It started as a joke.
But new Belmont basketball coach Evan Bradds is serious about the Bruins' exhibition gameon Oct. 8 at traditional NCAA men's basketball power Duke.
Belmont's first season under Bradds, who replaced Casey Alexanderin the offseason, won't begin until November. Still, the Bruins are preparing for this exhibition game at Cameron Indoor Stadium (6 p.m. CT, ACC Network Extra) against the preseason No. 2-ranked Blue Devils like it's a real game.
"We're going to treat it just like we would a regular-season game," Bradds said. "These three exhibitions, or secret scrimmages, that we're playing are really important for guys to get into our normal routine preparing for games."
Duke at Cameron Indoor
Bradds was an assistant at Duke during the 2025-26 seaso. Even after he was hired at Belmont, he remained on Blue Devils' coach Jon Scheyer's staff through the NCAA Tournament, which ended with a 73-72 loss to Connecticut in the Elite Eight.
Evan Bradds was joking when he suggested Duke-Belmont exhibition
After arriving at Belmont, Bradds casually suggested to Scheyer that the Bruins should play the Blue Devils.
"It started as a joke, like, 'Hey Jon, you want to come to Nashville and play a game?'" Bradds said. "And then it was like (Scheyer said), 'Maybe we'll do a scrimmage here.' A couple of weeks later it just kind of took actual life, and we got it done. They told us to hold a couple of dates; we held a couple of dates and now here we are."
Bradds, who played at Belmont (2013-17), is the program's all-time leading scorer (1,921 points), inherited several key returners from the 2025-26 team. The Bruins (26-6) won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship, and earned top-25 votes through the season. Alexander left after the season when he was named the Kansas State men's basketball coach.
Belmont's players treating Duke like a national championship game
The exhibition doesn't count, but that's not how Jabez Jenkins, the Bruins' leading returning scorer, sees it.
"To us, we're going to play it like it's the national championship game," said Jenkins, who averaged 9.0 points in 32 starts in 2025-26. "We're going to play it like they're Duke and we're Belmont; we are the team that we've been working on all summer, and we're going to go in there ready to play."
Can Belmont add Duke to regular-season schedule?
Before he leaves Durham, North Carolina, Bradds will likely make another suggestion to Scheyer. He wants to schedule Duke for a regular-season game.
If Scheyer says no, Bradds won't give up.
"I will ask him every single year if he wants to play," Bradds said. "We'll see if we can get a real game out of it sometime. No question I want to play them. I have such high respect for Jon and Duke's program, so I will be annoying every single year and ask him."
Belmont and Duke have played twice before, with the Blue Devils winning each game by one point. Duke beat Belmont 71-70 in the 2008 NCAA Tournament and 77-76 in the 2011-12 regular season.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Belmont basketball treating Duke exhibition like 'national championship'
