Wednesday evening Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 25.

—Anfernee Simons is up to No. 16 in the updated class of 2018 rankings from Rivals. Courtney Ramey is No. 39, while top U of L targets Romeo Langford and Moses Brown are No. 6 and No. 13, respectively.

—You can never watch too many hype video during the first game week of a season. Newton proved that.

—Our friends over at Hammer and Rails preview Saturday’s game and lean towards a 49-24 Cardinal victory as the final result.

—ESPN’s Mark Schlabach sees Louisville going 9-3 (5-3) this season. He also likes Lamar Jackson to return to New York as a Heisman finalist, but not to win the award.

—The Purdue basketball team that Louisville will be facing in this year’s ACC-Big 10 Challenge has been representing the United States in the World University Games this summer. The Boilermakers made it to the gold medal game before falling to Lithuania on Tuesday, 85-74.

—Rick Pitino says U of L will be holding a pro day for NBA scouts this fall.

That's why Pitino thought U of L should host a pro day this fall for NBA front-office personnel and scouts to watch the Cards work out.

Pitino and his staff haven't set a date yet – they're trying to make time amid an increasingly busy fall schedule – but the coach expects representatives from all 30 NBA teams to attend.

"Because this team is so young, I want to see how they perform in a very intense practice in front of pro scouts," Pitino told the Courier-Journal. "We’re going to probably have the No. 1 schedule in the nation again, and that is a lot of pressure that a young team will go through. We’re young in certain areas and very experienced in others, so I think it’s going to be good for these guys to play in front of pro scouts in one day."

"This," he added, "is just going to help our basketball team mature."

—I sat down with the fantastic Louisville music website Never Nervous to answer some questions about my book, the basketball scandal and upcoming football season.

—Purdue’s Rivals site profiles the Brohm’s — Louisville First Family of Football — that has now taken control of the Boilermaker program.

—The latest installment of CBS’ candid coaches series asks anonymous college hoops coaches to name the sport’s best officials. Roger Ayers came in first, with Kentucky public enemy No. 1 John Higgins also cracking the top five.

—If you’re desperate for hoops with some familiar local names, you’re in for a treat this weekend.

It’s all about the bragging rights in the All-Star Showdown 2017 on Sunday, September 3^rd at Old Male High School Gym, 911 S. Brook Street (corner of Brook and Breckenridge). Tickets are $10 for adults and $3 for youth 12 and under.

At 3:00 p.m. there will be a championship league game. So, the East End Team of Louisville, Lou-Ville Champs will go up against the Buffalo All Star Pro Team from Lexington coached by 1978 NCAA Champion and Kentucky Wildcat James Lee. It’s the battle for bragging rights. During halftime fans, will get to enjoy a dunk contest. You need to be in attendance to see the unbelievable dunks that will be attempted.

You will get your money’s worth with this event. A second game has been added. It’s the All-Star Game featuring former NBA & NCAA champion for the Kentucky Wildcats Derek Anderson, former Louisville Cardinals stars BJ Flynn, Nate Johnson and Alvin Sims will participate in the game. We’ve also confirmed that two Louisville Metro Police Officers Joplin Johnson and Thomas Coleman will play in this game. Louisville native and NBA star D’Angelo Russell graciously sponsored the official All Star Showdown Nike uniforms for the 5pm game.

Two former University of Louisville athletes Tony Williams and Mario Urrutia along with their dynamic teams created this concept to give back to the youth in the community. Williams played 10 years in the European professional basketball league and works tirelessly to assist the youth in the community. After playing for the Cardinals, Urrutia played in the NFL and currently helps other youth seeking the same success by developing them at the Super Student Athletes, LIFE Center. They provide guidance both on and off the football field. Throughout the day, you will see youth be showcased in various ways so they can be exposed to positive figures in the community.

—Congrats to former Card Deiontrez Mount, who has been signed by the Denver Broncos.

—Highlights from the Louisville men’s soccer team’s win over No. 25 Butler are here.

—Despite that win and the Cards’ 2-0-0 overall start, U of L sipped from No. 9 to No. 11 in this week’s coaches poll.

—So glad Orgeron is back.

—The U of L women’s cross country team has earned its highest preseason ranking in program history.

—The Great American Rivalry Series has announced that it will feature Friday’s game between annual rivals Mayfield and Paducah Tilghman in the Series’ third weekend of games for 2017. I don’t know if you care at all about that news, but I received an email about it so I felt obligated to pass it along.

—It’s rare that you see a CCBM pic that doesn’t remind you of another one, but this one definitely made me do a triple-take.

Is the mask photoshopped? Is this a kid?

I don’t know, but football season is back, baby.

—People are not betting on Lamar Jackson to win the Heisman again.

From Bovada:

College Football Playoff Championship odds % of money:

Alabama 30%

Ohio State 11%

USC 8%

Florida State 5%

Michigan 5%

*No one else more than 2%

Heaviest bet Win Totals Over:

West Virginia Over 7

Florida Over 8

Missouri Over 6

***Note: Conference Championships and Bowl games do NOT apply.

Heaviest bet Win Totals Under:

Michigan Under 9

Alabama Under 10.5

Army Under 7.5

***Note: Conference Championships and Bowl games do NOT apply.

Heisman % of money:

Saquon Barkley 13%

Sam Darnold 12%

JT Barrett 9%

Jalen Hurts 7%

Bo Scarborough 7%

“Nobody was betting on me last year either.”

—The U of L women’s basketball team has announced that its Nov. 12 game at Ohio State will be played at 4 p.m. on ESPNU.

—Refreshing to see some logic in at least one set of preseason player rankings.

—Seedy K is calling for three upsets in week 1 (or week 1.5) of college football.

—Ian Boyd and Bud Elliott look at the pros and cons of Lamar Jackson (allegedly) spending more time under center this season.

One of the big 2017 stories coming out of the ACC is Bobby Petrino’s intention to put Lamar Jackson under center more. There’s a lot of reason to be hesitant, not the least of which is the fact that Jackson won the Heisman, threw for 3,543 yards, and ran for 1,571 while playing mostly out of shotgun or pistol alignments.

Instead of wondering how Louisville could build on that, now we have to wonder if it can maintain it while replacing multiple starters in the WR and OL units and integrating a different philosophy.

The end of last season left a stain on Jackson’s Heisman year and showed obvious areas for improvement, including Louisville’s horrendous pass protection, which Houston and LSU torched for a combined 19 sacks.

If you remove the sack yardage from those games, you find Jackson was actually still effective at running from the ‘gun. He ran 18 times for 97 yards against LSU and 14 times for 116 against the Cougars. The problems revolved around protecting him.

Now Petrino wants to get him under center more often, which will remove the most devastating component of the offense while putting more on a young line’s plate. It’s hard to understand how this will either make Jackson more effective or shore up the OL.

—Our guy Adam Lucas recently had a cool photo shoot with Kyle Kuric.

—The sports staff over at The Louisville Cardinal take a stab at predicting U of L’s football record. Three say 10-2, two say 9-3, and one says 11-1.

—The Lexington Herald-Leader says Rick Pitino is on the verge of landing his best recruiting class ever at Louisville.

—Very ready.

—The college basketball world has lost a pair of coaching giants in the last 48 hours with the deaths of Rollie Massimino and Jud Heathcote.

—In addition to his time as the head coach of Michigan State, Heathcote played a huge role in making Gonzaga what it is today. Tom Crean wrote a touching tribute to his former boss here.

—Triple Orption?

You can find me at this web address all season long, folks.

—The first DJ K-Dogg tailgate mix of the year has arrived.

—Who knew Frank Kaminsky had a freakin’ cannon?

—Jeff Walz will serve as a court coach at the 2017 National Team Training Camp.

—Here’s how people are spreading their money on the first weekend of college football according to Covers:

—College hoops coaches say Jon Scheyer of Duke is the current assistant most likely to be a head coach some day.

—The latest NFL mock draft from CBS has Jaire Alexander going to the Cowboys in the first round.

—There has been at least one max bet made on Purdue to cover a 24-point spread on Saturday.

—The U of L hoops team has sent gear to Houston in the efforts to help recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey.

—U of L baseball too.

—GoCards.com talks about the U of L offense.

—Tar Heel Blog has Louisville at No. 4 in its preseason ACC power rankings.

—Florida State is a touchdown underdog against Alabama this weekend, but Jimbo Fisher is awfully good as an underdog.

—Just another Card making history.

—Mike Zimmer says Teddy Bridgewater is “progressing well.”

—The Athletic has a good profile of Florida State star Derwin James.

—Carron Phillips has a controversial theory on why Lamar Jackson is being overlooked by college football writers.

—Lance Thomas is the next man up in U of L’s Beat the Buzzer series.

—Jaire Alexander checks in at No. 15 on Rivals’ countdown of the 50 best players in college football.

—Preston Knowles is headed to Croatia this season to play for KK Zadar. He spent last season in Cyprus and Israel.

—And finally, Insider Louisville says the Cardinal offense is all about Lamar, but not all the time.