Friday Morning Cardinal News And Notes

Texas and Marc Summers are still locked up in one of the tightest LCPT battles of all-time. Get your vote in before 2 p.m.

SB Nation's Sam Vecenie looks at how teams are going to replace the biggest stars from the 2013-14 college hoops season, including Russ Smith.

Russ Smith, Louisville: 18.2 points, 4.6 assists, 2.0 steals, 26.2 PER, 30.7 USG%

He not only was the key to the Cardinals on offense, but the two-time Ken Pom player of the year was also responsible for setting the tone for Louisville's high-pressure defense. It always surprised me how under-appreciated Smith was around the country, as it seems fans never really gave him credit for the well-rounded, diverse game that Smith provided the Cardinals in his last two seasons. Very few players are capable of a 58 percent true-shooting percentage to go along with a 31.6 assist rate and a four percent steal rate, and Smith will be profoundly missed.

Expected to step up in his place will be Chris Jones and Terry Rozier. Jones will be a senior and can continue to cause havoc on the perimeter with his high-pressure defense. However, it's Rozier that should make the leap. Rozier was a top-30 composite recruit who, like Smith, needed a year to develop his point-guard skills. Jones will most likely handle the ball more often, as Rozier's shooting skill translates better off-ball, but Rozier should get to see his own fair share of the point role. His key to improvement will be finishing better at the rim, where he only converted 50.7 percent of his attempts. That should open up the rest of his game, as defenders will need to sink back off of him a bit more than they did this year.

The team also has Quentin Snider coming in from local Ballard High School. He projects as a true point guard, but probably won't be ready for heavy minutes this year. Louisville projects to have an excellent team again with Montrezl Harrell surprisingly returning to the fold. However, the most important piece of that puzzle will be whether or not the guards can work together to replace Smith.

Steve Jones of the C-J breaks down the top players from the class of 2015 currently being targeted by Rick Pitino and his staff.

I need this, you need this, we all need this:

More than just needing the figurine (or clock or whatever the hell it is), someone needs to duplicate that outfit. You wear that for Halloween and it's pretty much your choice of any guy or girl at the party. You're also probably going to wind up becoming an elected official in the city of Louisville. Probably.

Trinity standout and top U of L target Raymond Spalding dropped 36 in the opening game of the Adidas Invitational in Indianapolis. Indiana and Xavier are the other two schools the rising senior is currently serious about.

The real secret of John Calipari's recruiting prowess? This dude tweeting at the moms of high school boys on Twitter.

Nah, it's normal.

Tigernet.com (Clemson) looks at what Louisville and Bobby Petrino are bringing to the ACC.

TNIAAM continues with its ACC positional series and says that Louisville has second-best group of wide receivers in the league.

Jason Kirk relives the glory of the Bill Walsh College Football video game, which simply refused to pay for the rights to anything.

It's Friday and I want to post this so it's happening:

Donovan Mitchell, a four-star point guard from the class of 2015, added a scholarship offer from Rick Pitino Thursday afternoon. He told Adam Zagoria that he "definitely" plans on taking an official visit to U of L.

My best friend welcomed his first child into the world last night, and I'm not sure I could be more jealous that he got to do it on the same day Matz landed his Visa.

Terry Rozier continues to turn heads at the LeBron James Skills Academy.

Standout college players from Day 1 workouts @ #LeBronJamesSkillsAcademy Joe Young-vocal ran pg well, made shots Terry Rozier-tough, High IQ

— Miles Simon (@milessimon) July 10, 2014

Isaiah Taylor's speed and awareness is Elite. Terry Rozier's athleticism & ball-handle is also Elite. #LeBronJamesSkillsAcademy

— Coach John Lucas (@CoachJohnLucas1) July 11, 2014

Quick FWIW: I am aware that a lot of you are seeing an ad for UK football season tickets when you log onto CC. This has actually happened the past three summers because SB Nation sells ad space in bulk, which means the ads that pop up on a user's site are based on their search history, cookies, location, etc. It's the same reason you'll see U of L adds on UK websites at this time of the year.

Just to reiterate, I have no control over the ads you see, nor do I profit from them. I do, however, think they're super, super adorbs.

A very happy 5-year anniversary to the famous Red Rage tailgating team. I expect there to be Red Raging photo ops for years to come.

It would appear as though Stephan Van Treese is headed to Japan, which is wonderful. I only hope that the Japanese know how to chart Steves.

Hearing rumors 1 of my favorite former students & #UofL MBB alumni might be going to Japan! Good luck @stephanvt44! pic.twitter.com/XiuO4WjYe0

— Nick Stover (@ULFlyingCard) July 11, 2014

Japan it is.. Pumped for my opportunity & can't wait.

— Stephan Van Treese (@stephanvt44) July 11, 2014

In my dreams, this  is the sequel to Mr. Baseball. Van Treese, Selleck. Selleck, Van Treese. It's a toss-up.

Stephan Zen Treese? All right I'm done.

The U of L men's and women's swimming teams have released their schedules for the 2014 season.

If you missed out on the Notre Dame ticket sale on Thursday, there are still a limited amount of tickets that you can purchase for face value today. I would snatch them up quickly if you're going that route, which you should because it's going to be a lot of fun. We will win, and we will drink together. All of us (the winning, not necessarily the drinking...if you drink, we'll drink together...but we're going to win).

This is pretty much the Louisville Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Happy 4th of July! @CardChronicle pic.twitter.com/UUf4aQxBQm

— Lauren Hunter (@lehunt02) July 4, 2014

If you'd forgotten the incredible story of U of L freshman Terry Ramsey, it's time for a refresher course.

And finally, Jeff Greer breaks down why this summer is different from past summers for the U of L basketball staff.