Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

—ESPN counts down college football’s top 10 viral moments of the past 10 years.

—College coaches polled by Scout voted Anfernee Simons and R.J. Barrett as the best scorers in the 2018 class.

While the best prospect voting was a runaway, the voting for the best all around scorer in the 2018 class, was a pretty tight race with RJ Barrett and Anfernee Simons leading the charge. Barrett reeled in 10 of the recorded 100 votes, while Simons received nine.

Barrett, a 6-foot-6 wing that recently reclassified from 2019 to 2018, had his big performance before the July evaluation periods started. On July 9th, Barrett won a Gold Medal and the event MVP at the FIBA u19 World Championship with Canada.

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Simons, a five-star Louisville commit, is known for his ability to put up points and he did just that in front of me in Las Vegas, pumping in 34 points and six three-pointers in one viewing. On the season in the Under Armour Association, Simons averaged just over 20 points a game and connected on 42-percent of his three-point attempts.

“He can score from all three levels,” one college coach said. “He can score from three, he’s athletic enough to finish at the rim jumping off one or two. He has a very good mid-range game and can score off of pull ups and screens. He scores behind the line with ball screens, using a ball screen and off of a pindown. And he’s really good in transition.”

“I think he can be a lottery pick,” a high major coach said. “I think he’s one and done. He’s scores it.”

—LSU transfer Brandon Harris could be North Carolina’s starting quarterback when the Heels host Louisville on Sept. 9. Harris came to Chapel Hill looking for a fresh start after an up and down run in Baton Rouge.

—CBS gives four reasons why you shouldn’t sleep on Clemson’s chances of repeating as national champion.

—It’s looking like it’s going to be Kansas or overseas for Mitchell Robinson.

The smart money is still on overseas, I think, but you can’t underestimate Kansas’ newfound desire to land every single college basketball transfer on the market.

—Kenan Thompson’s parody of LaVar Ball last night was pretty perfect.

—The preseason Class-6A football coaches poll for Kentucky is out.

—The Summer Tour is cool with keeping it in-state.

—Justin Fuente has set the bar awfully high for himself at Virginia Tech.

—I really don’t care who Russ is playing against at this point. I’m not sure I could average 70 points per game if the games where me shooting in a gym alone by myself for two hours.

—Louisville City FC is expecting a record crowd for Saturday’s rivalry match with FC Cincinnati. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup.

—Louisville City has also moved its home game on Sept. 2 up to 5 p.m. so there won’t be a conflict with the Louisville-Purdue football game at 7:30.

—Lucy the seductive Louisville groundhog strikes again.

—So far in fall camp, a front four of Trevon Young, James Hearns, Jontathan Greenard, Drew Bailey and GG Robinson has been a “deadly pass rush package.”

—The C-J examines the U of L appeal.

—Extol Magazine’s Kentucky football preview probably could have used a second look.

—Bill Connelly previews NC State, a team everyone seems to like to upset Louisville on the first Thursday of October.

—Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson refuses to speak in hollow cliches, which I appreciate.

Tech will take a day off from full pads Friday with a “shells” (helmets, shoulder pads and shorts) practice before its first scrimmage Saturday morning. The Jackets open the season Sept. 4 against Tennessee in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“I don’t know if you ever see what you want to,” Johnson said. “I’m going to hold them up to a standard that’s here. (Johnson raised his hand head high.) I’m not going to lower my standards and come in here (to the interview room) and hold hands and sing kumbaya every day. ... We’ve got to get better. That’s the challenge to those guys.”

—The ACC has been outspoken against the SEC in years past, but now the coaches of the league are refusing to pull any punches when it comes to the Big 10, too.

—Because you said please, Bryce.

—Newcomers will play a huge role in the success of the men’s soccer team this season.

—TNIAAM ranks Syracuse’s ACC rivals, and has Louisville at No. 3.

3. Louisville Cardinals

Last year, Cards fans got pretty pissed off when I said they had to earn their place in the college football hierarchy. They thought they had after smoking FSU, but a sputtering finish to the season proved that... hey, maybe I was onto something when citing depth/talent relative to the sport’s powers. Obviously Bobby Petrino’s a dick, and the hurdle will haunt us forever. But this matchup’s had legs since the Big East days.

Rivalry rating: 3.75 out of 5 reset chains

—This ACC teams as vehicles feature is pretty entertaining.

—Richard Johnson writes that the lack of black college football coaches is the result of a flawed pipeline.

—CBS ranks all 130 FBS teams and has Louisville No. 17.

—Louisville granted nine lacrosse players their release to transfer this summer, which seems bad.

—Copy editor Yogi Berra is at it again.

—Adidas is on track to hit its greatest US sneaker share in over 20 years.

—The Lexington Herald-Leader has five questions about the Louisville football team.

—The summer of anonymous coach quotes continues with Sports Illustrated letting coaches give anonymous previews of all 25 teams in their preseason top 25.

No. 14 Louisville: 'Lamar Jackson Is a Stud'

That guy [6' 3", 211-pound junior quarterback] Lamar Jackson is a stud. I like him better than I liked [Clemson’s] Deshaun Watson last year. Jackson has a stronger arm. He’s not as steady a guy as Watson was, but it’s not even close athletically. Watson could get 20 yards on a run; with Jackson, he’s gone. You can have him penned in, and he’ll make three guys miss, outrun your whole defense and pick up the first down. He needs to run well because their O-line is below average.

Their tight ends [junior Micky Crum and senior Charles Standberry] are good players, and their receivers [junior Jaylen Smith and sophomore Seth Dawkins] are adequate. They look the part but drop a lot of balls. [Coach Bobby] Petrino calls the plays and he’s good, but when adversity hits, he hurts that team. He’ll add to the problem because he’ll scream at the kids, and their heads will go down.

They were the best defense we faced last year. Very talented. Very aggressive. Sometimes overly aggressive. Last year we tried to throw a lot to the perimeter to get it out of our quarterback’s hands in a hurry. Their DBs are big-time athletes. That’s the one thing that jumps out at you with this defense. Jaire Alexander [a 5' 11", 192-pound junior cornerback] is a great cover guy with great feet. He’s the best corner we saw last year.

—A preview of the 2017 Louisville volleyball team.

—And finally, the CJ takes a look at potential breakout RB star Malik Williams.