Louisville faces off against inner-city foe, Bellarmine in the team’s first (public) exhibition of the season.

Tip-off: 7:01 PM @ Louisville

Officials: Bert Smith, James Breeding, Greg Evans

Watch/Listen

TV: ACC Network Extra

Online stream: ACC Network Extra

On the call: Kent Taylor (play-by-play), Jody Demling (color)

Radio: 840 AM WHAS

Radio Stream: https://tunein.com/radio/Louisville-Basketball-s308288/?_branch_match_id=717573383424523625

Series:

Louisville leads BU: 21-0 (9-0 in exhibitions)

Last win: 2018, Louisville 71– BU 61

Noteworthy: Bellarmine comes into the Yum! Center carrying a #2 ranking in D2 after winning their third-consecutive Great Lakes Valley Conference Champions and accepting an offer to go D1 and join the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2020.

Starting Lineup:
Louisville - F #24 Sutton, F #33 Nwora, C #23 Enoch, G #2 Perry, G #30 McMahon

Bellarmine - F #4 Ben Weyer, F #11 Alex Cook. F #32 Pedro Bradshaw, G #13 Dylan Penn, G #25 CJ Fleming

BU Player to Worry About

#4 6’7” Forward Ben Weyer – averaged 11.9 points and 4.9 rebounds last season. Bellarmine’s only returning starting and preseason second team All-American by Street and Smith’s.

Keys to the Game

1. Develop Youngsters – It’s no secret that some freshmen from the “Super-6” class aren’t as far along as coaches and fans would have hoped, specifically Aiden Igiehon. Coach Mack talks constantly about how Aiden just isn’t playing hard enough to compete at the level he’ll be expected to. I have no doubt the veterans have been roughing them up in practice, but the best experience Aiden and his fellow freshmen get is real game play. Hopefully these guys can some meaningful playing time to work on their games, because we’ll need them.

2. Develop Guards – While this group will receive a lot of scrutiny early on, I don’t have too many doubts about them. Yes, Cunningham left big shoes to fill, but I have confidence Fresh and Perry will fill this role just fine. It will take time for them, especially Fresh, to master the pick-and-roll attack that Cunningham was so good at. Tonight will be the first of many learning experiences for them. Interesting to note, though, that McMahon will be starting over Fresh tonight.

3. Beat Bellarmine Handily – I’m not going to pretend that I know a lot about Bellarmine, because I don’t. Bellarmine always gets up for this game and Scotty D always has a good squad when they play. Louisville would do itself a lot of favors by handling a D2 team the way it should so that they can ease the fans who were terrified by the OSU secret scrimmage, and allow some guys to get meaningful minutes they normally wouldn’t get.

Predictions:

I didn’t even ask. If any of our writers picked against us, then they should be fired.