Louisville vs Bellarmine 11/9/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Bellarmine Knights and Louisville Cardinals meet Wednesday in college basketball action at the KFC Yum! Center. The Bellarmine Knights are coming off a 20-win season. The Louisville Cardinals are coming off a 13-win season.

The Bellarmine Knights have won a combined 34 games the last 2 seasons. Alec Pfriem returns after averaging 7.6 points and 3.3 rebounds, while Curt Hopf averaged 7 points and 0.6 assists. Garrett Tipton played in 507 minutes last season, and Juston Betz averaged 7.1 rebounds. The Bellarmine Knights said goodbye to their top-3 scorers from last season, but the rest of the key contributors are back. Betz is a player to keep an eye on, as he’s gotten better his first two seasons, and he has double-double potential. 

The Louisville Cardinals begin the Kenny Payne head coaching era. El Ellis returns after averaging 8.7 points and 1.9 rebounds, while Sydney Curry averaged 7.1 points and 0.7 assists. JJ Traynor played in 82 minutes last season, and Jae’Lyn Withers averaged 4.6 rebounds. Louisville lost a lot of production from last season, including their top-2 scorers. However, snagging Brandon Huntley-Hatfield from Tennessee is a massive pickup. Losuiville also landed a trio of 4-star recruits in Kamari Lands, Devin Lee and Fabio Basili. 

The Knights are 8-1-1 ATS in their last 10 road games. The Cardinals are 5-14 ATS in their last 19 home games and 6-15-1 ATS in their last 22 games overall. The over is 7-3 in Knights last 10 overall. The under is 5-0 in Cardinals last 5 Wednesday games.

The Bellarmine Knights have a lot of production to replace, and this isn’t the spot where you figure those things out. The Louisville Cardinals have holes to fill in their own right, but there’s also boatloads of talent on this roster, and that can mask issues against lesser competition. I just don’t see Bellarmine having the horses to hang around here. Give me Louisville and the reasonable chalk.