LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine University men's basketball team kicks off its 2022-23 schedule on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 11 a.m. in an exhibition game against Centre College in Freedom Hall. 
 
The game is being billed as "Inspiration Day" with a number of area elementary and middle school students from both Jefferson County Public Schools and the Louisville Archdiocesan schools in attendance.  In fact, the game time was moved to 11 a.m. from the originally scheduled noon start time to better accommodate the school bus schedule.
 
The Knights are coming off a 20-13 season that culminated in winning the ASUN Conference Championship Tournament on their home floor in front of more than 6,200 fans at Freedom Hall.
 
Graduate student Juston Betz highlights a solid group of returners for Coach Scott Davenport, who enters his 18th season at the helm with a career mark of 398-130 including an impressive 213-73 record in conference play.
 
In the preseason, the ASUN coaches recognized Betz as the 2022-23 Defensive Player of the Year.  A graduate student who is working on his second master's degree, Betz also raked in academic honors a year ago.  He was one of just 48 D1 men's basketball players to earn Academic All-District honors and he was on the ASUN's All-Academic Team.
 
Joining Betz from last year's starting five is sophomore Curt Hopf.  The 6-8 Indiana native had a strong collegiate debut last season, starting 31 of Bellarmine's 33 games and raking in All-Freshmen accolades from the ASUN after averaging 7.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Other top returners for the Knights include Alec Pfriem, Nick Thelen, Bash Wieland, Garrett Tipton, and Sam DeVault all of whom saw action in at least 23 games a year ago.  
 
In addition to the returners, Bellarmine welcomes a trio of freshmen as well three more redshirt freshmen—Jaylen Fairman, Ben Johnson, and Landin Hacker. True freshman Peter Suder was recently recognized as one of 20 "Under the Radar Freshmen" by the website HeatCheckCBB.
 
Bellarmine also added a transfer over the summer with Langdon Hatton joining the Knights after playing at William and Mary last season.  The 6-10 forward/center is from nearby Georgetown, Indiana and played high school basketball at North Harrison where he was named to the IBCA/Franciscan Health Senior All-State Team.
 
Centre, which plays at the NCAA Division III level, is coming off an 11-12 season which included a 5-7 record in the Southern Athletic Association. Top returners for the Colonels include Carter Baughman (9.4 ppg) and Chez Moore (7.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg).
 
Tickets for the exhibition through TicketMaster:  https://www.ticketmaster.com/bellarmine-university-knights-mens-basketball-vs-louisville-kentucky-10-27-2022/event/16005D30853423B7
 
Fans unable to attend can tune into the live radio broadcast on the Bix X Sports Radio (WXVW 1450/96.1) with the call by regular Bellarmine play-by-play man Doug Ormay.  The "listen live" link can be found here: https://radio.securenetsystems.net/cwa/WXVW.
 
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