—Five-star basketball recruit Tay Kinney will be in town for an official visit to U of L this Thursday and Friday. Kinney has a massive social media following, and the game to justify it.
—All session tickets for this weekend’s Super Regional at Jim Patterson are officially sold out. Should be quite the scene. Also, if anyone has two to sell for Saturday, hit me up.
—College Football Network ranks all 136 FBS teams and has Louisville at No. 20.
20. Louisville Cardinals
Jeff Brohm has returned successful, exciting football to the Louisville Cardinals in the past two seasons. Last fall, the program ranked in the top 10 in the country for scoring offense, averaging 36.5 points per game. Although quarterback Tyler Shough and several pass catchers are gone, Louisville returns a dynamic RB duo of Duke Watson and Isaac Brown, two of the best in the business.
Brohm turned to the transfer portal to rebuild a roster that ranks near the bottom of the FBS for returning production, notably bringing in former USC passer Miller Moss to replace Shough and landing seven defensive players who could be regular starters for the Cardinals this fall. Louisville’s path to the ACC title game, however, is as rough as they come, playing Clemson, Miami (FL), and SMU.
—I’ve got Louisville at No. 9 in my updated early college hoops top 25 for SB Nation.
—ESPN’s first FPI rankings for the 2025 college football season have Louisville all the way down at No. 41. The Cards have the fourth-steepest drop of any team in the sport from where they finished in 2024.
—Racing Louisville, which is currently playing as well as it has in franchise history, is back at home on Friday night for a 7:30 match against Utah. CC readers can get discounted tickets to the match here, as well as discounted tickets to Saturday night’s Lou City match against the Tapa Bay Rowdies here.
—Cool story happening in Murray.
—Floyd Street Media has a new conversation with Miller Moss that you can see here.
—At least 15 former Indiana men’s basketball players are alleging improper sexual conduct by a former team physician and saying Indiana officials, including coach Bobby Knight, were aware of the behavior.
—Jon Rothstein continues to have Louisville ranked lower than anyone else who covers his college basketball. Given his “if everything goes right, they have the potential to be a bubble team” take after watching last year’s team practice in the fall, I’m fine with him being lower on us than most.
—Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated has the Cards at No. 10 in his updated rankings.
—ESPN’s Jeff Borzello puts U of L at No. 7.
Previous ranking: 7
Pat Kelsey had as strong an offseason as any coach in the country so far, landing impact transfers Ryan Conwell (Xavier), Isaac McKneely (Virginia) and Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State) to go with top-10 recruit Mikel Brown Jr. in the backcourt.
Kasean Pryor and J’Vonne Hadley were question marks entering the offseason, but both have since announced their returns. And despite the late portal departure of James Scott, there’s still depth up front behind Pryor and Hadley, with particular excitement surrounding the arrivals of Germany native Sananda Fru and Greek big man Vangelis Zougris.
Kelsey’s first NCAA tournament win isn’t far away.
Projected starting lineup
Mikel Brown Jr. (No. 8 in ESPN 100)
Isaac McKneely (14.4 PPG at Virginia)
Ryan Conwell (16.5 PPG at Xavier)
J’Vonne Hadley (12.2 PPG)
Kasean Pryor (12.0 PPG in seven games)
I love that pretty much everyone who is doing this has a different starting five for Louisville.
—The CJ previews the upcoming 16-team Kentucky softball tournament, where 7th Region champ Assumption will be chasing the school’s first state title.
—After spending last season at Wake Forest, former Card Ty-Laur Johnson will suit up for San Diego in 2025-26. The Torreros went 6-27 and finished dead last in the WCC last season.
—Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter apologized for using a homophobic slur caught by ESPN cameras during the team’s regional final loss to Tennessee.
—”That Aussie MF can shoot that thing.”
Game-high 28 points on a blistering 8-of-13 from deep for Reyne Smith to fuel a blowout win here in Treviso.
The Aussie sharp-shooter knocked down 400+ career threes at Charleston and Louisville.
Nothing new for the sniper from Down Under.
/// @adidasHoops pic.twitter.com/xex3DGnxhX
— Jon Chepkevich (@JonChep) June 2, 2025
—The Athletic ranked all of the last 25 No. 1 football recruits in their respective recruiting classes.
—Sananda Fru’s full conversation with The Field of 68 crew can be viewed here. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, just know that his nickname is “Flamingo.”
—This story definitely made a splash with me, I think because I’d be so pissed if it happened to me. Wonder if you’re in agreement.
—Louisville is one of the schools most involved with Jaxson Richardson, currently the No. 6 player in ESPN’s basketball recruiting rankings for 2026.
—Keeneland is one of the next three tracks that will host the Breeder’s Cup. Churchill Downs is not.
—Tyler Shough can spin it.
—I like North Carolina’s roster more than most people seem to, but if they truly paid 14 mil for it … it’s hard to argue they got their money’s worth.
UNC’s payroll will be more than $14 million, @InsideCarolina reports.
That would put the Tar Heels in the top 5 among men’s basketball programs for this season.
And maybe even No. 2 behind Kentucky – which is somewhere in the $20 million range. https://t.co/v5cFB075J9
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 4, 2025
—Rick Bozich writes about what Dan McDonnell learned from … Hannibal Lecter?
—The full schedule for all of this weekend’s Super Regional matchups can be found here. Louisville-Miami will be the second series to get underway.
—Utah Valley will join the Big West in 2026-27, leaving the WAC with just five current members.
—Isaac Brown and Duke Watson highlights will carry me through these next three months.
Louisville RB Isaac Brown — ‘24 ACC OROY & freshman All-America.
Electric playmaker & already one of the country’s premier RBs. There aren’t many players in CFB I’m more excited to see back on the field this fall.
With Duke Watson behind him, LVille has one of the top RB… pic.twitter.com/bs8J6knDMX
— Ryan Fowler (@_RyanFowler_) June 3, 2025
—Boston College will serve as the first major NCAA football sponsorship for New Balance.
—Bruce Feldman reached out to some of the most successful and most creative minds in football to find out one thing: what was their all-time favorite play call?
—Eric Crawford highlights 10 must-watch football games this season for Kentucky, Louisville, and Indiana.
—The annual anonymous ACC coach quotes about Louisville are here, and they are … kind of boring, but mostly complimentary.
“Even losing the quarterback-wide receiver combo, this is going to be a fantastic offense.”
“Miller Moss is going to do really well with [Jeff] Brohm. That was a huge, huge get for them in the portal.”
“Even losing [Ja’Corey] Brooks, they’re going to be really strong at wide receiver with the transfers they’ve brought in and returning [Caullin] Lacy.”
“The area of the most concern is probably the secondary, and they lost [Ashton] Gillotte on their defensive line, too. How they handle restocking the defense will determine how far they can go.”
“This is a team that should be considered a title dark horse because of how effective the offense can be in big games. Moss is a veteran who’s played well in a variety of systems. They’re going to score a lot of points.”
—New Kentucky hoops transfer Reece Potter is already taking “little brother” shots at the Cards.
—Louisville men’s golfer Sebastian Moss has been named a First Team All-American.
—Khani Rooths’ new “CARDS” leg tat might be the biggest non-baseball story of the week.
—Five-star PG Dylan Mingo headlines the new targets on Pat Kelsey’s radar.
—Louisville is ranked No. 14 in this week’s National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll. Miami, U of L’s Super Regional opponent, is No. 16.
—Matt McGavic over at Louisville Report breaks down the game of new U of L football commit Jamarcus Whyce.
—The CJ’s Payton Titus writes about how the decision was made to spend money that was supposed to go to facility upgrades for Louisville baseball on NIL for the program instead. It appears the move is paying off.
“I know he gets in it about resources,” Furman said of McDonnell, “but it’s like, I would be hard-pressed to find seven teams that spent more in the ACC. And the ACC was the most competitive baseball league in the country this year.”
Furman, who played college baseball at Pitt from 2014-17, also touted Louisville’s rich tradition and pro pedigree as a selling point for recruits. McDonnell has led U of L to a whopping 10 NCAA super regionals and five College World Series. Active Cards in MLB include Adam Duvall (Atlanta Braves), Henry Davis (Pittsburgh Pirates), Will Smith and Dalton Rushing (both with the Los Angeles Dodgers).
In Furman’s view, talent acquisition is the key to success. It’s not about the “extravagant facilities” or “flashing lights.” It’s about getting the players who can compete, win championships and develop into successful pros.
—The hype around U of L QB commit Briggs Cherry has been soaring in recent months.
—The Kansas City Star covers the news that Kansas will play a hoops exhibition at Louisville this October.
—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is back this afternoon from 2:30-5:30 on 1450/96.1 The Big X. Sean Moth will join us to talk some baseball at 3. You can stream the show here or watch live on YouTube here.