Louisville Basketball announces dates, matchups for Wade Houston Tipoff Classic

Louisville Basketball has announced the Wade Houston Tipoff Classic, to include nine total participating teams

With Louisville Basketball’s recent announcement of the Wade Houston Tipoff Classic, or as we like to call it: ‘The Louisville Bubble,’ Cards fans finally have a glimpse at the start of the Cards’ schedule.

Tuesday morning, Louisville Athletics announced that the multi-team event being hosted by Louisville would be called the ‘Wade Houston Tipoff Classic’ and released details as to what the event will consist of.

The nine teams participating are to be: Louisville (24-7 in 2019-20, T-2 in ACC), Seton Hall (21-9, Big East Co-Champions), Western Kentucky (20-10, T-2 in C-USA), Duquesne (21-9, 5th in A-10), Winthrop (24-10, Big South Co-Champion), UNC-Greensboro (23-9, 3rd in SOCON), Little Rock (21-10, Sun Belt Champions), Southern Illinois (16-16, 5th in MVC), Prairie View A&M (19-13, SWAC Champions).

Louisville Athletics announced the number of games each program would be participating in at the KFC Yum! Center:

"“Five teams will play five games each (Little Rock, Louisville, UNC Greensboro, Prairie View A&M and Winthrop), three will play three games (Duquesne, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky) and one will play two (Seton Hall) during the first week-plus of the college basketball season.  There will be three days with triple-headers, three days with a pair of games, three days with a single game and one day without a game (Thanksgiving) during the 10-day period.”"

The event is named after one of the first of three African-American basketball players to sign with Louisville in 1963. Houston played with Louisville from 1963-66 and was a part of two postseason teams for the Cards.

After his collegiate playing days, Houston coached at Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky and took them to two state tournaments and ultimately winning the 1974-75 Kentucky state championship. Houston was also a member of Coach Denny Crum’s coaching staff and was a part of four Final Four teams, including the 1980 and 1986 National Championship teams.

Louisville Athletics also announced the beginning of Louisville’s schedule with the release of the ‘Wade Houston Tipoff Classic.’ Louisville will begin their season on Nov. 25 against Southern Illinois, followed by a Nov. 27 showdown against former Louisville assistant Kevin Willard and Seton Hall.

The Cards will then take on Prairie View A&M on Nov. 29, Western Kentucky on Dec. 1, and UNC-Greensboro on Dec. 4 all in the KFC Yum! Center.

Louisville will play five games as part of the ‘Wade Houston Tipoff Classic’ as well as non-conference games against rival Kentucky near the end of December and Wisconsin in Madison, WI as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

With these seven non-conference games locked in and scheduled for Louisville Basketball, it is expected that the rest of the schedule being released is the 20-game ACC schedule. The Cards will tip-off their 2020-21 college basketball season in about three weeks.