Theres been lots of planning,"

Louisville coach Rick Pitino said he specifically picked out the 13th-ranked Cardinals early-season schedule to provide maximum competition for his talented roster.Pitino said he and his staff chose out-of-conference games against teams that had talent returning, veteran leadership and a good RPI.Enter Evansville.The Purple Aces travel to Louisville for a Friday clash (7 p.m. ET) at the KFC Yum! Center.What we did was, we wanted people who had at least three starters back when we were scheduling, we wanted teams with experience and we wanted teams we thought would be a Top 100 RPI team, Pitino said. And when you watch Evansville on tape, you realize they are so well-coached.Why all the focus on schedule the right kind of teams?We made it a goal of ours to have the No. 1 schedule in the nation, Pitino said. We also wanted to have our best recruiting class, and we obviously want to reach our potential come March. And playing a tough schedule does that for us.As good as the Louisville coaches think Evansville will be, the Aces were picked just ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll.I think our guys understand, Aces coach Marty Simmons said. They hear the talk and people know that we lost a great group of young men through graduation. Weve got a really good group, and they want to do really well. I think theyll use it as motivation.Evansville finished the 2016 season 25-9, its best season in decades, falling to Northern Iowa in the championship of the Missouri Valley tournament.The Aces notched wins last season against Belmont, UC Irvine, Murray State and Illinois State. Their games against major conference teams last season were a 74-64 loss vs. Providence and an 89-76 at Arkansas.Senior guard Jaylon Brown leads Evansvilles returners. He averaged 10.8 points per game last season and is the floor general for the Purple Aces.He will square off against Louisvilles leader, junior point guard Quentin Snider, whom Pitino recently described as the only returning player who has proved something in a national game.Louisvilles lineup is fairly inexperienced, but Evansville has to make up for the loss of its leading scorer, leading rebounder and leading shot-blocker.Friday night will be the debut -- or rather return -- of a classic brand of Pitino basketball. The Cardinals coach recently said he is in the final stages of his Hall of Fame career, and he wants to go out while coaching his favorite brand of basketball -- up-tempo, full-court press and man-to-man defense. It was the style Pitino had during his final two seasons at Kentucky in 1996 and 1997.The Louisville coaching staff installed the faster system during the offseason, and the Cardinals first two exhibition games were played at a much faster pace than their fans are used to seeing.Pitino said he expects Louisvilles early-season games to be very fast-paced -- and a little sloppy.Interesting enough, William and Mary and Evansville will play up-tempo, they screen a lot and their ball movement is great, and they play like us with a lot of motion, Pitino said.The coach said Louisville fans will have to be patient with the Cardinals as they will be turning the ball over and making a few more mistakes early in the season as they get used to this new approach.Am I a little nervous and apprehensive? Yes I am, Pitino said. Even after 40 years of coaching, Ill still be nervous, but Ill be the only one, everyone else will be fine, but Ill be nervous.Louisville returns Snider, power forward Jaylen Johnson and post Mangok Mathiang as players with starting experience. A pair of super sophomores, shooting guard Donovan Mitchell and small forward Deng Adel, are back, too. NMD R1 Sale Australia .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres have recalled forward Kevin Porter and defenceman Chad Ruhwedel from the minors as part of a five-player roster shuffle made by the NHLs worst team. NMD R1 Womens Sale .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. http://www.nmdaustraliasale.com/nmd-r1-shoes-australia.html . The 29-year-old Baines has established himself as one of the top attacking full backs in the country and was the subject of two bids from United during the last off-season. Everton manager Roberto Martinez says that keeping Baines at the club is a "massive boost and exciting for the future" because he brings "maturity and football knowledge in a very specialized position on the pitch" and an "infectious and positive influence to the rest of the squad. NMD R2 Australia . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. NMD CS1 Australia . Cuban testified Thursday that he was upset when the companys CEO told him news that would reduce the value of his shares, for which hed paid $7.5 million. But he said he did nothing improper when he sold those shares over the next two days.Hockey Canada hopes to finalize plans for its Olympic orientation camp in August, but theres no certainty that players will be able to skate because of insurance issues. Hockey Canada president and CEO Bob Nicholson said no determination has been made yet on whether players will be able to skate, but called it "difficult" based on the price of insuring all NHL contracts. "Insurance is a big issue," Nicholson said in an interview Friday. "We got some quotes yesterday that it would be over a million dollars to skate. So if its that type of dollars, itd be very difficult for us to do that. But were just starting to look into that now with the agreement being done." While the agreement to send NHL players to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, takes care of insurance during the tournament, individual federations are responsible for insuring contracts for orientation camps. Nicholson said his hope was for Canada to begin camp Aug. 25 in Calgary. USA Hockeys camp is scheduled for Aug. 25-29 at the Washington Capitals practice facility in Arlington, Va., and a spokesman confirmed players will not skate. Nicholson expects Canadas camp invites and the announcement of the coaching staff to happen in the coming days. Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings will reportedly be back as head coach, joined by assistants Claude Julien of the Boston Bruins, Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues and Lindy Rufff of the Dallas Stars.dddddddddddd USA Hockey already named Dan Bylsma of the Pittsburgh Penguins its head coach and David Poile of the Nashville Predators its general manager. While Canada has not announced its coaching staff, preparations for Sochi have been underway for some time. "Theres been lots of planning," Nicholson said. "(General manager) Steve Yzerman and the management group have been evaluating players all year. Were in good shape. Were right on schedule for our planning purposes." While some players figure to be locks, many roster decisions will take place early in the 2013-14 NHL season. "I think a lot has to do with the first half of this year," said Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who scored the gold-medal-winning goal for Canada in 2010. "Thats going to dictate a lot, and I think everybody always talks about different combinations and the possibilities. With Canada theres so many guys who could play for that team, but I think that the first half of the season will obviously have a big bearing on that, and well see who kind of starts well and gets those opportunities." Olympic rosters are due by Dec. 31, so Canadas team might not take shape until well into the season. "Thatll all be really figured out in December," Nicholson said. "Weve got such great depth, well have to see whos playing best in the month of December." ' ' '