The pre-season talk, hype, scrimmages and exhibitions are over. Saturday will mark the 100th start of the regular season for Louisville Basketball. The Cards will open their 100th season at 1:00pm against The College of Charleston. The Cardinals have faced the Cougars three times on the basketball court and have won all three games. The last times these teams played was last year down in Charleston and the Cards dominated that game winning 80-38.

The Cougars were 24-11 last season, and they return four starters and a much deeper bench this year. Adjehi Baru (9.8 points, 8.3 rebounds last year), Anthony Stitt (11 points, 2.4 rebounds, 3.3 assist last year), Anthony Thomas (8.5 points, 4.8 rebounds last year), and Willis Hall (7.7 points, 6.4 rebounds), each started at least 30 games for the Cougars a year ago. With veteran Nori Johnson (4.5 points, 1.9 rebounds last year) coming off the bench and the addition of redshirt freshman Canyon Barry (Rick Barry’s son), Tulsa transfer 7’2″ David Wishon and freshman point guard Joe Chealey (top 40 prospect in Florida), and the word is the Cougars might have their deepest roster in several years. This is going to be a great opening game for our Cardinals and we will get to see how they look against some pretty good size, talent and versatility.

There will be a lot of buzz surrounding the season opener for the Cards on Saturday. Starting the 100th season would be special just on its own, but the 2013 Championship banner along with a special banner celebrating Coach Pitino’s Hall of Fame induction will be revealed at 12:45 fifteen minutes before game time. There will be special videos before the reveal and before starting line-ups as well. The Basketball team will bring out the magic sleeved uniforms for this special day and Chane Behanan will make his first appearance on the bench of the season. So Saturday will indeed be a banner day for Cardinal Nation and the Louisville program. And with this much buzz and hype surrounding this game I don’t think it will be much fun for the cougars.