Cardinals News: Rivalry Week, Baseball Preseason, more

This week in the life of the Louisville Cardinals is full of news and potential storylines. Not only are there storylines to follow in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and football, but the NCAA preseason baseball rankings have also come out in anticipation for the 2023 season.

Men’s Basketball

This week is rivalry week for the Louisville Cardinals and the Kentucky Wildcats. A struggling 2-11 Louisville team goes into hostile territory in Lexington to take on an 8-3 Kentucky team. The only difference is that the Cardinals have the week to prepare for their bitter adversary, whereas the Wildcats take on the Missouri Tigers tonight, giving them less time to gameplan for Louisville.

However, the Cardinals have been up and down this season and have shown flashes of effort and competency. At other times, they have performed below a Division I team’s expectations. The narrative heading into this season consisted of a lingering IARP ruling, a new head coach, new assistant coaches, no transfer portal acquistions, and a roster that lost eleven players from the previous season.

With all of that going against Louisville, there were bound to be some growing pains, but Head Coach Kenny Payne and senior guard El Ellis have not given up on themselves yet and the fan base shouldn’t either.

Tip-off for the rivalry is set for 12:00 PM EST in Rupp Arena on December 31, 2022.

Women’s Basketball

Head Coach Jeff Walz and Hailey Van Lith lead the Cardinals into their 15th game of the season against the Syracuse Orange tomorrow night riding a five game win streak. This will be their second in-conference game following their win over Pittsburgh on December 18, 2022.

Tip-off is set for tomorrow night in the KFC Yum! Center at 7:00 PM EST.

Football

A day after the announcement of Running Backs Coach Chris Barclay officially being appointed to Head Coach Brohm’s staff, another member of his staff was officially announced. Garrick McGee was announced as the Wide Receivers Coach for Louisville.

McGee comes to Louisville with quite an extensive coaching resume that includes being a Head Coach at UAB from 2012-2013 and an offensive coordinator at Northwestern (2006-2007), Arkansas (2010-2011), Illinois (2016-2017), and a previous stint with the Cardinals from 2014-2015. As The State of Louisville explained in their podcast, McGee is an extremely over-qualified wide receivers coach and Louisville is excited to have him back on staff.

Men’s Baseball

The NCAA just recently announced their preseason rankings for the 2023 season and Louisville comes in at Number 6 in the nation.

After falling in the Super Regionals last season, there are high expectations on the group that Head Coach Dan McDonnell has on his roster this season. Having a preseason rank as one of the top ten best teams in America, it’s safe to say those expectations could turn to reality very quickly.

The Cardinals kick off their season with a three-game series against Bucknell University in February. The first game is set for February 17, 2023 at 3:00 PM EST with the following two games the next two days.

Other Louisville Cardinals News

Elliot Cadeau

Five-star 2024 point guard and Louisville target Elliot Cadeau is announcing his college decision today at 7:00 PM and it will be streamed live on the 247 Sports YouTube Channel. According to Dushawn London, a National Basketball Recruiting Analyst for 247 Sports, there is not a school that is currently favored to land the Oradell, New Jersey product.

TJ Robinson

2024 four-star Louisville point guard commit TJ Robinson scored 50 points for to lead Immaculate Conception (NJ) over Dwight-Englewood (NJ) in the first round of the Jingle Bells Jubilee tournament. The win takes Immaculate Conception to the Quad Three Championship round where they will play Ramapo High School on Thursday December 29, 2022.