S. Indiana at Belmont

Southern Indiana won seven games last season, and it opens 2026-27 with a roster that barely resembles that team. Three players return. Eleven transfers arrived, eight of them from Division I programs, so most of the rotation has never played a game together. Belmont went 26-6 a year ago and 16-4 in league play, and the College Insider mid-major preseason poll ranks the Bruins 22nd. Evan Bradds is a first-year head coach, hired March 18 after Casey Alexander left for Kansas State. Associate head coach Brian Ayers remains on staff. Both teams are 0-0, so last year's gap of 19 wins is the best measure of the distance between these programs. Southern Indiana spends its first night of the season on the road, with new players still sorting out roles and rotations against a Belmont program that has kept its structure in place. The half unit we're risking rests on that gap in continuity. I make Belmont the right side on the spread tonight, with the Bruins' 26-win base against a visitor still learning each other's names.