Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

--Members of the Louisville women's basketball team were among the first to move into the brand new Denny Crum Hall on Sunday.

--Matt McGavic of Louisville Report serves up his game-by-game predictions for the 2022 Louisville football season and sees the Cards going 8-4 overall and 6-2 in the ACC.

--Jon Rothstein has Louisville 14th out of 15 teams in his preseason ACC hoops power rankings.

14. Louisville

Projected Starting 5:

G El Ellis

G Kamari Lands

F Jae’Lyn Withers

F Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

C Sydney Curry

Projected Bench: Devin Ree, Mike James, JJ Traynor, Roosevelt Wheeler

Key Losses: Noah Locke, Malik Williams, Dre Davis, Jarrod West, Matt Cross, Samuell Williamson, Mason Faulkner

Key Newcomers: Kamari Lands, Devin Ree, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Tennessee)

--Scott Satterfield is the guest on the latest episode of Eric MacLain's podcast.

--On3's latest hoops rankings for the recruiting class of 2023 have D.J. Wagner at No. 1. Cardinal commit Kaleb Glenn fell 23 spots from No. 60 to No. 83.

--Nice to see Lorenzo Mauldin getting a fresh start up North.

--Central High School sophomore RB Cortez Stone enjoyed another visit to Louisville over the weekend.

--For any Louisville fans in the Denver area, there will be planned game watches at Blake Street Tavern this fall for the following contests:

1. SYRACUSE (Sat., 9/3 6 PM)
2. FLORIDA STATE (Fri., 9/16 @ 5 PM)
3. PITT (Sat., 10/22 time TBD)
4. CLEMSON (Sat., 11/12 time TBD)
5. KENTUCKY (Sat., 11/26 time TBD)

--The proposed unlimited transfer rule is unlikely to pass this week.

--Fall camp gets underway on Wednesday and Louisville Report lays out the five biggest questions surrounding the Cards before practice begins.

--Prettay, prettay good.

--The U of L men's tennis team is excited to be headed to the all new Western & Southern Open College Tennis Showcase in two weeks.

--Cardinal Authority's countdown of the 50 most important players for the upcoming Louisville football season continues with players 16-20.

--Titus & Tate break down the Maui bracket.

--Now 37-years-old, Juan Palacios wants to help lead Colombia to its first FIBA World Cup appearance since 1982.

--Yahoo's Nick Bromberg and Sam Cooper list Louisville as one of 10 college football squads poised to bounce back after a disappointing 2021.

Louisville (6-7)

The Scott Satterfield fit at Louisville hasn’t been great thus far, but there’s still time to turn things around. The Cardinals went 6-7 in 2021 and four of those losses came by six points or fewer. With Malik Cunningham back at quarterback, along with an underrated group of play-makers and an experienced line around him, this offense has the chance to be really, really good.

Satterfield very much relied on internal development during his time at Appalachian State, but he embraced the transfer portal this offseason to bolster his defense. That unit struggled in 2021 and dealt with injuries to key players. Both the secondary and D-line got significant overhauls. If those additions make the impact the coaching staff hopes, the Cardinals have a chance to be back up in that eight- or nine-win range.

--Star attorney Neal Katyal is reportedly charging the University of Louisville $2,465 per hour to help fight NCAA allegations. It's the highest rate Bloomberg Law has found.

That banner better be going back up.

--Congrats to Dalton on getting paid.

--I'm the guest on the latest episode of Jeff Greer's podcast. We talk the summer for Louisville hoops, a little recruiting, and reasonable expectations for the upcoming season.

--Class of 2023 power forward target Curtis Williams is eyeing a mid-September visit to Louisville.

--Reid Detmers is the first rookie in Major League history to toss a no-hitter and an immaculate inning in the same season.

--Yasir Abdullah has been named to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list.

--Eric Crawford has a nice conversation with Louisville co-defensive coordinator Bryan Brown.

CRAWFORD: People probably don’t have an appreciation for the kind of the difficulties that last season presented — the injuries and coming off COVID. You had the depth issue anyway, coming in. How tough was that to get through as a coach? And do you feel like, with some of the experience and some of the new guys you get in, does that kind of help you turn a corner?

BROWN: I think it does. Last year was tough. It was tough. I mean, we had a stretch defensively where we were making some strides back to where we kind of were in 2020. Injuries happen. Having to do certain things that you normally wouldn’t have to do by losing a coach, and a full-time coach it that. That was tough. But I think, you know, we got to do the best job that we can to be able to put our players in position to make plays on game day, and be successful. And right now with the depth we have that we haven’t had in the past, especially in secondary, up front, linebacker-wise. I mean, I told you up front, we’re excited. We’re really excited. And I think that’s going to help us. It not only just creates playmaking ability on the football field, but it creates competition on the football field as well as on the practice field. You have a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball, especially some of the transfers. You got some guys coming from Florida State and Middle Tennessee, Arizona State, that creates competition. So the guys know, hey, I can’t just come out here and coast today. I’ve got to come out here like my job is on the line, every single day. I had one player to say, ‘Hey, Coach, you know, I don’t want you to take me out as soon as I mess up because I know somebody’s behind me.’ I said, “Well now you know that somebody’s behind you, you can’t mess up. So you’ll put a little bit more emphasis on focus, attention to detail and things of that nature.’ So we’re excited, man, we really are and can’t wait to get going next Wednesday.

--The NCAA has copied and pasted a couple of pages from Merl Code's book to now allege that Rick Pitino authorized the bribery scheme behind Brian Bowen’s recruitment to U of L.

--Kenny Payne shares his thoughts on the passing of Bill Russell.

--OL commit Luke Burgess enjoyed his latest visit to U of L.

--The running game will be particularly key to both Louisville and UCF in their week two matchup.

--The Street Rod Nationals are back in Louisville this week.

--College Football News predicts a 7-5 season for the Cards.

Louisville Cardinals Season Prediction, What Will Happen

This is going to be one of the weirdest teams of 2022 to figure out.

Louisville should be much, much better. As pointed out earlier, the 2021 team was way too close in way too many games – it could’ve easily have been 9-4 instead of 6-7. But that’s life in an even ACC.

Do you believe the Cardinals can win the 50/50 games? That’s every week for an improved team that has a nasty schedule without a whole lot of layups to count on.

There’s no Duke or Georgia Tech on the slate to make things a bit easier, and there isn’t a 100% rock-solid lock tune-up game in non-conference play, either.

But let’s set the bar a tad bit higher than it should be only because the team should be just that good. To put it another way, it would be a major disappointment if the win total was any lower went under …

SET THE LOUISVILLE CARDINALS REGULAR SEASON WIN TOTAL AT … 7

USF, James Madison. Those are as close to sure-wins as the Cardinals have on the slate. Other than that … uh oh.

Syracuse, UCF, Boston College, Virginia are all on the road. Those are the biggest 50/50 games, and Louisville has to take at least two of them. It also has to win the early home game against Florida State.

How’s this for the finishing kick after a week off in the middle of the season? Yeah, Pitt and Wake Forest are home games, but those are the two programs that played in the ACC Championship last year. Then comes James Madison, and then …

At Clemson, NC State – who’s LOADED – and at Kentucky.

It’s going to take a few upsets to get to 7, but Louisville football should be ready to come up with its share of those.

--Very bummed to hear that The Voice-Tribune will be closing up shop at the end of the month. I really enjoyed freelancing there for several years back in the day.

--WholeHog Sports reacts to Arkansas drawing Louisville in Maui.

--And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show returns this afternoon from 3-6 on 1450AM/96.1FM to discuss all the happenings of the weekend. You can stream the show here.