Thursday evening Cardinal news and notes

—U of L baseball will wrap up the regular season with a home series against Notre Dame. Here’s a preview.

—The first bowl projections from The Sporting News have Louisville facing Purdue in the Pinstripe Bowl. At least that would be a drama-free game with no storylines.

—The NCAA has officially come out in support of federal sports wagering regulation.

—Some familiar names on this list.

—Bovada odds on the No. 1 NBA Draft pick:

Who will be the first overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft?

DeAndre Ayton 5/14

Luka Doncic 7/4

Any other player 17/2

—The only issue here is that Doncic might not play in the NBA in 2018.

—247 Sports lists Louisville as one of five college football teams ready to “tumble” in 2018.

TUMBLING: LOUISVILLE CARDINALS

Don’t expect a huge drop off for the Cardinals in the post-Lamar Jackson era. Bobby Petrino is far too talented a coach for that. But it’s going to be difficult in 2018. No player did more for a team than Jackson the last two years. Both an above average quarterback and a dynamic rusher, Jackson commanded more attention from defenses than any player in the country. That’s impossible to replicate, even if there’s plenty of belief in his successor Jawon Pass.

The Cardinals are also returning an ACC-low 46 percent of their total experience, per SB Nation, which never helps. Schedule assistance isn’t available either. Not only does Louisville open with Alabama, it still has to face its usual inter-division lineup of Clemson and Florida State.

—Long time SEC commissioner Mike Slive passed away on Wednesday. Dan Wetzel writes about how Slive made the conference a force by staying true to himself.

—This seems weird, but Quin Snyder is killing it in the NBA so I’m not going to judge.

—Congrats to U of L softballers Caitlin Ferguson and Megan Hensley for earning NFCA All-Southeast Region Honors.

—Katie Ledecky broke her own 1500m world record by five damn seconds yesterday.

—Details of Jaire Alexander’s first contract with the Green Bay Packers:

• 4 years (team option for the 5th)

• $6.8 million signing bonus

• $12.05 million over 4 years

—Congrats to Elisha Justice on the addition of the Baby Bullet.

—The U of L women’s golf team is revved up for its second trip ever to the NCAA Championships.

—Nine young women from Iroquois High School who are from five different countries are looking to fully fund a book that will explore the refugee experience, juvenile detention, motherhood, & more. You can help out by going here.

—This video takes a turn. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Imagine someone making you that mad. I hope you can’t.

—Cardinal track and field will send 23 athletes to the NCAA East Preliminaries.

—The “Battle of the Greatest” AAU tournament is coming to Louisville.

Ohiobasketball.com rolls out the red carpet for the future stars of basketball. It’s the “Battle of the Greatest” Amateur Athletic Union, (AAU) tournament held in Louisville, KY May 26^th through the 28^th at the Kentucky Expo Center, 911 Phillips Lane. The tournament is for boys and girls in grades 4^ththrough 11^th. Nationally ranked players and teams will travel to Louisville to participate under one roof with 20 courts.

Recruiters and teams will all have their eye on Team Breakdown based out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. All nine players have been offered Division 1 offers to play basketball at the collegiate level. Son of University of Kentucky and NBA star Jamal Mashburn Jr. plays on this squad and will be in Louisville for the tournament.

Coach Kenny Gillion says “Mashburn has offers from Louisville, Harvard and Florida State University” just to name a few of the schools recruiting the point guard. Gillion goes on to say that he’s proud of his whole team with the opportunity to further their education through basketball. This is a family affair because Gillion’s wife Diana is in charge of the Showtime Ballers. They will also play in the Louisville tournament.

Richard Ballard, Toney Frank and several other Louisville entrepreneurs joined the team to bring the tournament to Louisville. They put the event at one location and packed it with activities that they whole family can enjoy. There will be an inflatable zone for basketball’s youngest fans. There will be a Paw Patrol and PJ Mask Day along with contests, giveaways, and selfies with your favorite character.

—The last two nights, former Cardinal star Corey Ray has gone 5-for-10 with three home runs for the Biloxi Shuckers.

—Solid toss, but the most impressive part of this video is my man finding a way not to face plant and ruin the whole thing.

—Shockingly, Katina Powell missed her court date. The judge isn’t buying her excuse (panic attack) either.

—But that wasn’t even Powell’s whole day.

Per the arrest report, Powell is accused of stealing blank checks from a victim and then cashing three stolen and forged checks worth $2,900 at Vermont Liquors.

Nice to know that book money is flowing.

—Mike Smith thinks Justify will be “tough to beat” on Saturday.

—Ray Spalding has the sixth-longest wingspan of any player at the combine.

He also got off to a solid start in 5-on-5 action.

—Angel McCoughtry talks about her return to the WNBA on the Around the Rim podcast.

—The college offers are already pouring in for Louisville 8th grader Kiyaunta Goodwin.

—In the last month, Lamar Jackson has now been featured in questions on both Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

—The world’s oldest woman is about to turn 129 years old and she’s not happy about it.

—Why are the NBA’s best players getting better younger? YouTube.

—And finally, tickets for the first Louisville-Alabama tailgate in Orlando are already on sale.