Thursday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

Mar 23, 2023 - 6:16 PM

—GoCards.com previews tomorrow night’s Sweet 16 matchup against Ole Miss.

—With Trentyn Flowers now officially reclassified, Louisville has the No. 6 men’s basketball recruiting class for 2023, according to 247 Sports. Not bad.

—U of L baseball is headed to Notre Dame for its first road series of the season. Here’s a preview.

—Jack Harlow doesn’t name drop bad Italian restaurants in songs.

—Kenny Payne and company will host 4-star wing Jalen Shelley (2024) this weekend.

—Rodger Sherman of The Ringer writes that men’s college basketball is in its upset era.

—Brad Crawford of 247 Sports identifies Louisville as one of the potential surprise teams for the 2023 college football season.

Nominee: Louisville

No disrespect to nationally-ranked North Carolina and Florida State in several preseason polls, but anything can happen in the ACC this fall. Brohm spent six years with Purdue and left a tenure marked by success. He took over the Boilermakers program and immediately produced winning seasons, earning Purdue a measure of respect in the Big Ten. Louisville was in the market for a new coach when Scott Satterfield departed for the Cincinnati opening and quickly swooped in on one of its more famous alumni.

—Five-star DL Kamarion Franklin, the No. 24 overall player player in the class of 2024, will be among the high-profile recruits visiting U of L this weekend.

—Safety Jarcoby Hopson, another top 50 overall player from the 2024 class, visited earlier this week.

—Ricky O’Donnell ranks the men’s Sweet 16 by chance of cutting down the nets a week from Monday.

—Identifying perennial whiner Texas A&M as the first team out of next year’s tournament while this tournament is still two weeks away from wrapping up is without doubt the funniest thing Joe Lunardi has ever done.

—If Gonzaga wins the West Region, there’s a good chance that we will have our first men’s Final Four since 1990 that doesn’t include a past national champion.

—Hailey Van Lith has been named one of the region finalists for 2023 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches’ All-America.

—Made some updated Final Four picks here.

—Jae’Lyn Withers appears to have plenty of options as far as where to take his game.

—North Carolina is also apparently interested in Withers.

—The Athletic previews the Seattle Region and predicts that Louisville will be upset by Ole Miss tomorrow night, and the Rebels will fall to Iowa two days later.

—Kentucky to the World will bring together U of L basketball legends who changed history both on and off the court during its Republic Bank Foundation Speaker Series, Basketball and Brotherhood: Breaking Barriers, on Wednesday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m.

As part of the evening, guests will hear from former UofL players Wade Houston and Eddie Whitehead, who were two of the three athletes who broke the color barrier in 1962. UofL’s Director of Development for Diversity and Engagement Valerie Combs, the first Black woman to sign a letter of intent to attend UofL on a basketball scholarship, and Judge Derwin Webb, a captain of the UofL basketball team who went on to become Kentucky’s first Black Family Court Judge.

Clips from the upcoming documentary Basketball & Brotherhood: Breaking Barriers, produced by Jessica Loving, Luke Whitehead, and well-known Louisville filmmaker Fred Reynolds, will be interwoven throughout the special evening.

Community members of all ages are invited on Wednesday, April 12. Tickets are currently on sale at https://tickets.kentuckyperformingarts.org/21394. Tickets are $30 per adult and free for students of all ages thanks to the support of the Bass Family Foundation.

—Racing Louisville’s new kits are pretty awesome.

—Louisville quarterback, Brock Domann and a host of his teammates are coming together to host the 2^nd annual CARDS Youth Football Camp. The camp will be held at King Louie’s Sports Complex, 600 N English Station Rd, Louisville, KY 40223, from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 17, 2023. It is open to boys and girls ages 6-14.

For more information, or to register, visit www.brockdomann.com/camp or call (719) 266-9308.

—Enjoyed this from Marc Murphy:

—El Ellis season highlights are here.

—Fairleigh Dickinson inspired an entire sport last week. Less than a week later, their head coach is now at Iona.

—I still can’t believe that we never really got to cash in on Bill Murray being a Louisville fan. Our loss is UConn’s gain.

—A professional lip-reader has our answers.

—Eric Crawford writes about how Hailey Van Lith handled herself after Monday night’s dustup.

—Louisville-Pitt softball highlights are here.

—If you somehow missed the news earlier this week, Rick Pitino is headed to St. John’s. He made some vintage Rick references to John Calipari on his first day on the job.

—Russ is happy to see Rick staying in New York.

—The Bellarmine basketball managers have earned a spot in the managers Final Four in Houston, but they need some help getting there.

—Via Kelly Dickey, only Louisville, Connecticut, and South Carolina have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in each of the last six NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournaments. Jeff Walz is decent at his job.

—Kevin Harlan is the man.

—Class of 2025 prospect Cruz Williams from Indiana will be attending Louisville’s spring practice on April 1.

—Former Cardinal Josh Nickelberry is back in the transfer portal. He spent the last two seasons at La Salle.

—Look at Mangok.

—Louisville-Drake was the fourth most-watched first round game of the women’s tournament.

—Jim Larranaga doesn’t get enough love.

—Trentyn Flowers would like you to know that he’s definitely a guard and not a small forward.

—Boner Jamz 2023.

—Bill Connelly writes that fewer mid-majors than ever are getting into the men’s NCAA tournament despite those teams pulling more upsets than ever before. That probably needs to be fixed.

—Maryland DL transfer Tank Booker is visiting Louisville.

—Considering that we’ve won just once NCAA tournament game since 2015 (and none since 2017), this is pretty wild.

—Armando Bacot is returning to North Carolina for a fifth season. Although I’m not a fan of his antics, he did serve up an A+ tweet after the news broke yesterday.

—Here’s what the experts are saying about new Louisville guard Trentyn Flowers.

—Taquan remains the best.

—Is Nick Saban taking shots at Nate Oats? Because it definitely feels like Nick Saban is taking shots at Nate Oats.

—Western Kentucky guard Dayvion McKnight is in the transfer portal and has reportedly heard from some high-profile names already, but to date, Louisville is not one of them.

—It appears as though there’s some bad blood between Monty Montgomery and Louisville.

—Downtown restaurants are gearing up for Creighton, Alabama, San Diego State and Princeton fans.

—Former Louisville interim president Lori Gonzalez will be the next president at Ohio University.

—The U of L women’s basketball team’s trip to Seattle is a homecoming of sorts for two of the team’s biggest stars.

—The Clarion Ledger is predicting an Ole Miss upset of Louisville.

Score prediction

Ole Miss 61, Louisville 57. It’s clear by now that the Rebels’ style of winning with physical, determined defense translates to postseason play. In fact, it seems like programs outside of the SEC that haven’t been exposed to it don’t really have an answer for it. If the Rebels can set the tone of this game ‒ and recent history has shown us that they probably can ‒ there’s no reason they can’t continue this run.

—”A lot of learning” awaits the Louisville football team during spring practice.

—Louisville Report is keeping tabs on all the transfers that Kenny Payne and company have reached out to thus far.

—If you would like to donate NIL funds that will be used specifically for U of L women’s basketball, you can now do that here.

—For my money, this is the picture of the year so far in Cardinal athletics.

—A former Notre Dame offensive coordinator will be one of Louisville’s quality control coaches this fall.

—Florida LB Chason Clark recaps his visit to Louisville.

—Cardinal Authority has a photo gallery up from the first day of spring practice.

—Donovan killed a man earlier this week.

—Oak Hill Academy PG Kaden Magwood (2025) — a Louisville native who began his high school career at Western — recaps his visit to U of L from earlier this week.

—The Sweet 16 court inside the KFC Yum Center is ready for tomorrow night.

—U of L men’s soccer has landed elite 2024 recruit TJ Kahoalii.

—Let’s keep dancing, ladies.

—Trentyn Flowers talks about what led him to Louisville.

—North Hardin WR Shaun Boykins enjoyed his latest visit to U of L.

—And finally, we’re giving away a set of season tickets for the 2023 Louisville City FC season on today’s Mike Rutherford Show — 3-6 on 1450 The Big X. You can stream it here.