Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The Louisville baseball team is back in action tonight for a 6 p.m. game against Western Kentucky at Jim Patterson Stadium. Here’s a preview.

—ESPN says Jeff Walz has landed two of the top seven transfers in the country in Morgan Jones and Chrislyn Carr.

—Former U of L running back and Manual High School product Aidan Robbins has picked UNLV as his transfer destination.

—Baylor Scheierman is both awesome and fun as hell. If Louisville were able to land both him and Tyrese Hunter, I would be floating all summer long.

—Unfortunately, it sounds like Kentucky might have the inside track on the reigning Summit League Player of the Year.

—From coaching retirements to NIL, college basketball is in the midst of a massive period of change.

—Danny Manning and Nolan Smith discuss the transfer portal at length in this interview.

Etan Thomas: What are your overall thoughts on the transfer portal?

Nolan Smith: ”My initial thoughts were that, ‘If a coach can leave a kid after they’ve recruited that kid and promised him and his family that he will be their coach for the duration of his college experience, why shouldn’t the players be able to?’ But now, obviously you’re seeing kids at different colleges and universities, and they’re not sticking around for a long time, and you’re wondering, ‘Why isn’t this kid staying?’ So, a few things here: Kids, together with their parents, need to start making better decisions about the schools they’re choosing. We’re dealing with a lot of transfers here now, and we’re seeing that a lot of kids are coming in beaten down mentally and emotionally. So if that’s leading to the transfer, I have no issue with a player removing himself or herself from an unhealthy situation.

“But, I will also say, they need to do a better job of doing their homework first. Don’t rush decisions. If you ask the questions that need to be asked and really do your homework on a lot of these coaches, you will know which coaches you need to stay away from no matter how much they wine and dine you while they’re recruiting you.”

—Matt Cross is transferring to UMass, where he’ll play for first-year head coach Frank Martin.

—For those keeping track of U of L transfer destinations:

Samuell Williamson — SMU
Matt Cross — UMass
Gabe Wiznitzer — Ohio
Noah Locke — Providence
Dre Davis — TBD

—Former U of L assistant Marvin Menzies has been named the new head coach at UMKC. Kareem Richardson, who is now an assistant under Kevin Keatts at NC State, was the head coach of the ‘Roos from 2013-19.

—In news that should shock everyone, after an initial jolt of excitement, it seems like DePaul fans are down in the dumps about their latest revival effort.

There’s never been a better time for Card Chronicle to take over this program.

—Louisville Report previews the week ahead for Cardinal baseball.

—The Athletic has a guide to watching high school football highlight videos like a college football recruiter does ... just in case that’s something you’ve ever wanted to do.

—Louisville has offered South Carolina QB Gavin Owens from the class of 2025.

—Not bad company for the Louisville native and former Card.

—Congrats to Jarrod West, who has signed a professional deal with the Nelson Giants of the New Zealand National Basketball League.

—Matt McGavic of Louisville Report looks at U of L football’s remaining targets in the recruiting class of 2023.

—The Derby Eve Silks Bash is back to being an in-person event this year, and tickets are now available.

Silks Bash 2022 is excited to announce the in-person return of their annual Derby Eve even that benefits Operation Open Arms on Friday, May 6^th.

Guests can dance the night away to renowned West Coast 12-piece band, “Your Generation in Concert” at Historic Locust Grove in their newly expanded pavilion.

Doors will open at 7:30pm and the evening concludes at 12:30am. General admission tickets are $100 per person including food and drink. The newly added VIP tent tickets are $200 per person and includes a private bar, food station, gift bags, and closed circuit TV. Guests can also enjoy a cigar bar, Derby Selfie station, Graeter’s ice cream carts, and much more. Woodford Reserve’s Assistant Master Distiller, Elizabeth McCall, will also be on site making cocktails including the annual “Silks Smash” and Woodford’s own Woodford Spire.

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Tickets and updated information on Silks Bash 2022 are available on Eventbrite and at http://oparms.com/silks-in-the-bluegrass-2022. For more questions on the event contact Angela Shelton at 502-777-6300, and follow along on Instagram @operationopenarms.

—Brett Dawson is the guest on the latest episode of the Starting 502 Podcast.

—Vulture ranks the best movie sequels of all-time.

—If Jay Wright ever returns to coaching, it seems more likely than not that it will be in the NBA.

—Eric Crawford sat down for an interview with U of L interim athletic director Josh Heird.

EC: You talked about the hire of Kenny Payne. What has it been like working with him as he has begun to put his staff together, and to get out a bit into the community?

HEIRD: It has truly been a lot of fun to work with him, and I don’t want to say help build this staff, this is his staff, but for me to just serve as a little bit of a sounding board as to what he thinks is needed amongst his staff and how he’s going to structure that and put it together. And like a lot of people have talked about, he is just a very unique individual in his ability to care for people, to care for student athletes, to just care for people in the community. And, to me, that’s what we really, really needed here. And, obviously, that’s why he was given the opportunity to be the head coach here.

EC: One more. You’re doing this job on an interim basis. They were in there today talking about qualities they want in an athletic director. A group of supporters out there is actively pushing the name of a former athletic director. A search firm is working. Do you just completely have blinders on to all that, or how do you go about your job with all that going on?

HEIRD: I don’t think it’s blinders. Right? I think it’s the way I would operate if I was doing this job permanently. And that’s just, you hit the nail on the head, it’s doing the job. And it’s nothing more than that. And, you know, we’re going to listen to people in the community. That’s been something that I’ve said from the beginning, that I want to do, I will do, I have done. But on the flip side, we have to make sure that we take that input, and based on our experiences, when I say ‘our’ I mean, our staff, our coaches, our senior staff, and making the best decisions for the athletic department and the university, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. I’ve said it from December 13. We’re going to make the best decisions for this university and the athletic department and that’s not going to change.

I have no clue whether or not he’s going to be the pick for the job full-time, but I really, really like the guy.

—U of L commit and Male High star Kaleb Glenn has been showing off a more well-rounded game so far this summer.

—Kenny Payne and the Cards are now involved with 7-footer Aaron Bradshaw out of Camden, N.J. The five-star prospect is the No. 22 player in the 2023 class according to 247 Sports.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is on from 3-5:30 this afternoon on 1450 The Big X. We’ll talk about the latest hoops transfer/recruiting developments and celebrate Trevor’s birthday. You can listen to the stream of the show here.