Cards Face Seton Hall on Friday in Wade Houston Tipoff Classic

Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,090) (163-26 in 11th year)
Television: ESPN2 - Mike Couzens, play-by-play; Fran Fraschilla, analyst.
Radio: WHAS (840 AM) Jody Demling, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst (XM channel 382, Internet 972)
Series History: Louisville leads 14-6 (7-2 in Louisville, 6-4 at Seton Hall, 1-0 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 70, Seton Hall 65 (Dec. 1, 2018 at Newark, N.J)
UL National Ranking: unranked; receiving votes in USA Today & Associated Press polls
Officials: Ron Groover, Mike Roberts, Brent Hampton
Next UofL Game: Nov. 29 vs. Prairie View A&M, KFC Yum! Center, 6:04 p.m. ET
(Regional Sports Networks/Fox Sports South in Louisville)

Louisville plays its second game in three days at the start of the season as the Cardinals face the Seton Hall Pirates on Friday in KFC Yum! Center, UofL's in second game of the Wade Houston Tipoff Classic.

Louisville won its 20th straight home opener in defeating Evansville 79-44 on Wednesday, limiting the Aces to 29.8 percent shooting from the field. Four Cardinals scored in double figures, led by graduate transfer guard Carlik Jones' 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Samuell Williamson scored a career-high 17 points with six rebounds and four assists.

It will be the season opener for Seton Hall, a team coached by former UofL assistant coach Kevin Willard. Seton Hall was selected fifth in the Big East in a preseason coaches poll.

Coached by former UofL assistant coach Kevin Willard, Seton Hall is No. 50 in the early Ken Pomeroy ratings entering the season. Seton Hall was selected fifth in the Big East in a preseason coaches poll and forward Sandro Mamukelashvili was named to the conference's preseason first team.

Willard was an assistant at UofL for six years (2001-07). The Cardinals were a combined 142-58 during Willard's six years at Louisville, reaching the 2005 Final Four. Willard guided the Cardinals to a 64-48 win over Houston (1-28-04) in Freedom Hall when Pitino took a short medical leave.

Louisville has a 14-6 series advantage over Seton Hall, winning six of the last seven and 11 of the last 14 meetings. The Cardinals prevailed 70-65 in the last matchup at the Prudential Center (12-1-18) as Dwayne Sutton led UofL with 12 points and nine rebounds. In their last visit to the KFC Yum! Center, Seton Hall won 79-77 three years ago (12-3-17) as Desi Rodriguez scored 29 points for the Pirates, including the winning basket with eight seconds remaining.

Louisville was a fellow member of the Big East Conference for eight seasons (2005-13). The Cardinals have a collective 163-106 all-time record against current members of the Big East. UofL fell 77-74 in overtime to Big East member Marquette last season (11-23-18).

Notes

Louisville has won 56 straight home games in the month of November spanning the last 29 years, including a 43-0 record in the KFC Yum! Center. UofL has a 49-6 record during the month of November over the last nine years, winning 29 of its last 33 games during that month.

Louisville has won 82 of its last 86 non-conference games at home in the KFC Yum! Center, spanning the last 11 seasons. One of the losses in that stretch was against Seton Hall in 2017.

UofL was dominant on the glass vs. Evansville with a 46-18 board edge, the largest rebounding advantage for the Cards since outrebounding Grand Canyon by 35 (55-20) on Dec. 5, 2015. UofL held the Aces to just 29.8 percent (14-for-47) from the field. The Cardinals held their opponent below 30 percent shooting three times last season.

Graduate transfer guard Carlik Jones filled up the box score in his debut with the Cardinals against Evansville, producing team highs of 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists on Nov. 25. His scoring total is tied for the fifth-most in program history in a Louisville debut.

Samuell Williamson produced career-best totals of 17 points and five assists, while matching his career high with six rebounds vs. Evansville. Williamson had three double-digit scoring efforts as a freshman with a previous career-high of 15 points against Indiana State.

Quinn Slazinski scored a career-high 10 points off the bench. He had just 15 total points in 15 games last season.

Dre Davis blocked three shots vs. Evansville, the most by a Louisville freshman in his career debut since George Goode blocked five vs. Morehead State on Nov. 22, 2008

JJ Traynor scored 11 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting in his collegiate debut. His three dunks tied the Louisville record for most dunks in a freshman debut.

With UofL permitted by state government during this pandemic period to allow a reduced arena capacity of 15 percent within the 22,090-seat KFC Yum! Center, attendance was 2,956 for the season opener vs. Evansville. It was the lowest for a UofL home game since Jan. 1, 1964 when 2,945 fans braved icy roads to see the Cardinals face Marquette in Freedom Hall.

Cards Face Seton Hall on Friday in Wade Houston Tipoff Classic

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Players Mentioned

Dre Davis

Carlik Jones

Quinn Slazinski

Dwayne Sutton

JJ Traynor

Samuell Williamson

University of Louisville Athletics