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Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

Happy graduation season, kids.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium The Louisville softball team dropped a 3-2 heartbreaker to Nebraska Thursday in the first game of the NCAA Tournament. The Cornhuskers won it with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 7th. The Cards will look to avoid elimination this afternoon at 4:30 against BYU.

I_medium You still ain't did ish about the other one.

The Cards hammered Wake Forest 9-2 today in game two of the final series of the regular season.

I_medium SB Nation lists Louisville/Houston as the 24th-best non-conference game in the 2016 college football season.

24. Louisville at Houston, Week 13

This could move up in a hurry, if both teams start hot. Both return a lot, including star QBs Greg Ward Jr. for UH and Lamar Jackson for U of L, and last year's game was a 34-31 Cougars win that changed leads four times in the fourth quarter.

I_medium Campus Insiders' Pete Fiutak makes his 2016 Louisville football predictions (video).

I_medium Information on this year's U of L soccer "Kickin' it with JT & Friends" event (July 23) is here.

I_medium Time is running out to sign up for Louisville football's summer camps.

I_medium Louisville freshman golfer Olivia Cason has qualified for the NCAA championships and currently sits in fifth place after one round.

I_medium FBSchedules.com ranks Louisville's 2016 slate 53rd in its complete strength of schedule rankings.

I_medium Five least favorite songs of all-time (off the top of my head):

1. Uncle Kracker - "Follow Me"
2. Shawn Mullins - "Lullaby"
3. Counting Crows - "Big Yellow Taxi"
4. NewSong - "Christmas Shoes"
5. "Maryland, My Marlyand"

That's right, "Christmas Shoes" transcends holiday hate, and "Maryland, My Maryland" transcends horse racing disdain.

I_medium Twenty games with opponents scoring either no runs or one run is ridiculous.

I_medium Florida wide receiver D.J. Edwards is high on Louisville.

I_medium This in-ear device that can apparently translate language in real time is all sorts of awesome.

I_medium Congrats, Steffany.

I_medium Steve Jones continues his U of L football positional review and says kicker is one of the team's biggest question marks.

I_medium A look from the other side of this weekend's baseball series, where there is significant pressure for Wake Forest to get a couple of huge resume wins.

I_medium In honor this being Preakness weekend, let's take a second to remember "I'm writing a book, bitch ... I'm an author" guy (who also knows UFC) from 2014:

He doesn't appreciate your hierarchy.

I_medium The 2016 Governor's Cup Luncheon (which takes place something like 17 months before the actual game) will honor former coaches Rich Brooks and John L. Smith. Additional honorees will be former NFL players, Deion Branch, Jeremy Jarmon, Jim Kovach, and Mark Sander.

I_medium Corey Ray, Brendan McKay, Drew Harrington and Nick Solak are all finalists for the Dick Howser Award, given annually to the best player in college baseball.

I_medium A look at Louisville's potential quarterback of the future:

I_medium When lightning strikes a green on a golf course, it can be pretty cool.

I_medium CBS has Louisville as one of the five most overrated teams in the country heading into 2016. I disagree.

4. Louisville

Louisville is another team that finished last season unranked, but I'm seeing as a preseason top-25 team in just about every poll. And I get it. After a horrendous start to last season where the Cardinals lost their first three games and started 2-4, they won six of their last seven and finished the year with a win over Texas A&M in the Music City Bowl.

The Cardinals also have a quarterback in Lamar Jackson who improved as the year went on, and looks to have a bright future under Bobby Petrino.

Upon closer inspection, however, some doubts should remain.

I mentioned that Louisville won six of its last seven games, but those wins came against six teams (A&M, Kentucky, Virginia, Syracuse, and Boston College) that went a combined 27-46 last season. The only winning record of the bunch was Texas A&M. Including the bowl win over A&M, Louisville went 2-4 against teams that went bowling last season, with the other win being a 20-13 defeat of NC State. Against teams that finished in the AP Poll, the Cardinals were 0-3.

Now, there's nothing wrong with beating up on bad teams. Good teams do that all the time. I'd just like to see Louisville have a bit more success against teams in the top 25 before I decide it belongs in the top 25.

I_medium And finally, Donovan Mitchell isn't impressed with Duke's recruiting prowess.

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