Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Donovan Mitchell’s 22-point third quarter last night wasn’t enough to get the Jazz by the Rockets, which means Mitchell’s sensational rookie season has come to an end. It was a year that was better than anyone could have ever imagined 12 months ago.

—CBS is ranking all 130 FBS coaches and has Bobby Petrino at No. 29.

29. Bobby Petrino: Taking tumble following an 8-5 season in 2017 and a 4-4 mark in ACC play, Petrino is barely inside the top 30 Personally, I wonder if Louisville has reached its ceiling in the ACC Atlantic under Petrino considering it only went 17-9 with one of the most electric players in the sport at QB the last two seasons.

2017 rank: 13 (-16)

—The U of L softball team opens up postseason play in the ACC tournament this afternoon against Syracuse.

—Three members of that softball squad earned All-ACC honors.

—Man, this picture.

—Joe Cremo, the Albany grad transfer once pursued by Louisville, has picked Villanova.

—After 31 years, Gray’s College Bookstore is closing its doors.

—This is the most important addition any U of L team will make this offseason.

Diop should be able to fill the void left by Myisha Hines-Allen, which gives the Cards a shot to be right back in the Final Four next season.

—A 6’7, 370-pound lineman from Louisville is already garnering national stories, and he’s only in 8th grade.

Moore, one of the fastest players in the country, will leave Aspirations in the next few months for his next step. He, like so many others inside the gym, cannot help but wonder what Goodwin will look like four years from now.

”He’ll probably have 100 offers, and I think he’s definitely going to be the best player in the country,” adds Wandale Robinson, a running back in the Class of 2019 who has nearly 20 offers.

Because of his size, Goodwin does not match up with players his own age during drills. Instead, he’ll go up against Stephen Herron Jr.—one of the most coveted defensive ends in the country. Herron, a Michigan commit, is the No. 5 weak-side defensive end in the Class of 2019, according to 247Sports.

”He’s going to be the No. 1 tackle in the nation,” Herron says. “It’s just not fair to be that big and that strong at his age.”

—Both the U of L men’s and women’s track & field squads have ended their regular seasons ranked in the nation’s top 25.

—Brian Bowen “absolutely loves it” at South Carolina, but it’s still very unclear whether or not he’ll ever play a game for the Gamecocks. The next step for the infamous Louisville recruit is participating in the NBA Draft combine.

—Ok but we’ve gotta talk about this outfit.

—Last Friday, Brendan McKay was on the mound carrying a no-hitter into the 5th inning. The next day he drove in five runs at the plate. Just another weekend for the former Cardinal star.

—Jay Wright gave the New York Knicks the “it’s not you, it’s me” treatment.

“It’s not that you’re not interested, I just don’t want to leave,” Wright told The Post on Tuesday. “It’s the Knicks. You love the Garden, you love New York City, you love the Knicks. I just know I don’t want to leave Villanova.”

“I love my job,” added the 56-year-old Wright, who was at the annual BTIG Charity Day in Manhattan, where athletes and celebrities acted as guest stock traders taking calls from clients to raise money for different charities.

“You would love that opportunity, that challenge, especially in New York, especially the Knicks, but you have to leave your job, and I love my job.”

—LeBron James said that this year’s NBA rookie class is the best since his in 2003. Let’s rank them all and find out.

—Dave Lackford gives a rundown of what to expect from the state of Kentucky prospects at the RCS Nashville camp.

—This guy for mayor.

—Florida is going to pay Todd Grantham an absolutely absurd $1.39 million to be its defensive coordinator this season.

—U of L women’s golf is tied for seventh after day two of the NCAA Regionals.

—Tim Sullivan writes about what La Salle hiring Kenny Johnson means and what it says about what we still don’t know.

—La Salle’s official hiring of Johnson today made at least one of his former players at U of L extremely happy.

—Watch some of the nation’s best wide receiving prospects go head-to-head with some of the nation’s best CB prospects here. Frankfort’s Wandale Robinson is featured.

—Four-star class of 2019 hooper Josh Nickelberry is expected to visit Louisville on Friday.

—Ronnie Red does Derby.

—The massive sales slump for Papa John’s continues.

—NBC ranks Chris Mack and Dan Hurley as the best hires of the offseason.

1. CHRIS MACK, Louisville

For my money, Mack is one of the ten best coaches in college basketball. He’s young, he’s a high-level recruiter, he understands how to run a program in that part of the country, he’s dealt with a passionate fanbase at a basketball school. This was the hire, and Louisville got it done.

1a. DAN HURLEY, UConn

Another homerun hire, and this one coming at a discount of sorts. Hurley picked UConn over Pitt, who offered a more lucrative contract, and Rhode Island, who offered him an extension with a bigger dollar figure. Dan, the son of legendary high school coach Bob Hurley and the younger brother of Bobby Hurley, picked the Huskies in part because of the fact that they were another school in the Northeast and in part because of the pedigree that comes with the UConn brand.

Whether or not the Huskies can actually return to the glory of the Calhoun years is up for debate, but Hurley is the guy to do it. He’ll recruit better than Kevin Ollie did and he should be able to coach up the players he lands better than Ollie did the last four seasons. I don’t expect UConn to once again because a top 5-10 program in college basketball, but I do think that Hurley is the guy that can get them back to being a perennial top 25 team and an annual AAC contender.

—New Albany is naming its court in honor of Romeo Langford.

—A car slammed into the Denny’s on Eastern Parkway near the U of L campus last night, injuring 10 people. Thankfully it wasn’t any worse than that.

—Keonta Vernon forever.

Awesome.

—And finally, the C-J looks at how Christen Cunningham will fit in with the 2018-19 Louisville basketball team.