Louisville down, but Meyer wary

LOUISVILLE, Ky. Anyone but Joey Meyer would call tonight'sDePaul-Louisville game (7, Ch. 9, 720 AM) a matter of role reversal.

It is the Blue Demons who are undefeated (4-0) entering FreedomHall. It is the twice-national champion Cardinals (0-1) who arewinless. It is the Blue Demons with 10 experienced players sharingtime. It is the Cardinals, depleted by academic ineligibility andthe departure of two seniors, who have only three experienced playersleading a corps of walk-ons, underclassmen and redshirts.

It was the Blue Demons rated 10th in last week's national powerrankings, their highest ranking since 1986-87 when they last starteda season with a winning streak that reached 16. And it was theCardinals, with a 72-52 loss to Indiana, ranked 78th in the samepoll.

And it is the Blue Demons who hold a 17-13 all-time advantage inthe series.

None of that matters much to Meyer.

"Everybody knows how good Louisville is," Meyer said of theCardinals, ranked 23rd in the AP pre-season poll. "They have goodtalent, good coaching and win a lot of games. We have to be ready toplay."

Among the ready will be junior shooting guard Brad Niemann,expected to play after missing Saturday's 96-78 victory over IllinoisState because of back pain. Niemann practiced Monday with no illeffects, though his chronic herniated disc problem makes himsusceptible to setbacks.

"We need to get Brad back," Meyer said. "He helps us not onlywith his shot, but with his leadership and intelligence."

As he starts his 20th season at Louisville, coach Denny Crumlongs for the same kind of help. "We only have three players whohave played up to this point and a few redshirts and five walk-ons,"he said. "Our biggest problem is we're not very big and we have sofew experienced guys. We're a long way from being a good basketballteam.

"I don't know what to expect when I substitute. They're workinghard and their attitudes are great, but whether they get to be agreat team this year I don't know."

Crum still has top players in 6-3 senior scoring leaderLaBradford Smith and junior forwards Everick Sullivan and CorneliusHolden. It's the supporting cast - which includes four sophomorewalk-ons, one junior walk-on, five sophomores, one junior collegetransfer and two freshmen - that is untested.

DePAUL BITS: With two 20-game performances off the bench, juniorguard Chuck Murphy has been the scoring man of the hour, butprecedent would tab 6-7 junior David Booth as the man for tonight.Booth, only 11 points shy of 1,000, scored his career-high 37 pointslast year against Louisville and as a freshman had 20 points againstLouisville in an 81-67 DePaul loss. DePaul ranked 14th in the latest Sagarin power rankings, down fromlast week's 10th. The rankings are based on schedule strength,records and points scored.