Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The U of L women’s 4x100m relay of Taylor Herbert, Kiyah Yeast, Tiriah Kelley, and Synclair Savage punched their ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships on Saturday.

—Bart Torvik’s early projections have Louisville going 12-19 in Kenny Payne’s second season. Rick Bozich wonders if that type of year would be enough to earn Payne a third crack.

—Josh Heird and Dan McDonnell seem to be on the same page now, which is a very good thing for the future of the Cardinal baseball program.

—They’re heeerrrreeee.

—Taqwa Pinero, known as Taquan Dean in his playing days, is back in town with a message of hope, and help, for current Cardinals.

—Clemson topped Miami to win the ACC baseball tournament over the weekend.

—The CJ’s Brooks Holton writes about how Dennis Evans became Kenny Payne’s first marquee recruit at Louisville.

Perry and Evans dedicate a half an hour each training session to ball-handling drills, then the big man operates out of catch-and-shoot scenarios and facing up defenders on the low block, inducing contact to prepare him for the physicality he’ll experience in the college ranks.

“We didn’t want him just to be a lob-catcher,” Perry said. “Ain’t no dunks at all.”

That work paid off during Evans’ senior season at Hillcrest. With Wood’s encouragement to take more of the open 3-point looks he was getting, he shot 9 for 27 from beyond the arc (compared to 1 for 6 as a junior), according to MaxPreps, and his free-throw conversion rate increased from 60% to 74%.

“I just gotta get more used to playing in that type of role to where I should look to pick and pop and take the open shot,” Evans said, “instead of just the dribble handoff.”

One reason Evans chose Louisville is because Payne developed centers such as Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns into No. 1 overall NBA draft picks during his time as an assistant on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky. Evans said Payne told him getting to that level would be “a challenge,” but it’s one he plans to embrace.

If he rises to the occasion, it would be a boon to the program as it looks to return to a standard set when players like Wes Unseld and Pervis Ellison were patrolling the paint.

“It definitely plays a role, wanting to get back to the level of success they used to have,” Evans said of what’s motivating him as he arrives on campus. “Getting back to being able to compete at the highest level possible.”

—El Ellis has taken his name out of the NBA Draft and is officially headed to Arkansas for his final season of college ball.

—Jeff Brohm: portal king (video).

—Louisville is in the top 12 for class of 2024 offensive lineman Kahlil House.

—The Frazier History Museum is hosting an evening with the Brohm family next Tuesday, June 6.

I would prefer not having Brian and filling his place with Mark, but that’s just me.

—The debate over whether or not the SEC will move to a 9-game conference schedule could be put to bed this week.

—Elliot Cadeau, a former Louisville recruit and a top-10 prospect in the class of 2024, will reclassify to 2023 and enroll at North Carolina next week.

—Golf wunderkind Rose Zhang makes her pro debut this weekend.

—Brad Crawford of 247 Sports has Louisville men’s basketball as one of the big winners of the offseason transfer portal cycle.

LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (WINNER)

Transfer Portal class ranking: No. 27 overall

Director of scouting Adam Finkelstein: “I’m going with a group I think is going to be much better because they were really bad last year and that is Louisville. Obviously this is a combination of portal and high school. In fact, they have if I’m not mistaken five commitments from the high school ranks, one JUCO and then a couple key portal additions. Skyy Clark is going to be the guy coming in from Illinois who will run the show. Then Tre White from USC, someone who I think will have the green light early and often as the focal point of this offense. Been really a complete roster rebuild for Kenny Payne, nine new players who will be Cardinals next year. Start to finish in terms of the most improved team, I’m going with the Cardinals.”

Kentucky was listed as one of the six biggest losers .

—The full bracket for the upcoming NCAA baseball tournament is here. It still feels beyond wrong that U of L’s season has been done for two weeks now.

—Louisville chef Ashlee Northington was a recent winner on the show Guy Fieri’s Grocery Games.

—Five-star class of 2024 wing Karter Knox has Louisville in his top eight.

—Louisville pitchers Alex Galvan and Ben Weigman have entered the transfer portal.

—Luke Burgess and Madden Sanker’s “L&M Eats” show gets some love from WLKY.

—KSR’s Adam Luckett has an in-depth review of Louisville football’s spring.

—State of Louisville recently caught up with both Kaleb Glenn and his mom.

—Class of 2024 small forward recruit Kon Knueppel has set a visit to U of L.

—Matt McGavic writes that after a beyond rocky debit season, Kenny Payne has nailed his first offseason as Louisville’s head men’s basketball coach.

—Some NFL quarterbacks who learned under Brian and Jeff Brohm discuss why they’re so good at developing QBs.

“I think the way we do it is more NFL style than some other places and it’s able to develop those guys to when they go to the NFL, it’s not new. They know what to expect.”

White, a fifth-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft who signed with the Miami Dolphins in March, quickly saw the difference in his game after working with Brohm. After throwing for 2,722 yards (completing 51.5% of his passes), 11 touchdowns and 16 interceptions in 17 games over two seasons at South Florida, White threw for 4,363 yards (completing 67.3% of his passes), 37 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 14 games during his first season at WKU.

“There’s just so many different nuances that, unless you have a really good coach, you don’t really know about,” White said. “(Jeff and Brian Brohm) taught me those and helped develop my game and identified the strengths that I needed to use and the weaknesses I need to get better in.”

Under Brohm’s guidance, quarterbacks have cut down on turnovers and made better decisions. Plummer threw nine interceptions in 12 games at Cal, one year after recording zero in seven games under Brohm. Former Purdue quarterback David Blough, who is now with the Arizona Cardinals, is also among those who was more efficient under Brohm’s leadership.

“They (Brian and Jeff Brohm) taught us where to go with the football, which sounds so elementary,” said Blough, who completed 65.7% of his passes for 34 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 22 games under the Brohms at Purdue following a 2016 season where he completed 57% of his passes for 25 TDs and 21 interceptions in 12 games, “but it’s somewhat overlooked in the coaching world.”

—We’re about a week away from the start of U of L football summer camps. More information available here.

—Athlon’s early college football preview issue gave us three reasons to be excited about Jeff Brohm’s first Cardinal team.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is back this afternoon from 3-6 on 1450AM/96.1FM. You can stream it here.