The Cardinal Connect

Photo | Washington State Athletics

On Wednesday afternoon, The Cardinal Connect reported that former Washington State quarterback Tyler Bruggman was in the process of transferring to Louisville, per sources. Just hours later it’s now been officially confirmed that Bruggman will in fact enroll at Louisville.

The Phoenix, AZ., native will have to sit out during the 2014 season due to the NCAA’s transfer rule, but is expected to participate in the fall camp. With Penn State transfer Tyler Ferguson also on the roster, Bobby Petrino and Gerrick McGee now have two quarterbacks that will participate in practice, but won’t be able to play in games this season.

Bruggman redshirted as a true freshman for Washington State this past season. With Connor Holliday entering his senior season, Bruggman was competing for the back-up spot in Pullman, Washington.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound, signal caller was rated as a four star prospect coming out of high school.  He chose to play for Mike Leach and Washington State over Arkansas, which was when Petrino was still the Razorbacks head coach. Arizona State also made a strong late push for Bruggman.

Once it was announced that he would be transferring from Washington State, Bruce Feldman of CBS Sports reported that Louisville Duke, Indiana and Arkansas were the four schools that Bruggman was granted a release to. Fortunately, he chose to finish his college career under Bobby Petrino.

As a senior, Bruggman was named Phoenix Metro Player of the Year by Arizona Republic after completing 156-of-259 passes for 2,497 yards and 37 touchdowns and two interceptions. Rivals.com tabbed him as 18th best quarterback prospect in the country.

There isn’t much of a serious battle for the starting quarterback position in 2014, but if Will Gardner doesn’t have a strong showing this season, we’ll be in for a big time battle in 2015 with Bruggman and Ferguson in the mix.

It’s been an extremely busy day for Louisville head football coach Bobby Petrino. At the UofL’s first ever appearance at the ACC Kickoff, Petirno conducted more than 30 interviews throughout the day. Here is his interview with Jeff Fischel of the ACC Digital Network.

If you missed DeVante Parker & Lornezo Mauldin’s press conference at Sunday’s afternoon’s ACC Kickoff, here is the video in it’s entirety, courtesy of the ACC Digital Network. Host Jeff Fischel talked with the senior’s about their first season in the ACC. Parker predicted his stats for the upcoming season while Lozo practiced his broadcasting skills.

Photo | @UofLFootball

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s Media Day, AKA the “ACC Kickoff,” is currently underway in Greensboro, N.C. Players from each team in the league will be speaking to the media today, while the coaches will take the podium on Monday. Louisville senior’s DeVante Parker and Lorenzo Mauldin will both speak to the media at 5:30 PM EST. See link below to stream live.

Watch Live

Photo | 247Sports.com

At this time last week, the Louisville basketball program didn’t yet have a commitments from the 2015 class. In a week’s time, Rick Pitino has landed verbal pledges from two of the top prospects in the country.

Five star swing-man Deng Adel informed the staff of his commitment this past Monday and earlier this afternoon, Louisville native Ray Spalding  formally committed to the University of Louisville.

“It’s a blessing and a dream come true,” Spalding tells Steve Jones of  The Courier-Journal. “For a humble kid like me coming from Louisville, to be able to say I could play at the university some day, it’s an honor.”

Spalding, a 6-foot-10 power forward of Trinity High School has been on the Louisville staff’s radar for the past year or so, but didn’t become a top target until recently. The four star prospect took an unofficial visit to the UofL campus on June, 11, and picked up a scholarship offer Rick Pitino shortly after.

Louisville was expected to be the heavy favorite once Spalding picked up and offer and sure enough it took a little over a month for him to give Coach Pitino a verbal pledge. Pitino and the rest of the staff were on hand to see Spalding each of the past two weekends.

The Louisville native has had a very solid spring/summer on the AAU circuit and is climbing in the rankings. 247Sports ranks Spalding as the ninth best power forward in the 2015 class and the 35th best player over all. He has scholarship offers from Indiana, Butler, Xavier, Boston College, Clemson, Northwestern, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

It’s still very early, but with commitments from Adel and Spalding, Louisville currently has one of the best recruiting classes in the country.

Rick Pitino and his coaching staff received great news on Monday evening, as the program picked up their first commitment from the 2015 class. Deng Adel, a 6-foot-7 swing man out of Victory Rock Prep in Bradenton, FL., gave Pitino a verbal pledge earlier this evening.

As we reported on Monday morning, Adel emerged as Louisville clear cut top target in recent works. Pitino and his staff were in attendance on Sunday in Chicago at the Adidas Unrivaled camp for the final day of the open contact period to see Adel in action. Fortunately their hard work paid off.

Adel is one of the highest rated recruits to commit to Louisville in the Pitino tenure. Scout.com ranks him as the 18th best player in the 2015 class. The five star prospect is originally from Sudan, but grew up in Australia. He moved to the United States last year and enrolled at Victory Rock Prep.

Prior to the 2014 spring AAU circuit, Adel wasn’t ranked in the top 100. After a sensational April and May showing, Adel catapulted into the top twenty. He chose Louisville over Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma State and Ole Miss.

Kudos to Coach Pitino and his staff for landing their top target. Adel is a great starting piece for the 2015 class.

Photo | WSU Athletic Communications

Louisville head football coach Bobby Petrino already has a plethora of quarterbacks on his roster. With that said, when you’re an offensive mastermind like Petrino, I’m sure you can never have too many QB’s.

Louisville currently has seven quarterbacks listed on the updated roster and do not currently have a commitment from a QB in the 2015 class. It turns out they may not need to make the quarterback position a high priority in 2015 if they’re able to land another transfer.

Petrino has already landed multiple transfers from other programs since being hired and it doesn’t appear that he’s slowing down any time soon.

Bruce Feldman of CBS Sports reports that former Washington State quarterback Tyler Bruggman has Louisville as one of the the school’s he’s considering transferring to.

Washington State has granted a released for four schools — Louisville, Duke, Indiana and Arkansas. When coming out of high school, the four star recruit chose Mike Leach and Washington State over Arkansas, which was when Petrino was still the Razorbacks head coach.

Bruggman was competing for the second string spot for the Cougars this past Spring before decidign to transfer. He redshirted as a freshman in 2013 for WSU. The Phoenix native will have to sit out during the 2014 season due to the NCAA’s transfer school.

It’s still very early to gauge which way Bruggman is leaning, but I’d expect him to take a visit to Louisville before making a decision.

Pete Cautilli | The Cardinal Connect

Russ Smith and Peyton Siva aren’t the only former Cardinals who are making the most of their NBA Summer League Appearances.

On Sunday afternoon, Luke Hancock put together a very solid performance for the Houston Rockets in the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League.

In just 13-minutes, Hancock scored nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from behind the three point line.

The Rockets fell to the Heat 92-81, but Hancock’s three three pointers down the stretch helped Houston claw back into the game, but unfortunately they ran out of gas.

This is Hancock’s second summer league appearance of the week. He competed with the Orlando Magic in the NBA’s Orlando Summer League from July 5-11.

Unfortunately he played in just one of the Magic’s five games. Hancock played four minutes in a game on July, 7 and didn’t score a point.

It appears that he’ll have a better opportunity to showcase his skills with the Rockets and fortunately he’s already off to a good start.

Hancock was one of just two players who made more than two three pointers in yesterday’s game.

He’ll be back in action Sunday night at 8 PM EST.

Former Louisville super star Russ Smith made his professional debut with the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday evening in the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League.

After somewhat of a sluggish start, Smith did exactly what you would expect of him. The former Card provided instant offense and was able to lead his team to a come from behind victory, including a game winning assist.

Smith was just 1-for-7 with four turnovers at halftime as the Pelicans trailed the NBDL Select. He finished with 20 points, 9 rebounds, along with five assists and three steals. He played the key role in a 21-2 fourth-quarter run that helped New Orleans erase a 19-point deficit and beat an NBA D-League team by a score of 83-81.

Only three other players scored more than Smith in the first day of the Vegas Summer League

“When I beat my man at the college free-throw line, I usually get into a layup, but when I beat my man at the free-throw line here, I’m in the midrange, and I was kind of thrown off,” Smith told the NBATV sideline reporter following the game.

“I just started watching some of the other players and where they were taking off. I’m humble enough to learn from my opponents.”

The Pelicans will be back in action on Sunday as they take on the Los Angeles Lakers at 4:30 PM.

Pete Cautilli |The Cardinal Connect

With Louisville’s move to the ACC, it’s obvious that there will be a lot of changes from what fans have been used to from the past decade.

There will be better competition, more nationally spotlight and last but not least, more expensive tickets.

It was a given that the price of tickets were going to increase this season, considering there is a significant different in the type of teams that are coming to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium compared to a season ago.

With that said, it may surprise some to see just how much ticket prices have increased.

The average ticket price for Louisville football on the secondary market is up 190% from this time last year.

According to SeatGeek.com, the prices at this time were an average of $59 and now they’re up to $171.

As Jonathan Lintner of the Courier-Journal reports, Louisville’s increase in ticket prices made a larger jump on secondary market this year than Texas A&M did when they moved from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2013.

If Coach Petrino lights up the scoreboard like we know he will, I say it’s worth every penny!