Mid-major: Bellarmine (secretly Iona)
What I would do for a Louisville/Iona matchup in 2020.
It truly would be the cherry on top of a year that feels like it never stops kicking you in the face.
We aren’t getting that, at least if Rick Pitino has anything to say about it, so the obvious and most logical answer is Bellarmine.
In an offseason as long as the one college basketball fans are experiencing it’s easy to come up with storylines and conversations that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
That’s exactly what all the talk about Louisville needing to put Bellarmine on their schedule in 2020-21 as they transition into the D1 ranks was about, and according to most fans “it’s something they (meaning the Cards and Chris Mack) have to do.”
Playing Bellarmine would be cool (I won’t lose any sleep if it doesn’t), and would provide a great story for the local media to promote the game. Both teams would stand to benefit (assuming Louisville doesn’t lose) as the Knights and Scotty Davenport would collect a nice check, while the Cards would get another game on the schedule.
Bellarmine has played Louisville close on multiple occasions over the last few years and maybe that’s a reason why Mack doesn’t want to play them. Or maybe he does want to play them and we just don’t know about it. Either way, putting Bellarmine in a MTE event (Louisville bubble) makes too much sense.