Louisville basketball podcast: It’s hard not to be excited about team 107

Card Chronicle joins the gang to talk Louisville basketball, Bomby, and more.

After Louisville basketball head coach Chris Mack joined the podcast two weeks ago, the only way to compete with that was to bring on two people.

In episode 44 of the Big Red Louie Podcast, our buddy Keith Wynne, Card Chronicle Deputy Editor, hopped on. He brought along Card Chronicle founder, infinity time Leo Magazine Sports Writer of the Year, best selling author, and of course, Puerto Rican mascot enthusiast, Mike Rutherford.

We prefaced the show letting Keith and Mike know that we wanted this to be our most laid-back show yet. They did not disappoint.

We discussed everything from cute babies and crazy parenting stories to Puerto Rican mascots and saying “ass” on the radio.

In between, we fit in some Louisville basketball talk and, as always, Keith and Mike remain two of the more knowledgable thought-provoking analysts in the UofL market.

Chris Mack has Louisville basketball trending upward

It’s been a lot of fun over the last three weeks or so to really begin diving into the 2020-21 season and getting experts, including Coach Mack’s, opinion on team 107. The word we used in the podcast and the word heard most has been “excitement,” and as Mike talks about during the basketball podcast, it’s not hard to see why.

Mack has revamped the roster over the last two seasons adding players who fit his style of play more so than what he had when he took over as Louisville’s head coach. With guys like David Johnson, Malik Williams, Carlik Jones and Sam Williamson stepping into major roles this season and others like Josh Nickelberry, Quinn Slazinski (who Mike gushed about), JaeLyn Withers, and Aidan Igiehon likely playing their first heavy minutes there’s a ton to be excited but still a lot of questions.

Let’s not forget Mike’s stonecold lock guarantee of the season. He’s definitely not wrong.

Also Read: 5 reactions from Chris Mack’s interview with Big Red Louie

One thing we can’t question is the hot streak the Cards have been on the recruiting trail over the last few weeks. It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen momentum build like this for Mack, and everyone discussed just how creative he’s been doing it. From recruiting non-top 100 players to landing an early commitment from a rising star, going back to the JUCO ranks, and landing a prep player to reclassify.

We can’t gloss over how great of a job Mack is doing on the recruiting trail for Louisville basketball after landing the No. 1 JUCO player in the country for the second year in a row and shooting the Cardinals up to the second spot in the 247Sports Composite ratings. Mike discusses how and why Mack is doing an excellent job in 2021, and how the pieces from the 2019 and 2020 classes can impact this season.

If you want to have some good laughs, this is not the episode to gloss over for Louisville fans.