Men's Basketball Opens Season With Exhibition Against Bellarmine

Sunday, November 1

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:30 PM ET

University of Louisville

BELLARMINE

Tickets

Quentin Snider (2)
| Louisville v Michigan State | NCAA Regional Final | Photo By: Jeff Reinking | Louisville Athletics

Men's Basketball Opens Season With Exhibition Against Bellarmine

October 31, 2015 | Men's Basketball

Cardinals will face Bellarmine Sunday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center

By: Kim Pemberton

Exhibition Game
Date: Nov. 1, 2015
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,000) (81-13 in 6th yr.)
Television: WAVE-TV (Channel 3 in Louisville)
Kent Taylor, play-by-play; Drew Deener, analyst
Radio: WKRD (790 AM)
Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst (no Sirius/XM)
Series History: UofL leads 12-0 (including regular season games only)
Last Meeting: UofL 82, Bellarmine 57 (Nov. 9, 2014 at KFC Yum! Center)
Officials: Lamont Simpson, Tim Ebersole, Matt Porter
Next UofL Game: Nov. 9 vs. Kentucky Wesleyan (exhibition), 7 p.m.,
(WAVE-TV) KFC Yum! Center

Louisville will play its first game of the 2015-16 season against outside competition as the Cardinals face the Bellarmine University Knights in an exhibition game on Sunday. UofL tuned up with its second public intrasquad scrimmage on Oct. 17, won 97-81 by the Red squad.

Ranked fifth in the Division II Bulletin preseason top 25 poll and sixth by The Sporting News, Bellarmine returns three starters after posting a 31- 4 record last season and reaching its third NCAA Division II Final Four in the last five years.

Louisville has just two players on its roster -- junior center Mangok Mathiang and walk-on junior guard David Levitch -- that have played with the Cardinals more than a year. The Cards return just 17 percent of their scoring and a quarter of their assists from last season's 27-9 NCAA Elite Eight team. It is the lowest percentage of scoring returning for Louisville since 1972-73 when UofL was without a returning starter from its 1972 Final Four team and returned just 9.7 percent of its scoring (254 of 2,614). Quentin Snider's 146 points in 2014-15 ranks him as UofL's top returning scorer.

Transfers Damion Lee and Trey Lewis are likely to headline this year's group after decorated careers at their previous schools. A candidate for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, Lee ranked fourth in the nation with 21.4 points per game last season at Drexel. Lewis, meanwhile, was a first-team all-conference pick at Cleveland State, where he connected on 96 3-pointers in 2014-15.

The Cardinals, under the direction of 15th-year coach Rick Pitino, have won 123 games over the last four years – the second-most in the nation in that stretch. The Hall of Fame coach has directed the program to 20 or more wins in each of the last 13 seasons, and the Cardinals have been just as successful in the classroom. The team has earned its last four consecutive conference top team academic excellence awards.

Coached by Uof L graduate and former Cardinal assistant coach Scott Davenport, the Knights posted a 31-4 record last season and reaching its third NCAA Division II Final Four in the last five years. BU will also play exhibitions at Cincinnati on Nov. 7 and at Indiana on Nov. 9. Bellarmine is ranked fifth in the Division II Bulletin preseason top 25 poll, sixth by The Sporting News and the Knights are the choice to win the East Division of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Three returning starters for the Knights include senior forward George Suggs (8.5 ppg), junior forward Josh Derksen (11.6 ppg) and junior guard Rusty Troutman (11.3 pts., 5.5 reb., 2.7 asst.). Among the newcomers are Yasin Kolo, a 6-10 transfer from Hartford who sat out last season, and Al Davis, a junior college transfer from North Area CC who was a first-team all-NJCAA Region XI selection last year.

Louisville has won all 12 regular season meetings against Bellarmine University. That figure is not inclusive of five exhibition games the teams played in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014 — all UofL victories. Louisville won the first meeting 79-52 at Bellarmine on Dec. 6, 1960, a year in which John Turner lead the Cardinals to a 21-8 record and U of L's third NCAA Tournament appearance.

Montrezl Harrell scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead four Cardinals in double figures as Louisville posted an 82-57 exhibition victory over Bellarmine in the last meeting between the teams (11-9-14). The Cardinals shot 56.7 percent from the field in the first half to bolt out to a 49-20 halftime advantage and UofL outrebounded the Knights. Chris Whitehead and George Suggs each scored eight points to lead BU.