Belmont's bid for a fourth straight Atlantic Sun title ended with a loss to East Tennessee 12 days ago, and their CIT appearance ends Wednesday night in Evansville.
Belmont’s hopes for a shot at a bid to the NCAA Tournament came to an end with a loss to East Tennessee in the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. Now the Bruins have their sights set on a C-I-T championship. The first step in that journey will be a difficult one as they face the Evansville Aces.
Belmont’s loss brought an end to three impressive streaks. The Bruins had a string of three consecutive conference tournament titles and NCAA appearances and 10 A-Sun victories in a row. What has to be extremely frustrating for Belmont is the caliber of teams that they played this season only to lose to inferior talent in their conference tournament.
This season, with three starters back, they lost by two at Tennessee and by 14 at Pitt.
I’m guessing Belmont would rather be elsewhere but that’s not the case for EU. And while it’s not the NCAA Tournament or even the NIT, the Purple Aces will gladly take the opportunity to appear in a postseason game for the first time in 10 years.
Evansville gets the nod based on two factors: Home court advantage and a tougher conference schedule. I also believe the letdown factor applies big time to Belmont.
It’s Ace’s high tonight as Evansville covers against Belmont
Free Pick: Evansville -6 (-110)
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