla Pollard and Eva Hodgson – now Bre Bellamy joins the club. Swanson always seems to recruit players who can contribute right away, and Bellamy (joined by her classmate, Chaniqwa Gilliam) fits the bill.
Bellamy didn’t light the world on fire, but she showed off her ability as a well-rounded player; she scored in double-digits six times, with a season high of 18 against Hofstra Feb. 16. She also defended well from the wing, earning Swanson’s trust and starting 24 of 29 games in the season.
The player that Bellamy reminded me of right away was Reynolds. While Reynolds was more of a forward and Bellamy was closer to a wing type that could handle the ball at times, their styles of play mirrored each other. Both were jacks-of-all-trade, chipping in in various ways – some in the box score, some not.
However, until my research for this series, I did not know just how incredibly similar their freshman seasons were, at least in terms of the numbers. Bellamy averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per game this year. Reynolds’ freshman campaign? 5.1 points and 3.2 rebounds. Reynolds out-stole Bellamy 1.2 to 1.0, but Bellamy tallied 1.3 assists and 0.6 blocks per game against Reynolds’ 0.8 and 0.2, respectively.
I will say right now, if Bellamy develops into the player Victoria Reynolds was this season and last, William and Mary will have a tremendous core to compete for the CAA crown moving forward in the next two seasons.
One big area Bellamy can improve upon, though, is turnovers. In her rookie year, Bellamy tallied over two turnovers a game. While she certainly could handle the ball a little bit, that number is way too high for a player that was never a primary ballhandler. The problem wasn’t that she always was careless with the ball, but otherwise that she could sometimes lose her focus: Bellamy tallied six games with four or more turnovers, including two games with five. Those six games account for almost half of her turnover total on the year.
Hopefully, that’s just a freshman year thing. The same goes for her inconsistency scoring the ball. Bellamy’s six outings scoring in double-digits were matched by six games in which she didn’t score at all. There were a number of games that the Tribe could have used a little more productivity from Bellamy – In the 61-55 defeat at Northeastern Jan. 19, Bellamy only put up one point, while she notched just two in a tight 61-54 loss to Drexel at home Jan. 26.
Obviously, offense isn’t everything – William and Mary had one of the best defenses in the CAA, suffocating many a team with their press, and Bellamy was a big part of that even when her shot wasn’t falling. There’s a reason why, while only scoring in double-digits in two conference games, she still made the postseason all-rookie team in the conference.
But it would be nice to see her mature as a player and become a bit more reliable on offense. The Tribe’s chances to win a CAA Tournament and make March Madness for the first time in school history rest on the ability for another player to emerge as a star to help Hodgson carry the load offensively.
There’s a reason why Jordan had Pippen, Delle Donne had Meesseman, Tune Squad Jordan had Lola Bunny (or Bill Murray). It’s not easy for one player, no matter how good, to pull a team to a championship, even if they have good players around them. Somebody else has to step up and demand some respect from opposing defenses.
The Tribe has a few candidates for this: maybe Gilliam, maybe Sydney Wagner, maybe Nyla Pollard. But the best possibility, in my opinion, is Bellamy. Her skill set and potential is there. And if she reaches that potential? I feel really good about the next couple of years at Kaplan Arena.