Is Louisville football’s projected win total fair heading into the 2019 season? – Courier Journal

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The Courier Journal’s Dominique Yates looks at the great gesture by former U of L players for a fallen UK quarterback, NBA news and more.
Dominique Yates, Louisville Courier Journal

With football season just around the corner, it’s time for prognosticators to make some way-too-early predictions about Louisville football. See what they’re saying – and then give a round of applause to Asia Durr, a thumbs up to Jamon Brown and a salute to the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team in my top 10 headlines.

1. Louisville football win/loss prediction: Fair or unfair?

Attention is slowly but surely heading to football.

The University of Louisville begins a new era with Scott Satterfield and it’s projected he could have a better first year with the Cardinals than Bobby Petrino’s last.

After an abysmal 2-10 season in 2018, ESPN’s football power index has the Cards projected to win between 4.4 and 7.6 games. The FPI has Louisville with the 22nd toughest strength of schedule in the country, but finding ways to get victories over Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and Boston College.

FanDuel also has U of L at the four-win mark.

These way-too-early predictions are fair.

Related: Josh Minkins Jr. symbolizes Louisville football’s localized recruiting approach

EKU is a Football Championship Subdivision team and WKU is a mid-major team from Conference USA that, like Louisville, had a rough 2018 season (3-9 record) and has a new head coach in Tyson Helton.

The third win is a toss-up. Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia and Syracuse are the other teams that, per ESPN’s FPI, U of L has a chance to beat.

The team is such a mystery, though, we may not really know what Satterfield’s first team will look like until late in fall camp heading into the opener with Notre Dame.

How many football games will Louisville and Kentucky win? See win projections

2. Montrezl Harrell could be the breakout star on a loaded Clippers’ team

With the addition of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the Los Angeles Clippers have become one of the favorites to win the NBA Finals.

A lot of the attention will be on those guys, which creates room for other players to emerge.

In comes Montrezl Harrell.

The former Louisville forward is far from an unknown in the league. He was a finalist for NBA Sixth Man of the Year last year and had the best season of his four-year career, averaging 16.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2 assists per game. He upped the total to 18.3 points in the playoffs.

More: Life is pretty good these days for former Louisville star Montrezl Harrell

The Clippers were the surprise team last season, finding a way to advance to the playoffs and took the Golden State Warriors to six games, but it won’t be a surprise this upcoming season.

If Harrell can do what he did late in the season and carry it over into 2019-20, he could have a breakout year and be in consideration for All-NBA and All-Star honors.

3. The U.S. women’s national soccer team deserves more respect

The U.S. women’s national soccer team are world champs. Unfortunately, there was more criticism for this dominant soccer team than it deserved.

Was the team loaded with swagger? Definitely. Did they celebrate a lot after scoring goals? Sure. Did they care what critics had to say about them? No.

That’s what made them great. They knew they were better than everybody and they backed it up.

Read this: The USWNT can score as many World Cup goals as it wants

Watch: Nike’s U.S. Women’s World Cup commercial takes social media by storm

Scoring 13 goals against Thailand was fun. The Alex Morgan tea sip was amazing. Megan Rapinoe was unstoppable. Rose Lavelle was the breakout star. This team was fun to watch and great for the soccer.

Critics of this World Cup championship team need to do other soccer fans a favor and be quiet.

4. The Golden State Warriors could be a better fit for Willie Cauley-Stein

Former Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein had a mediocre four-year run with the Sacramento Kings.

He averaged 10.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and shot 53% from the field for his four years. He made the NBA’s All-Rookie Second Team his first year in the league, but no other accolades after that.

Free agency: Fishing almost kept Willie Cauley-Stein from signing with the Warriors

At 7-foot-1 and a with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, his athleticism could mesh well with the Warriors. Steph Curry and D’Angelo Russell are good at spacing the floor and finding good looks down low which could pay dividends for Cauley-Stein.

His best season came his junior, and final, year with UK when he averaged 8.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest on the loaded team that went 38-1 and made it to the Final Four.

Cauley-Stein benefited that season by having players like Devin Booker, the Harrison twins, and Tyler Ulis space the floor well, drive and find Cauley-Stein for lobs and give him room to make plays around the rim.

Now that he has those type of guards who play well into his style, he should have the right fit.

5. Imagine if Anfernee Simons ended up playing at Louisville

Former Louisville basketball commit, and current member of the Portland Trail Blazers Anfernee Simons, has shone the brightest of any player during the NBA Summer League.

In his most recent game Tuesday night against the Utah Jazz, Simons went off for 35 points in 25 minutes, hitting six of his seven shots, before suffering an apparent ankle injury during the game.

It’s hard to believe that there was once a time he was heading to play for the Cardinals.

Munch, munch: U of L players eat 10 times a day. What the heck are they downing?

After two major scandals, he chose not to play for U of L and then followed that up with not playing for any college and went straight to the pros.

Seeing him now in the NBA as a potential rotation player on a good team in the Eastern Conference makes you wonder what would have happened if he’d come to Louisville to play one or two years for interim coach David Padgett and possibly Chris Mack.

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6. Three high school state football champions from Louisville are ready to defend their titles

All high school coaches, players and fans, get excited. The dead period is over.

Practices for fall sports are getting underway and the area has three schools that are coming off state championship seasons.

Male celebrated a memorable season that was capped off by a Class 6A title, Central hoisted up the trophy in 3A, and Christian Academy-Louisville won it all in 2A going undefeated in the process.

Earlier: Christian Academy star John Young commits to Kentucky football

7. Speaking of champs, can’t forget Assumption volleyball

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Alexa Filley. Of the many volleyball greats at Assumption High School, Filley is the only to take Gatorade National Player of the Year honors, doing so after her senior season in 2013. The setter posted 1,248 assists, 334 digs, 102 kills, 58 blocks and 41 service aces as Assumption finished 37-6 and won its fourth straight state championship. She went on to play four seasons (2014-17) at Auburn, where she is the school's career leader in assists (4,721) during the rally-scoring era. She earned All-Southeastern Conference honors her final two seasons.
Teri Connelly A 1991 Assumption graduate, Connelly played basketball, soccer and softball at the school but was best-known as a field hockey star, earning All-American honors twice. She went on to play at Kent State, where she earned Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year honors in 1991 and MAC Player of the Year honors as a senior in 1995. Connelly was inducted into the Kent State Hall of Fame in 2001 and was a member of the first class inducted into the Assumption Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.
Katie George As a senior in 2011, George earned Kentucky Miss Volleyball, Gatorade Kentucky and PrepVolleyball.com National Player of the Year honors after helping the Rockets go 43-1 and win the state championship. She went on to play four seasons (2012-2015) at the University of Louisville, where she was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player and Setter of the Year as a senior. George competed in the 2015 Miss USA Pageant and recently joined the ACC Network as a sideline reporter and anchor.
Brynn Gerstle (#23) Gerstle earned first-team All-State soccer honors three years (2005-07) and finished her Assumption career with 57 goals and 76 assists. She went on to play four seasons (2008-11) at Notre Dame, where she helped the Fighting Irish capture the national championship as a junior.
Christina Kaelin was named the Gatorade Kentucky Volleyball Player of the Year as an Asummption High School junior (2004) and senior (2005). She also was one of 21 finalists for the PrepVolleyball.com National Player of the Year award as a senior. The 2005 Assumption team finished 43-0 and was named national champion by PrepVolleyball.com. Kaelin went on to play at Notre Dame (2006-09), where she missed the 2007 season with an injury and earned first-team All-Big East Conference honors in 2009. She played her senior season in 2010 at Northwestern.
Julie Purcell was named the Gatorade Kentucky Volleyball Player of the Year as an Assumption High School junior (2001) and senior (2002). She was named the Student Sports Magazine National Player of the Year and MVP of the state tournament as a junior. She went on to play four seasons (2003-06) at Northwestern University
Tiffany Whitlock was a member of four straight state championship volleyball teams at Assumption High School from 1995-1998 and was named the Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year as a sophomore (1996) and senior (1998). She went on to play at the University of Dayton.
Jenni Benningfield, the 6-foot-3 Benningfield was named Kentucky's Miss Basketball in 2000 after averaging 22.5 points and 12.5 rebounds. In her four seasons at Assumption High School, the basketball team compiled a 118-17 record and was the state runner-up in 1999. She also was an All-American volleyball player. After a four-year career at Vanderbilt, Benningfield played professionally in the WNBA and in Spain and Australia.
Janet Timperman (left #11) earned first-team All-State basketball honors from the Courier Journal as an Assumption High School senior in 1975 after averaging 15 points and 13 rebounds per game. She went on to play at the University of Kentucky and for the Minnesota Fillies of the Women's Professional Basketball League.
Leah Wigger was the state golf champion as an Assumption High School senior in 2002 and helped the Rockets capture the team championship the same year. Wigger also won four straight regional titles and went on to golf at the University of Virginia, where she was the runner-up in the 2005 NCAA Championships and was a four-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection. She played professionally from 2007-12, including two years (2009, 2010) on the LPGA Tour. In 2017, she stepped down as an assistant golf coach at the University of North Carolina.
Gabrielle Sweeney won the Class 3-A state championship in the discus throw three straight years (1980-82). Her throw of 134 feet, 6 inches as an Assumption High School junior in 1981 still stands as the 3-A state meet record. She was inducted into the Assumption Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.
Morgan Foley was a first-team All-State softball selection as an Assumption High School senior after posting a 26-5 record and 1.16 ERA. She went on to play four seasons (2013-16) at the University of Indianapolis, where she finished as the program's all-time leader in wins (140), strikeouts (1,659) and innings pitched (1,027). She also set an NCAA record with 30 strikeouts in a 1-0, 13-inning victory over Rockhurst in 2014. Foley has played professionally in the United States and Italy.
At Assumption High School, Bailey Davis won the Class 3A state cross country championship in 2012 and was named the Gatorade Kentucky Cross Country Runner of the Year. She also captured the 3A track and field title in the 1,600-meter run in 2012. Davis went on to compete in cross country and track and field at the University of Louisville.
Rylee Rader recently completed her junior season with the Assumption High School volleyball team and already has left her mark, being named the Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year as a sophomore (2017) and junior (2018) and Kentucky's Miss Volleyball in 2018. The 6-foot-2 junior blocker was named the All-USA Volleyball Player of the Year after the 2018 season, when she led the Rockets with 415 kills and a .553 hitting percentage. The Ohio State University commit helped Assumption go 43-0 and earned national championship honors from PrepVolleyball.com, USA Today and MaxPreps.com.
Jeni Houser earned Miss Volleyball and Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year honors as an Assumption High School senior in 2010. She also was named MVP of the state tournament and was named a first-team Under Armour All-American by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Houser went on to play four seasons (2011-14) at Notre Dame, where she earned honorable-mention All-American honors as a sophomore and junior. She ranks eighth in Notre Dame history with 1,299 career kills.

It’s a broken record when you’re talking about high school volleyball in the state of Kentucky. It’s about Assumption being good — again.

Just looking at the gallery of some of the best athletes in the school’s history, it’s loaded with volleyball player of the year winners, collegiate athletes and countless championships.

Riding a 57-game win streak dating back to Sept. 30, 2017, the Rockets will be heavily favored to repeat as champions and led by rising senior and Ohio State commit Rylee Rader.

Be on the lookout for stories on the defending football and volleyball champs coming soon.

Also: Assumption volleyball player named ALL-USA player of the year

8. Asia Durr is doing work

Louisville legend Asia Durr is off to a good start to her professional career with the New York Liberty. Surprising? Maybe not.

The two-time ACC Player of the Year has played in 14 games with 13 starts, averaging 11.1 points and just under 2 assists per game while shooting 46.7% from the field.

The second all-time leading scorer in U of L women’s basketball history had nine games where she scored in double figures, including a 20-point and 19-point performance, respectively. 

Durr is adapting well as a rookie and seems set on a lengthy pro career.

Ballin’: Asia Durr’s WNBA career seems to be off to a good start

9. Kudos to Jamon Brown and other former Louisville football players

Former Louisville football players Jamon Brown, Deion Branch and Chris Redman put the rivalry aside in support of the late Jared Lorenzen by donating to the funeral expenses of the former Kentucky quarterback.

Brown’s efforts in doing good for his community hasn’t gone unnoticed, from paying for a slain child’s funeral to visiting schools in the West End to inspire them. And you can’t forget about Branch and Redman holding football camps for young players who aspire to reach the pro level.

There are times when fans get so caught up in the rivalry and it can be incredibly heated, but it was refreshing to see these three players remind everyone what it’s all about.

Tip of the cap to them.

You may like: Jared Lorenzen’s celebration of life draws a stream of mourners

10. LouCity’s new stadium will add more buzz to the team 

Louisville City FC has had a good soccer fan base in its five-year existence and now it will only get bigger.

The new stadium is now halfway done and the structure now really catches your attention when you’re driving down Interstate 64.

Earlier: Louisville City FC comes back to beat Nashville SC on late goal from Hoppenot

Slugger Field has been a house but not a home for LouCity, and there’s nothing better than having a place of your own. With the location, design and size, there will be times where random drivers will be curious to know what it looks like inside. It can add some excitement to soccer in the city.

Get ready for Spring 2020.

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