UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team will travel south to Ohio for a pair of exhibition games against Division I opponents to open its 2009-10 season.   

The Cardinals will open with the University of Cincinnati on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 pm before playing Miami University on Sunday the 8th for a 3:00 pm match-up.    “This is a great opportunity for our athletes to begin the season against top-tier competition and experience a bit of the big-school atmosphere”, stated head coach Frankie Smith, who begins his third season at the helm for the Cardinals.  “It also helps with the evaluation process in bringing-out certain areas of our game that we need to improve on further heading into regular season play.”   Both games will be broadcasted live on ESPN 100.9 FM.  

The SVSU men's basketball team will begin regular season play with a home contest against Adrian College (Mich.) on November 15 at 3:00 pm.  The Cardinals open the GLIAC portion of their schedule when they host the defending NCAA Division II National Champion University of Findlay Oilers in an 8:00 pm match-up on December 3.