LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine University men's basketball team will stay in town to play their second and final exhibition game of the 2012-13 season when they take on the University of Louisville Cardinals Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center.

The Knights will certainly have their work cut out for them against the Cardinals, who are one of the most formidable teams this year in Division I and dispatched the University of Pikeville 93-57 in their opening exhibition game last Thursday.

Both Bellarmine and UofL are coming off Final 4 appearances in their respective divisions, and both are highly ranked again this year.  The Cardinals are the nation's No. 2 ranked team in Division I (AP and ESPN), and the Knights are No. 2 in Division II (Basketball Times). 

The teams also are very familiar with one another. Not only do the players get together for pickup games over the summer, but members of both staffs literally come from the same family.  Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport is a UofL alumnus and former assistant coach at UofL, and he is the father of Doug Davenport, who serves on Louisville Coach Rick Pitino's staff as director of video operations. Doug Davenport is a Bellarmine alumnus and played four years as a Knight. The familiarity doesn't stop there, New Bellarmine assistant coach Reece Gaines is a former Louisville player, who still ranks No. 4 on the Cardinals' all-time scoring list. 

Although the contest promises to be fun from the perspective of the familiarity of the cross-town teams, Coach Scott Davenport realizes the game is a great teaching moment as well as a great recruiting opportunity.

“Last year we were a veteran ball club coming off a national championship, so what you saw was pretty much what you got,” he said.  “This team is young with a lot of new players, so they're going to get better as the year goes on.”

He added that playing nationally elite Division I teams such as Cincinnati and Louisville are unique coaching opportunities.  “We can't simulate that level of play in practice,” he said, and “playing on the grandest of stages definitely helps in recruiting.  I can't thank Coach (Mick) Cronin and Coach Pitino enough for giving us that opportunity.”

The Bellarmine-Louisville game will be aired live on television by WHAS-TV in Louisville, and three broadcast radio stations will cover the action. The Louisville Catholic Sports Network production with the call by the regular Bellarmine team of Nick Curran and Mark Bugg will air live on WGTK (970 AM), and the Louisville production will be aired by WKRD (790 AM) and joined in progress by WHAS (840 AM). The Bellarmine student radio station also will present a live stream of their came coverage at www.bellarmineradio.com.