—NET Rankings Update (men’s): No. 13
—NET Rankings Update (women’s): No. 11
—Nearly every updated bracket projection on the internet has Louisville as a 6-seed. A few scattered projections have the Cards as a 5 or a 7.
—The latest women’s Bracketology from ESPN has Louisville as a 3-seed in UCLA’s region. The Cardinals would host the first two rounds at the KFC Yum Center.
—I skipped law school to watch this. Zero regrets.
—C.L. Brown writes about how one play can change everything in March.
—After decades in the Carolinas, the ACC women’s basketball tournament moved to Duluth this season. Why was the move made and was it the right decision? The CJ’s Payton Titus explores.
—Two lightly-raced horses entered the picture for Kentucky Derby 152 with victories in prep races Saturday. The CJ highlights the current top 5 contenders.
—Brad Crawford of CBS lists Jeff Brohm as one of the most underrated coaches in college football.
2. Jeff Brohm, Louisville
Record the last three seasons: 28-12 | Record vs. top 25: 4-4
Brohm has been worth his weight in gold during his first three years at Louisville. In 2023, the Cardinals reached the ACC Championship Game for the first time in seasons. They followed that up with a 9-4 finish, with three of those losses coming to CFP participants Notre Dame, SMU and Miami — all by a single possession. And last year, Louisville beat the national runner-up Hurricanes during another nine-win campaign. Brohm didn’t have an elite-tier roster any of those years, by the way.
There’s a reason Brohm has chosen to remain at his alma mater rather than pursue other opportunities during this stretch. He believes the Cardinals have a recruiting plan in place that can result in big wins, enough to get to the CFP in a single campaign. The former quarterback has significant institutional support at Louisville, a leading voice in helping with structural reform in college athletics.
—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic takes a look at the week ahead for the Cardinal baseball team.
—Here’s an update on where Louisville basketball ranks in the national stats.
—Duke is dealing with a pair of significant injuries at the worst possible time.
—SMU’s BJ Edwards (ankle) is not expected to play in today’s ACC Tournament 11 vs. 14 game against Syracuse. Louisville plays the winner of the game Wednesday afternoon at 2:30.
—In 30 years of KenPom data, never has there been a season with more than 18 teams averaging 120 points per 100 possessions. Right now, there are 48. Inside college basketball’s offensive explosion.
—The NCAA announced that it will monitor basketball, baseball and softball tournament officials for betting using a technology called ProhiBet, a technology that crosschecks anonymized identification data with sportsbooks to flag impermissible bettors.
—ESPN takes an inside look at the world of transfer portal tampering in college football.
“You have to know everybody is a target at any given time,” a Big Ten GM said.
One Big 12 general manager said he has “truces” with a few GMs in his region. If an agent is shopping one of their players to him, he’s going to let his peers know with the expectation they’ll return the favor.
“No one’s going to look out for anybody, but we’ve kind of got to look out for each other in terms of just dealing in truth,” he said. “Some of them, you’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I figured.’ And some of them, you won’t.”
An ACC GM told ESPN he received a call in late October and learned his top receiver already had million-dollar offers on the table from SEC and Big Ten programs. It didn’t stun or even bother him. If you have good players, it’s inevitable. There’s no sense, he said, in phoning the GMs at those schools and calling them out. All you can do is put in the work to try to retain them.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever going to call a press conference and be like, ‘I lost a player because he went to his agent and said he wants more money in the portal, shopped his name around and got three offers,'” the GM said. “That’s called recruiting nowadays.”
From the agents’ perspective, it’s not really tampering or tortious interference when you’re talking about players on expiring one-year deals. The way they see it, their clients are well within their right to explore their options.
“I don’t even see why schools get mad about it,” one agent said. “If you don’t want your kid to be tampered with, sign them to an agreement that’s fair and the kid won’t be looking to go elsewhere.”
—State of Louisville previews U of L baseball’s midweek tilt against Marshall.
—CBS has announced its March Madness programming schedule for the month ahead.
—Yahoo’s Jeff Eisenberg tells the story of the wins above bubble metric.
—The New Orleans Saints are hosting Chris Bell for a visit. Bell recently visited with the Buffalo Bills.
—March remains the best.
—St. X took down Ballard to claim the Boys’ 7th Region title Monday night. Butler faces J’Town tonight at 7 at Valley to decide the 6th Region crown.
—Country music singer Russell Dickerson will perform at the Louisville Kings UFL season opener on Friday, March 27 Lynn Family Stadium.
—Today’s ACC Tournament schedule:
- Game 1: No. 10 Stanford vs. No. 15 Pitt | 2 p.m. on ACC Network
- Game 2: No. 11 SMU vs. No. 14 Syracuse | 4:30 p.m. on ACC Network
- Game 3: No. 12 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Wake Forest | 7 p.m. on ACC Network
—Louisville has offered Owensboro Catholic quarterback Dre’mail Carothers (2027).
—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is getting you ready for the ACC Tournament this afternoon from 2:30-5:30 on 1450/96.1 The Big X. Catch the YouTube stream here.
