BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- WKU will play its first of two regular season, neutral site games on Sunday when the Toppers and the third-ranked Louisville Cardinals tip-off at 2:00 PM at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn. The game marks the 72nd meeting between the Bluegrass rivals, with WKU leading the all-time series 38-33. Below are game notes for the contest (with a link to the full, downloadable version in PDF format).
GAME #5:
WKU vs. #3 Louisville
Sunday, November 30, 2008 • 2:00 PM CST
Sommet Center (19,395) • Nashville, Tenn.
►SERIES HISTORY: WKU leads the all-time series with Louisville 38-33.
►COVERAGE: Television coverage will be provided by Fox College Sports and DirecTV channel 617. Radio coverage will be provided by the Big Red Radio Network with Randy Lee and Hal Schmitt providing the call.
►SIZING UP THE CARDINALS: Louisville enters Sunday's match-up ranked third in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls. Head coach Rick Pitino returns eight of 13 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 27-9, finishing fourth in the Big East (14-4), and advancing to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.
►STORIED PROGRAMS COLLIDE: Over the last eight years, only Kentucky has won more games in college basketball than WKU or Louisville. WKU entered the season with 187 victories, eight back of the Wildcats, while Louisville trails the Toppers by six (181).
►COMMON GROUND: Louisville and WKU were charter members of the Ohio Valley Conference in 1948. Sunday will be the 72nd meeting between the two, ranking as the sixth most all-time WKU has faced an opponent, and the fourth most for Louisville.
►FRYAR CONNECTION: Rick Pitino had his breakthrough as a head coach in 1987, taking the Providence Fryars to the Final Four. Ken McDonald was influenced by this run, playing and graduating from Provience in 1992.
►RECORD VS. THE RANKED: WKU is 32-84 all-time versus ranked opponents including a 1-3 mark last season. The Hilltoppers are 1-4 all-time when playing teams ranked #3 in the AP poll, with the one victory coming against #3 Indiana 110-98 in Diddle Arena on Dec. 28, 1967.
►RECORD VS. RANKED CARDS: In the 71 previous meetings between WKU and Louisville, the Cardinals have been ranked 11 of those clashes. The Topper are 4-7 in those games, winning the last such meeting 78-77 in Freedom Hall on February 16, 1993.
►LAST WIN VS. TOP 5: The Hilltoppers last victory over a top five team came on November 15, 2001, 64-52 over #4 Kentucky in Rupp Arena.
►TAKING ON THE BIG EAST: WKU is 77-77 (.500) all-time against the 16 current members of the Big East Conference.
►STREAKING AT DIDDLE: WKU has won eight-straight non-conference games at Diddle Arena, and 15 of their last 16.
►BLOCK PARTY: With five blocks in Wednesday's pre-Thanksgiving win over Southern Illinois, junior forward Jeremy Evans became the sixth player in WKU history to surpass the 100-block plateau. With 101 for his career, he remains just nine back of Darnell Mee (1991-93) for fifth place all-time.
►BIG SHOES TO FILL: With the graduation of several keys players off last year's NCAA Sweet 16 team, WKU lost 60.6 percent of its total points, 59.8 percent of its total assists, and 40.5 percent of its total rebounds.
►BOUNCING BACK: In picking up their first win over Southern Illinois in 10 years on Wednesday evening, WKU bounced back from a loss for the second-straight time this season.
►LAST MEETING: The last meeting between Louisville and WKU took place on December 4, 2003 at the Sommet Center (then called the Gaylord Entertainment Center) in Nashville, Tenn. After leading by only six at the break, the Cardinals turned up their play in the second half, running away with a 93-63 victory.
►LAST TIME OUT: In the Hilltoppers' 79-70 home win over Southern Illinois, WKU had five players in double figures including career 20-point-nights from Sergio Kerusch and Steffphon Pettigrew.
►REACHING THE MASSES: Sunday's game on Fox College Sports, DirecTV channel 16, and WHAS will reach more than 54 million homes.
►DIDDLE DOMINANCE: Since its doors opened on December 7, 1963, the Hilltoppers are 487-131 all-time at Diddle Arena for a .789 winning percentage. Now in its 46th season, Diddle has witnessed seven undefeated home seasons (1965-66, 1968-69, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1994-95, 2001-02, and 2002-03) and only two losing seasons (1963-64 and 1997-98).
►TAKING ON THE VALLEY: WKU is 62-35 (.639) all-time against the 10 current members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
►SHARING THE WEALTH: Through four games, WKU has had four different leading scorers.
►McDONALD'S FIRST WIN: New head coach Ken McDonald picked up his first victory as a head coach on Nov. 18, beating Campbellsville 62-48 at Diddle Arena.
►GETTING DEFENSIVE: The 16 first-half points allowed to Campbellsville in the November 18 home opener was the fewest given up in a half since leading FIU 24-16 at the break on January 31, 2004.
►OUTSIDE EXPERIENCE: With his three-pointer at the 14:21 mark of the first-half against Campbellsville, Orlando Mendez-Valdez recorded his 100th career triple. For perspective, the other 13 players on the WKU roster had combined for 81 three-pointers in their careers to that point.
►OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: After three seasons as a key player, but not a starter, senior guard Orlando Mendez-Valdez' time has arrived. Having already started the first four games of the 2008-09 campaign, he logged 35 minutes against Southern Illinois, breaking his previous career-high set in his freshman season against UAB on November 29, 2005 (a span of 92 games).
►WINNING HIS HOME DEBUT: When head coach Ken McDonald notched a 62-48 win over Campbellsville in the Hilltoppers home opener, he became the first WKU coach to record a victory in his home debut since Matt Kilcullen in 1994. Darrin Horn, Dennis Felton, Gene Keady, Jim Richards, and John Oldham all lost their first game in front of the fans at Diddle Arena.
►PLAYING BEFORE THE HOME CROWD: WKU holds an all-time mark of 73-17 in home openers, an impressive .811 winning percentage.
►MORE COVERAGE: The Toppers Dec. 28 game with Florida State will reach more than 1.5 million viewers on Fox Sports South (including all affiliates in Kentucky).
►GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START: In their 90 season openers, the Hilltoppers are 64-26 for a .711 winning percentage. WKU had won its last four season lidlifters before the Nov. 15 setback at Houston.
►DECADE OF DOMINANCE: WKU has had at least one player on the Sun Belt All-Conference team since 1999-2000, totalling 14 in the past nine seasons.
►BEST OF THE BEST: Of the Sun Belt Conference's highest individual awards, WKU has had five Players-of-the-Year and four Defensive Players-of-the-Year, tied for the most and the most respectively.
►SCHEDULE RELEASED: The 29-game regular season schedule includes 13 home games, 14 away games, two games at neutral sites, and has match-ups with six teams that participated in postseason play last year.
►AND THE ESPY GOES TO...: Ty Rogers, whose game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer in overtime gave WKU a 101-99 win over Drake in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, earned the ESPY Award for "Best Finish." Rogers was presented the trophy by WKU President Dr. Gary Ransdell in September at the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce Breakfast.
►ROAD OPENERS: This year marked just the 35th time in 90 seasons that WKU has opened its basketball season on the road. The Hilltoppers are 16-19 in those contests.
►COACHING DEBUT: Ken McDonald tried to become only the third coach since E.A. Diddle to win his debut at WKU, and the first since Murray Arnold in 1986. Since Arnold's 80-63 win over Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., Ralph Williard, Matt Kilcullen, Dennis Felton, and Darrin Horn all dropped their first games at the helm of the Hilltopper program.
►TAKING ON THE OVC: WKU is 414-158 (.724) all-time against the 10 current members of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Hilltoppers had won 12-straight games against OVC foes dating back to a December 7, 2003 loss at the hands of Murray State in Diddle Arena, 100-95 in double overtime.
►TAKING ON CONFERENCE USA: WKU is 45-36 all-time against the 12 current members of Conference-USA.
►MAINTAINING PERFECTION: After the 70-65 exhibition win over Bellarmine on November 8, the Toppers improve to 7-0 all-time in exhibition games against four-year colleges in the United States.
►KEN McDONALD SHOW: The Ken McDonald Show airs each Monday from 7-8 PM, originating at Double Dogs on Scottsville Road and airing on 100.7 FM WKLX.
►WKU IN THE PRESEASON: The Hilltoppers are 43-4 all-time in preseason exhibition games for a .915 winning percentage. WKU has won 12-straight exhibition games dating back to a 2002-03 loss to the Harlem Globetrotters.
►FAMILY TIES: The father of WKU junior guard AJ Slaughter was a two-year letterwinner for Murray State. Tony Slaughter played his junior and senior seasons for the Racers in 1980-81.
