George Mason @ Louisville preview

Following a second straight offseason in which his program was at the center of controversy, Louisville coach Rick Pitino was fired in mid-October for his alleged involvement in a recruiting scandal. Interim head coach David Padgett will get his first crack at proving he is worthy of handling the job on a full-time basis Sunday when the 16th-ranked Cardinals host George Mason.

Pitino successfully navigated his team through troubled waters two seasons ago after accusations made by a former escort alleging Louisville used dancers to assist in its recruiting efforts went public. A long-term FBI investigation came to a head this fall and proved to be the final straw for Pitino after the school reportedly paid $100,000 to a recruit's family, forcing Louisville to turn to Padgett, who joined the coaching staff only last year after serving as the director of basketball operations the previous two seasons. The third-youngest coach in Division I, Padgett takes over the reins of one of only four programs to win at least 20 games in each of the last 15 seasons. The Patriots, who ended a streak of three straight 20-loss seasons with their first 20-win campaign since 2012-13 last year, won their season opener for the first time in four years after edging Lafayette 67-65 at home Friday.

TV: 2 p.m. ET, Fox Sports South

ABOUT GEORGE MASON (1-0): Justin Kier (5.8 points in 2016-17) sank a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining to give the Patriots the lead for good Friday, and the 6-4 sophomore guard ended up with career highs of 16 points and four steals in 36 minutes of action. Otis Livingston II (14.3) is George Mason's leading returning scorer and shot a conference-best 91.5 percent from the foul line as a sophomore - the ninth-best mark in the country - yet missed all three of his attempts Friday. Fellow junior guard Jaire Grayer paced the Patriots with 17 points and nine boards versus the Leopards, easily surpassing his averages of 11.4 and 5.4 in those respective categories last season.

ABOUT LOUISVILLE (2016-17: 25-9): Despite the loss of first-team All-ACC performer Donovan Mitchell as an early entrant into the NBA Draft this summer, the Cardinals' backcourt is in good hands with senior point guard Quentin Snider (12.4 points, 4.1 assists), who finished second in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.74). Deng Adel (12.1 points, 4.5 rebounds), who is the team's second-leading returning scorer and joined Snider as a preseason All-ACC second-team selection, is one of 20 players nationally to be included on the watch list for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award. Senior 7-0 center Anas Mahmoud (2.1 blocks in 18.7 minutes) averaged 14.5 points, eight rebounds and four blocks in Louisville's two exhibition outings and appears primed to play a bigger role this season.

TIP-INS

1. Louisville has won its last 13 season openers and its last 16 home openers.

2. The Patriots only have eight scholarship players on their roster this season and their only senior is first-year walk-on G Nick DiClementi.

3. Padgett is only the third person to coach the Cardinals since 1971, following Denny Crum (1971-2001) and Pitino (2001-17), and the sixth over the last 73 years.

PREDICTION: Louisville 73, George Mason 56