Louisville releases 2018-19 non-conference schedule

It is a bear.

Chris Mack’s first season at Louisville will come hand-in-hand with one of the toughest non-conference schedules the program has ever faced.

Here’s the complete rundown:

“My former boss and mentor, the late Skip Prosser, once remarked ‘You can’t sharpen your teeth just by eating oatmeal. You have to eat some raw meat now and then’,” Mack said in a release. “Well, our choppers better be sharp with the challenge that awaits us. It’s what Louisville Basketball is all about. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Quick thoughts:

—When you toss the ACC schedule in on top of this, that’s at least five, and potentially as many as seven, games against likely preseason top 10 teams.

—Seton Hall and Indiana on the road are also games where U of L could definitely be an underdog.

—Nicholls won the Southland regular season title last year, but that’s still a team Louisville should handle. The scarier date is eight days later against Vermont, a team which consistently wins somewhere around 30 games a season and dominates the America East.

—At least Kentucky’s not in the middle of a workday this year. It is, however, on the same day as the College Football Playoff semifinal games, which all but guarantees an early tip time. And that’s fine.

—Please don’t lose to Robert Morris. Those jokes are too near and dear to my heart for that to happen.