Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

• Jaire Alexander was mic’d up at ACC media days. Hear the results here.
• Marvin Bagley III, the No. 1 player in the class of 2018, could reclassify and be eligible to play — likely for either USC or Duke -- this season. If it happens, it totally changes the landscape of the 2017-18 season. That kid is for real.

Also, I wish reclassifying was as accepted a practice when I was in high school. I would have totally reclassified right through my freshman and sophomore years, which were easily the least fun.

• Imagine how much food Mike Summers had to make/buy for this.

• Louisville seems to have yet another good one at quarterback in Jordan Travis.

According to 247Sports analyst Andrew Ivins, Travis, who committed to Louisville in June, was among a handful of stars at the event.

"Travis might be one of the best kept secrets in South Florida this cycle," Ivins said. "The Benjamin School quarterback made a number of impressive throws and was able to squeeze the ball into plenty of tight windows. He will need to rework his release a bit when he gets to the next level, but Louisville is getting an arm with plenty of upside."

• The NCAA men’s basketball D-I committee announced late last week that they will be putting more emphasis on road victories as “quality wins” for next season.

The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee is altering its definition of a quality win, placing greater emphasis on winning road games by changing the team sheets that include the results of every team being evaluated for selection and seeding for the men’s basketball championship.

For the past several years, team sheets have divided results into four columns: results against the top 50 teams in the NCAA’s Rating Percentage Index; 51-100; 101-200; and any team ranked 201 or lower. Effective with the 2017-18 season, team sheets will place greater emphasis on where the games are played rather than the ranking of each opponent.

There still will be four separate columns, with the first column consisting of home games against teams ranked 1-30, neutral-site games against teams ranked in the top 50 and road games against opponents ranked in the top 75. The second column will include home games against teams ranked 31-75, neutral-site games versus teams ranked 51-100 and road games against teams ranked 76-135.

The third column will consist of home games played against competition ranked 76-160, games played on a neutral court versus teams ranked 101-200 and games on the road against teams ranked 136-240. The fourth column will include home games against teams ranked 161-351, neutral-site games played against teams ranked 201-351 and road games versus opponents ranked 241-351.

What they won’t be doing is going to a composite metric that takes into account all the various advanced metrics that have become widely-referenced in recent years. That change is likely coming in 2018-19.

Long live the RPI ... for one more year.

• LaMelo Ball tried to dunk in an AAU game and it looked sort of like me trying to dunk in an AAU game.
• Zion Williamson added to his internet legend on Thursday with this outrageous block where he actually hit his head on the bottom of the backboard.
• ACC commissioner John Swofford was asked about Louisville at the ACC Kickoff. Here was his response:

Q. You were asked about Louisville on Thursday on a couple different occasions but from a more global perspective, obviously they’ve had competitive success in a number of sports since joining the conference, but the issues with the foundation, the basketball investigation, their involvement in Wakeyleaks – do you have any concerns about Louisville’s ability to be a good citizen in the ACC?

A. There have been some things that have happened there, and elsewhere, you know. The Wakeyleaks thing was two institutions and then a third to some degree. But no, I think Louisville has been and is and will be an excellent addition to our league. From my chair, you don’t ever want to see those kinds of issues anywhere, but they happen. Because individuals go down the wrong path periodically. But in terms of the athletics leadership at Louisville and the changes they’re making institutionally and have made in terms of the university’s foundation – it wasn’t the athletic foundation – that’s all been addressed and addressed very emphatically so I think Louisville will be a long-term good and prominent member of the league. You look back over our league’s history we’ve had a number of schools at one time or another that have had problems or issues that are outstanding institutions that have made tremendous contributions to the league. But you’d like not to have any of those issues.

• The C-J’s Joe Gerth penned a pretty thorough takedown in response to a Bowling Green column that lambasted Louisville and Lexington for being “elitists” that “have no sense of the rest of this beautiful state.”
• Alabama’s non-conference hoops schedule includes a big game against Texas on Dec. 22. Hope Colt McCoy can stay healthy.
• As someone who grew up a fan of old school zombie movies, I was gutted to hear about George Romero’s passing on Sunday.

• Bad news from the world of pro baseball where both of the Burdi brothers are sidelined with arm injuries.
• The Peach Jam coach tracker keeps track of which recruits coaches were following over the weekend.
• Jaire Alexander is on just about every preseason watch list known to man, including the Hornung and Thorpe award’s.
• People are taking notice.

• Some hero tracked what it look like if college basketball had a championship belt like they do in professional wrestling. Louisville is an 18-time champion.
• Roger Federer is one of my favorite athletes of all-time, and The New Yorker has a good piece on the general joy of watching him dominate Wimbledon as he nears the age of 36.
• I enjoy the Heisman pose with the L thrown at the end of the stiff arm.

Should be the official Lamar Heisman pose.

• Full ACC preseason odds from Bovada:

NCAA Football 2017 Season - Odds to win the ACC Championship

Florida State 1/1

Clemson 3/1

Louisville 6/1

Miami 6/1

Virginia Tech 9/1

North Carolina 25/1

NC State 25/1

Georgia Tech 33/1

Pittsburgh 50/1

Duke 75/1

Boston College 200/1

Syracuse 200/1

Virginia 200/1

Wake Forest 200/1

• ACC football players weigh in on Game of Thrones.
• Like Lamar Jackson, Jaire Alexander has not shied away from talking about the national title being Louisville’s ultimate goal in 2017.

"Especially early on in the year, we carried ourselves as if we were the reigning national champions," cornerback Jaire Alexander explained on the Southern Pigskin Radio Network.

...

"We have all the confidence in Lamar. That's Lamar. 'Lamarvelous', that's what we call him sometimes, he doesn't like that though," Alexander smiled. "We know he'll get the job done."

The big-picture goal, for Alexander, Jackson and the Cardinals, is a straight-forward one.

"Expectations this fall are to make it to the national championship," Alexander stated. "I definitely expect that. And it starts with leadership."

• How an American guard from Northern Colorado joined Azerbaijan's national team for the summer. Pretty much just because he could.
• Eric Crawford recaps Lamar Jackson’s second go-round at ACC media days.
• Get know highly-touted U of L freshman C.J. Avery.

• A CFL fan lost out on $1 million because of a single penalty flag.
• Good story on Lorenzo Mauldin here.
• Major press conference backgrounds weren’t quite as elaborate back then.

• Luke Hancock held a basketball clinic for children with autism over the weekend, because Luke Hancock is very, very cool.
• The Louisville Cardinal previews U of L’s 2017 offensive line.
• Encouraging stuff from the new Cardinal big man.

• David Boone of Big Time Yurts is at it again with the cool new project “Louisville From Above.”
• And finally, The Orlando Sentinel says that despite his Heisman win, Lamar Jackson is still flying under the radar heading into his junior year.