Thursday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

Jan 26, 2023 - 7:28 PM

—NET Rankings Update: No. 334 (up 1 from yesterday!)

—BC Interruption recaps last night’s win over the Cards.

—Eric Crawford shares his thoughts on the latest embarrassment from a season that continues to be almost too bad to process for anyone who cares about this program.

—Jeff Greer’s latest U of L hoops newsletter continues to dive into the humbling current state of Cardinal basketball.

The University of Louisville men’s basketball team moved into the 300s in Ken Pomeroy’s national efficiency rankings after the loss to Boston College on Wednesday night.

Stare at that sentence. Read it again. Really take that in.

Louisville — 2012 Final Four, 2013 national champion, 2014 Sweet 16, 2015 Elite 8, 2017 2 seed, 2020 No. 1 in the country — is somehow 301st out of 363 teams in the KenPom rankings within 11 years of all that success. The Cards have fallen 210 spots since the season started and lost all nine of their ACC games by an average of 15 points. They are two spots away from being the lowest-ranked high-major team in KenPom’s rankings since Pomeroy started his website for the 2001-02 season. Only 2011-12 Utah, which ranked 302nd in its first year in the Pac-12, is worse.

What is happening this season at Louisville is historic in all the wrong ways. Yes, there is more season to play — 11 regular-season games and (at least) one ACC Tournament game — so there is time to salvage the (very important) KenPom ranking and horrifically lopsided record and bring this ship back from the brink. But when you wake up on Thursday, January 26, 2023, Louisville will rank in the 300s in KenPom in the first year under new coach Kenny Payne.

—Here’s a transcript of the comments from Kenny Payne and Jae’Lyn Withers after last night’s game.

—Tyran Stokes (2026) says him growing up in Louisville definitely gives U of L a bit of an advantage in his recruitment.

—Congrats to Malik Cunningham, who is headed to the Senior Bowl.

—Jeff Brohm and his staff have now offered eight prospects from national power IMG Academy.

—The U of L swim and dive teams will host a pair of top 10 squads from Indiana as well as Cincinnati this weekend.

—Today’s Sports Illustrated hoops newsletter focuses on Louisville and Georgetown being “in shambles.”

In retrospect, it’s remarkable that Georgetown, a Jesuit school with 7,500 undergrads and restrictive admission standards, was able to become a college basketball power in the first place. Maybe the sport has just passed it by. It’s a different story at Louisville, though. As a public school in a basketball-mad state with a gleaming new-ish downtown arena, Louisville has been able to keep pace in its arms race with cross-state rival Kentucky.

But the Cardinals are, without exaggeration, one of the worst teams in all of Division I this season. Their only wins came against Western Kentucky and Florida A&M (back to back!). They’re ranked 301st (out of 363 teams) in KenPom, right behind Texas Southern. The next lowest power conference team is three-win Cal at No. 239. And while Georgetown’s decline has been steady, the Cardinals spent two weeks in December 2019 at No. 1 in the AP poll. Since then, everything has gone wrong.

—Louisville native Kaden Magwood, now a 3-star prospect from the class of 2025, says that U of L remains one of the schools he’s in the closest contact with.

—It’s been 15 months since Mike James tore his Achilles tendon. The CJ tells the story of how Kevin Durant, Dominique Wilkins and Edmond Sumner helped fuel his return.

—Bally Sports appears to be headed towards bankruptcy.

—She gets it.

—Dan McDonnell picked up a late addition to his 2023 recruiting class with the commitment of Jake Murphy, a left-handed pitcher from Ohio.

—Former Cardinal pitcher Josh Rogers has officially signed with the Colorado Rockies.

—Louisville’s West End hosted the city’s first-ever HBCU basketball game Wednesday night.

—Another day, another chart.

—Ballard High standout Jaden Minkins, the younger brother of current Cardinal Josh Minkins, has committed to U of L as a preferred walk-on.

—Rick Bozich reacts to the Koron Davis commitment for Kenny Payne.

—And finally, the Rutherford Show returns this afternoon from 3-6 on 1450 The Big X. We’ll try to spend as much time as possible talking about Trevor being all over TV at last night’s AEW wrestling event so I don’t run the risk of my heart going out from having to talk about this basketball team too much. You can stream the show here.