This much was evident Friday night at the KFC Yum Center: Louisville's men's basketball players needed the experience of running onto the court with the lights dimmed, the crowd cheering, the music blasting.

It was therapy. It was a reminder they play at a top-flight NCAA Division I program. It was an escape from the turmoil that has surrounded their school.

Basketball, finally.

"We've been through a lot," junior wing Deng Adel said. "Every year there's always something new. Basketball is just the biggest relief."

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One of Louisville's captains who has lived and played through two scandal-laden seasons entering this one, Adel compiled 32 points and 13 rebounds to help his Red Team claim some scrimmage bragging rights with a 94-80 victory Friday night. He added four assists, two steals and one soul-crushing dunk over his roommate Anas Mahmoud.

Adel and sophomore wing V.J. King made a combined 24 field goals. There were Ray Spalding's post-dunk screams. Freshman guard Darius Perry thundered in a one-handed slam, and his classmate, Jordan Nwora, made four 3-pointers.

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Interim Louisville coach David Padgett, appearing on-court for the first time as the Cards' frontman, drew a long, loud applause from the 8,381 fans at the Yum Center. He called it a "humbling" moment.

Then Padgett got an even louder cheer when the in-house camera cut to him sitting next to Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum along the baseline. They talked about Crum's most recent fishing trip, and Crum told Padgett he liked the look of his team.

"Overall, a good night," Padgett said.

In the locker room, Louisville's players praised the 32-year-old Padgett for how he has handled the transition from entering his second year as a Louisville assistant coach to becoming Louisville's head coach two days before formal practices started.

Padgett was their choice. The team's captains planned to vouch for him in a meeting with interim university President Greg Postel, and they were relieved to discover Postel was already a step ahead of them.

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But, Nwora noted, it's tough to change roles on a coaching staff. Assistants can often be sounding boards for players, as they are the staffers who listen to players' concerns and help them figure out how to work with the head coach.

To go from that guy to the top guy is "definitely hard," Nwora said, "especially because it was so unexpected."

Yet Friday felt normal, said Mahmoud, a senior captain who has become one of the team's leading voices.

Padgett still ambled into the locker room before the game and cracked sarcastic jokes, just like he always does.

"That's why we love him; he's the same person," Mahmoud said. "He has not changed one bit. It's great for us to see someone we love so much as our head coach."

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Padgett has started yelling more, Mahmoud added. His shouts, with his deep voice cutting through the echoes of squeaking sneakers, "sound like a monster," Perry said.

"He screams sometimes when you don't expect it," Mahmoud said. "You're sitting there and then he's like, 'Listen!' And you just say, 'Oh, wow, oh my God, all right.' ... It's different when you're in charge. He feels the difference. He tries as hard as he can not to let the difference get to him, which is what we respect about him."

After all the tumult the past three weeks, with the FBI's investigation into college basketball recruiting prompting Louisville to suspend Rick Pitino and fire assistant Jordan Fair, the Cards enjoyed laughing and talking about basketball again.

Adel joked that he couldn't wait to return to his dorm room after the game to turn on his iPad and replay the video of his dunk on Mahmoud a few times for his roommate.

Mahmoud laughed and questioned why Spalding tried a finger-roll layup over him, a bad idea the 7-foot Mahmoud emphatically rejected with his right hand.

And they wanted to review South Oldham grad and freshman walk-on Jo Griffin's two-handed dunk on Mahmoud.

Where does that come from?

Padgett, Adel said.

"Not a lot of coaches can be calm in this situation," Adel said, "but he's just turned the attention off him and focused on getting the players better and focusing on us."