—Spread check: Louisville by 11.5.
—The official SB Nation college hoops preview drops tomorrow, but here’s an early look at our preseason top 25. Louisville checks in at No. 13.
—Louisville’s senior day game against Syracuse on Nov. 18 will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised on either ESPN2 or ESPNU.
—Big thanks to everyone who came out to Barnes & Noble on Sunday. It was great to meet so many of you all. I think the highlight was my friend’s kid horrifying onlookers with his literature selection.
—Despite his eligibility status, Brian Bowen has enrolled in spring courses at U of L.
—Virginia has updated its depth chart ahead of this week’s game against Louisville.
—ESPN’s Myron Medcalf makes bold predictions for the college basketball season ahead, including Kentucky not winning the SEC and David Padgett keeping the job at U of L.
5. David Padgett will sign a multiyear deal midseason to stay with the Cards and lead the team to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament
Padgett, whom Louisville players backed as a replacement after the school removed Rick Pitino, is inexperienced. But he has a top-10 roster with or without Brian Bowen, whose lawyer claims is innocent and naive to the bribery scheme that disrupted the program. Expect Padgett, who has handled this turbulent chapter with class, to pull a Steve Fisher and lead Louisville on a deep run into the NCAA tournament, a journey that includes a new multiyear deal to keep his job as Louisville's head coach.
—Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News also focuses on the opportunity Padgett has this season.
—Bruce pearl is not cooperating with Auburn’s internal investigation. That move might very well cost him his job.
—I am so glad this man just signed a two-year extension.
"Dealer has 18..." pic.twitter.com/EASY4u4STG
— Jason Gay (@jasongay) November 8, 2017
—The first installment of the David Padgett radio show goes down Thursday night from the Sports & Social Club on 4th Street.
—Yahoo’s Jeff Eisenberg serves up 68 predictions for the college basketball season ahead.
—Guy is good.
.@Lj_era8 needs only 192 yds passing to become 1st player in NCAA history to rush for over 1,000 yds & pass for 3,000 yds in consecutive yrs pic.twitter.com/9THonBt4iY
— LouisvilleFootball (@UofLFootball) November 6, 2017
—Both Quentin Snider and Deng Adel appear in ESPN’s rankings of the top 50 players in college basketball. Snider is the highest-ranked player from either U of L or UK.
—Sort of nice to see a Louisville basketball coach tweeting.
A pleasure spending time with Coach Crum. 675 wins, 6 Final Fours and 2 National Championships in 30 years @LouisvilleMBB. Amazing! pic.twitter.com/gT0fUx7Qsr
— Greg Paulus (@Greg_Paulus) November 3, 2017
—Marshawn Lynch should do every weather report.
—Seedy K’s pigskin picks for the weekend ahead are here.
—The Jelly is awesome.
How Isaiah Washington made 'the jelly' the coolest move in basketball (via @GopherMBB) https://t.co/wI0ZwaQBu1 pic.twitter.com/6PlqKlrUna
— SB Nation CBB (@SBNationCBB) November 7, 2017
—Evan Daniels previews the early signing period in college basketball, which began today.
—Southern Pigskin notes that Lamar Jackson is on pace to have one of the five best individual seasons in the history of college football. They also say he should once again be the front-runner to win the Heisman Trophy.
Jackson, as it currently stands, is on pace to finish with one of the top five most-productive seasons in college football history, a rate which would be the highest-ever for a player not from a school in Texas.
As a passer, Jackson ranks in the national top ten, with more yards per game than the likes of Southern Cal's Sam Darnold, Washington State's Luke Falk and Drew Lock of Missouri. As a runner, Jackson is one of 18 players with more than 1,000 yards and has more yards and touchdowns than Penn State's Saquon Barkley, Georgia's Nick Chubb and Myles Gaskin of Washington. If Jackson were a team, he would rank 45th in the nation in total offense, one spot behind Oregon and ahead of the likes of Arizona State, Georgia Tech and Stanford.
Quite literally, Jackson is two superstar players in one. If you added up the passing yards of Darnold (2,869) and the rushing yards of Barkley (864), Jackson, remarkably, would still have over 100 yards more (3,837). He is doing the complete offensive work of a potential national champion; Jackson has more total yards than top-ranked Georgia's quarterback Jake Fromm (1,557), two leading rushers Nick Chubb and Sony Michel (1,614), leading receiver Terry Godwin (422) and all of the Bulldog tight ends (208) combined.
The consistency of Jackson's play may be the most-remarkable aspect of his record-setting run. Just once, this year, has Jackson not either thrown for at least 300 yards or rush for at least 100: he passed for 299 yards on 18-of-22 attempts in a 42-3 win over Kent State. Statistically, Jackson has not yet had an off game this season, with 333 yards, at 11.1 yards per play, standing as his least-productive performance so far.
—The Textile Bowl between Clemson and NC State is hotter than ever after laptop gate.
—I see the Google Fiber shirts are starting to come in.
—Vote Lamar Jackson for Davey O’Brien Award winner here.
—Donovan Mitchell says that it was Chris Paul who ultimately convinced him to turn pro.
—It looks like Jude Schimmel is doing some athletic wear modeling these days.
Newest N7 collection dropped today, check it out https://t.co/8X7yOogsC5 @NikeN7 pic.twitter.com/91wRxmeuD0
— Jude Schimmel (@JSchim22) November 8, 2017
—Mark Titus has a great read over at The Ringer on the legacy of Jim Boeheim.
—If you’re looking for an in-depth preview of George Mason’s, Louisville’s first opponent, look no further.
—I know it’s click bait, but the shareable maps draw me in every time.
The road to the Final Four requires an atlas. Here it is, your 2017 map of the United States of College Basketball. https://t.co/e1JHUre2CE pic.twitter.com/4X8sP5sBdb
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) November 7, 2017
—Louisville’s Wilma Rivera has been named the ACC volleyball Player of the Week.
—Jeff Greer has a great read on how Louisville players handled the early days of the FBI news.
Rumors swirled as Tuesday turned to Wednesday, when Pitino was suspended.
Padgett, with the help of program assistant R.J. Evans and other support staffers, tried to help the players through the chaos. But they had few answers.
At least one influential booster wanted University of Louisville interim President Greg Postel to pursue former Indiana coach Tom Crean to serve as the acting head coach until the Pitino situation was sorted out.
Others mentioned Bellarmine University coach Scott Davenport, a former Louisville assistant under Pitino and Denny Crum, as a possible interim option.
"Those were the toughest days," Mahmoud said. "The first week overall was really tough for us to handle. You hear a lot of stuff from outsiders and then you have to face what you know and what you think you know. … You read all the stories and you don’t know what’s true or not."
But they did know one thing.
"As a team," King said, "we said we don’t want anybody to coach us except someone who’s on staff, and that was (Padgett)."
—The Athletic says (subscription) that Lamar Jackson is topping himself and no one is bothering to notice.
—Busting Brackets previews every team in the college hoops top 25.
—For fans of The Wire ... this is the only good use of Twitter’s new 280 character limit.
#280characters? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-it!
— Isiah Whitlock Jr. (@IsiahWhitlockJr) November 8, 2017
—Louisville’s Asia Durr has been named to the 2018 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List, which is an award given annually to the nation’s top shooting guard.
—And finally, if you plan on heading to PJCS for Louisville’s final two home games, be aware that there are going to be some altered traffic patterns.