Cameron Indoor welcomes defending national champ Knights

The Bellarmine University men's basketball team, ranked No. 1 in the preseason and picked to win the GLVC championship, is set to begin its grueling 3-game exhibition schedule by opening with No. 6 Duke on Saturday night at 7 p.m.  in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Subsequent exhibition games take the Knights to No. 8 Louisville and No. 15 Xavier during the next two weeks.

The Bellarmine-Duke game will not be televised but several radio broadcasts will carry the game live, including the LouisvilleCatholicSports.com broadcaston WGTK AM-970 with Nick Curran and Mark Bugg.

The Knights are the defending Division II national champions, and this marks the third year in a row the Blue Devils have hosted the reigning DII champs in an exhibition. Last year Duke defeated Cal-Poly Pomona by a count of 81-60, and two years ago it was the Blue Devils over Findlay 84-48.

Knights picked as conference division favorite

Defending national champion Bellarmine University joins Drury University as the favorites to claim their respective Great Lakes Valley Conference division titles in the annual GLVC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll.

Bellarmine and Drury were each unanimous picks to win the division titles in a poll of the league's 16 head coaches. 

The GLVC will return to a two-division format after spending the previous two seasons in three divisions. Bellarmine, the 2011 GLVC Champion, was selected to claim the GLVC East Division by collecting 113 total points in the poll.  The Knights went 33-2 last season en route to the school's first national championship.

Bellarmine claimed the GLVC East Division title a year ago with a 17-1 league mark and claimed its second straight GLVC Championship.  Bellarmine, ranked first nationally by both The Sporting News and Division II Bulletin, return All-America guard and reigning GLVC Player of the Year Jeremy Kendle and fellow first-team All-GLVC pick and honorable mention All-America guard Braydon Hobbs. 

The Knights are followed in the GLVC Preseason Poll by Kentucky Wesleyan and Southern Indiana who finished with 84 and 83 total points, respectively. Northern Kentucky is picked to finish fourth in the division with 73 total points and the Norse are followed by Lewis (60 total points), Indianapolis (53), Saint Joseph's (26) and Wisconsin-Parkside (20).

The top four teams from each division and four wild cards will earn a berth to the 2012 GLVC Basketball Tournament which will culminate at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Ill. on Mar. 1-4. The 12-team tournament will open with first round games on campus sites on Feb. 26. 

The top four seeds in the event will earn a first round bye.  

The complete 2011-12 GLVC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll is below. 

East Division Team (First-place votes)           

• 1. Bellarmine (15)
• 2. Kentucky Wesleyan (1)
• 3. Southern Indiana
• 4. Northern Kentucky
• 5. Lewis
• 6. Indianapolis
• 7. Saint Joseph's
• 8. Wisconsin-Parkside

West Division Team (First-place votes)

• 1.   Drury (15)
• 2.   Quincy
• 3.   Missouri-St. Louis (1)
• 4.   William Jewell
• 5.   Missouri S&T
• 6.   Illinois Springfield
• 7.   Rockhurst
• 8.   Maryville