The last time we watched our Cardinal basketball team play someone other than themselves was back in April when they beat Michigan for the National Title. Tonight the Cards take the floor for the unofficial start of their title defense and the 2013-14 basketball season. They will take on Kentucky Wesleyan in a exhibition. Tip is set for 7 p.m. in the KFC Yum Center with TV coverage by WHAS 11 in Louisville. The last time the two teams met was in 2010, when Louisville posted a 96-54 exhibition victory on Nov. 11.

Louisville’s likely starting lineup for tonight’s Kentucky Wesleyan game will be Chris Jones, Russ Smith, Stephan Van Treese, Montrezl Harrell, and Wayne Blackshear. Luke Hancock and Kevin Ware won’t be playing in this first exhibition of the season but Pitino said yesterday “Kevin Ware and Luke Hancock will likely practice by the end of this week. Ware went through individual instructions last two days,” and told reporters in regards to Ware, “his leg is better than yours or mine.” Also the status on Chane Behanan is looking very promising. Pitino raved about his efforts to rejoin the team yesterday saying “I have no idea when he’s coming. But I’m very pleased because he’s incorporating a lot of changes in his life.” The team captains for this year will be Russ Smith, Luke Hancock and Montrezl Harrell.

Kentucky Wesleyan, which registered a 20-8 record last year returns seven letterwinners, including four starters along with three redshirts, from the 2012-13 team. The Panthers’ roster also includes four other Division I transfers. First year Kentucky Wesleyan coach Happy Osborne and coach Pitino exchanged pleasantries last Thursday when Rick was in Owensboro for a book signing. Happy joked that he told his team if they beat Louisville that he’d get a Panther tattooed on his face. Don’t think there’s any danger in that, but Osborne is a great coach and his teams are always very competitive. He came in with some of his Georgetown College teams and gave the Cardinals all they wanted.

I’m looking forward to seeing our guys take the floor against other players tonight. I will be watching the new guys to see how they are fitting into the offense and defense. I am also watching to see if Wayne Blackshear appears ready to take on a bigger work load this season and can’t wait to see “The Beast” Montrezl Harrell. This will also be the night we’ll see the improved Russ 2.0 for the first time running this team. Coach Pitino said yesterday this team is a little high maintenance because “they are just over the top competitive.” Can’t wait to see how that competitiveness carries over to real competition tonight. It’s gonna be another great year of Cardinal Basketball folks.