LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The Bellarmine University men's basketball team is taking on its second top 10 Division I program in less than a week tomorrow as they travel downtown to face the No. 8 Louisville Cardinals in an exhibition game at the KFC Yum! Center at 7 p.m.

The Knights, who are the defending Div. II national champion and preseason No. 1, opened their 2011-12 campaign this past Saturday with an 87-62 loss to No. 6 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Bellarmine-Louisville matchup features coaches who used to be on the same side.  Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport spent nine seasons as an assistant coach at Louisville, including the last four under current Louisville coach, Rick Pitino. The game also pits a Bellarmine player against his former teammates.  Richie Phares, who is expected to start for the Knights, spent his freshman year at the University of Louisville, where he took a redshirt year.

Thursday's game marks the fourth time the Knights and Cardinals have squared off since Davenport started at Bellarmine in 2005.  Of those four matchups--all won by UofL--three were exhibitions, but the 2006 game came in the NABC Classic in Freedom Hall and was an official game for both teams.

Bellarmine is led by their All-American backcourt duo of Braydon Hobbs and Jeremy Kendle, while the Cardinals are expected to rely on their frontcourt.  In their opening exhibition against Pikeville, Louisville was led by forward Chane Behanan (16 points) and center Gorgui Dieng (14 points, 15 rebounds).

The Bellarmine-UofL game will be televised locally on WHAS-TV with several radio broadcasts.  The regular Bellarmine radio team of Nick Curran and Mark Bugg will call the game on WGTK-AM 970 while the UofL broadcast team of Paul Rogers and Bob Doug Ormay will be on WHAS-AM 840.  Bellarmine student radio will offer a webcast at www.bellarmineradio.com.

The Knights conclude their 2011-12 exhibition schedule this Saturday with a 6 p.m. contest against Xavier University at the Cintas Center.