NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Over the past decade, it would be difficult to find a mid-major program with more consistent success than the Belmont Bruins. Accumulating a 237-94 record over the past 10 full seasons, Belmont has appeared in the NCAA tournament four times, and the NIT three times over that span. Once again the Bruins are cruising through the regular season and a large part of their 14-4 start should be credited to the St. Charles alumni Nick Muszynski. 

In this week’s latest installment of College Film Room, I will be breaking down why Muszynski, a former two-time CCL Player of the Year that led St. Charles to a 46-5 record as an upperclassmen, is a crucial component of Belmont's team success on both sides of the ball. 

Standing at 6-foot-11 the redshirt freshman is far from elite as a mover with underwhelming top north-south speed. However, his motor allows him to add value in transition even when his athletic tools should prevent this area of his game from accumulating any success. The big man ranks 13th among 1,553 division one players in points per possession in transition on a 25 possession minimum. 

The most important part of Muszynski’s transition scoring outside of his motor is that he knows exactly what spot to sprint to in order to place himself in a position for an elementary scoring opportunity.  It’s always important to fill your proper lane in transition whether that is spread out along the baseline, rim running, or trailing. 

Here against Murray State, you can see him sprint off on the break after the rebound, even though his matchup catches up to him by rim running to the middle of the floor and angling himself under the hoop in transition, this opens up an easy dump off for the transition handler once Muszynski’s man is required to help in order to prevent an open layup. The end result is an easy finish at the rim for the big man. 

This is where the big really thrives in generating his own offense. He is a true low post, back to the basket scorer. Possessing ballerina-esque footwork and ambidextrous finishing talent, the former St. Charles star can post up on either side of the court and finish in a variety of ways. His go to move is his hook shot. In these two clips, you can see him posting up on both blocks, converting hook shots with both hands. He is able to apply his length on these hook shots as well. This is especially significant on the right handed hook when he gets incredible arm extension making this attempt nearly impossible to contest. 

I mentioned the footwork of the redshirt freshman and it is impeccable, and also aides his low post scoring prowess. In this first clip, you can see Muszynski perform a lightning quick spin move going baseline after setting up for another patented hook in the middle of the lane. Another way he generates easy scoring chances around the rim is with his phenomenal hands. Which is normally on display when he’s being fronted in the low post. In the second clip, Muszynski catches the touch pass over the front and boasts a very fundamental concept for a big of keeping the ball high which is a tiny trait that he consistently executes. 

As some may have observed from previous scouting reports, I like to go beyond scoring. While scoring points is obviously the simplistic goal of the game, it is important to look past a player’s scoring output and see how they contribute to their respective teams success in other ways.

Outside of back to basket scoring, Muszynski consistently lifts Belmont’s team value by creating open scoring opportunities for his teammates with his passing equity. The Bruins frequently run their half court offensive action through him in the low post. This chart shows how the big man’s points per possession efficiency skyrockets when factoring his post up derived offense into the equation. Derived offense takes into account passing as well. 

Belmont likes to run a lot of weak side action from their guards and wings while Muszynski has the ball in the low post. These perimeter players often are cutting extremely hard to the hoop, so while these passes appear simple, it requires quality decision making and phenomenal decisiveness, both IQ skills that the Bruin big man has.

Here is a weak side action from Belmont where it appears that they are setting up a stagger screen while Muszynski is posting up. Instead of following through with the action, one of the potential screeners cuts hard to the middle of the floor and finishes at the rim with a beautiful decisive pass. 

Frequently though, opposing teams do not want Muszynski to be able to work on one on in the low post since he can beat you both as a passer and scorer. This results in the redshirt freshman facing a good sized portion of double teams to try and prevent him from scoring and hoping he makes a bad decision passing out. However, this rarely happens with the quick decision making and passing vision the big man showcases in these situations.

Here he reads the late weak side help defender and riffles over a pass to Dylan Windler for the wide open three. Then in the second clip, you can see him reading the help defense and making this instantaneous read, which gives the opposing team no time to rotate after the double. 

Like on the offensive end of the floor, the Bruin big man is far from what many would expect from a productive big man in the modern game. His lack of speed laterally and poor movement skills prevent him from switching whatsoever. However, he is an incredibly effective rim protector. He very rarely will come out of the paint and probably benefits from the non defensive three second rule more than any big man in basketball. Muszynski leads the Ohio Valley Conference in both blocks and block percentage. 

Without outlier athletic tools, the big man must rely on his length, intelligence on rim rotations, and timing. He does a fantastic job applying his length as a rim protector. Here he applies his length in the low post, where you will see it most often. Coming up with multiple blocks and keeping his hands high, trying to contest the second attempt with verticality. 

In this next clip you can see Muszynski make a very subtle rim rotation in order to stay with Murray State’s guard on this drive. Also you can see his lack of leaping explosion, which is why he must time these block attempts perfectly when leaving his feet with such a small margin for error. 

This was the third freshman covered within the college film room and I was blown away by another former Central Ohio high school player yet again. Muszynski is a tremendous force down low, and may be the best big man passer you will have the opportunity to see in all of college basketball this season. His decision making, decisiveness, ability to read the weak side of the floor, and create open shots for his teammates are all attributes most freshman do not have and even some seniors never pick up on. 

I’d like to see him continue to improve as a shooter on the offensive end try to become a slightly more fluid mover, so that he can build on his offensive skill set with some ball screen and spot up equity. The redshirt freshman does shoot 38.5% from deep, but has only attempted 13 outside shots this season. However, he does have strong free throw numbers that indicate some natural touch. This could even open up a stationary creation role for him at the high post and top of the key in the future like we already see down low.

Defensively, there’s not much more that you can ask for from him other than continuing to be a productive rim protector. Unfortunately, I do not believe he will ever be able to switch at any point in his career. Along with maybe never developing the recovery speed necessary to effectively defend a ball screen. Make no mistake though, even though Muszynski is not the most talented athlete, he compensates for it with a high IQ and being wildly fundamentally sound. Look for him to make a ton of money in his future playing career after Belmont, even though it will likely not be in the NBA. 

Previous College Film Room features

Jason Carter (RS So. F, Ohio)

Braden Norris (Fr. PG, Oakland)

Datrey Long (Fr. G, Urbana)

PICTURE CREDIT: Ohio VALLEY CONFERENCE (@OVSPORTS)