Louisville football is finding recruiting gold in California
Random notes:
Don’t look now, but thanks to the Golden State, Louisville football is making some recruiting noise.
The Cards received another sizable boost on Tuesday when DeAndre Moore, ranked No. 17 in the class of 2023, committed to Scott Satterfield’s program. Moore is a 5-foot-11, 190-pound receiver from Los Alamitos, California.
That continues a California trend. Moore has a connection to Louisville quarterback commit Pierce Clarkson, a top-150 player for 2023 out of Bellflower, California. Clarkson has already helped U of L gain commitments from Aaron Williams of Centennial and Jamari Johnson of Inglewood in California.
Clarkson’s father, Steve, runs a highly regarded quarterbacks skills camp in — you guessed it — Santa Monica, California.
Just 18-19 through his first three seasons at Louisville, Satterfield now has the No. 7 recruiting class for 2023, according to 247Sports rankings. U of L has commitments from eight players ranked in the recruiting site’s top 500.
▪ For the first time since 2018, there are no former UK basketball players in this year’s NBA Finals. Neither the Golden State Warriors nor the Boston Celtics has a former Wildcat on its roster.
Devin Booker starred for Phoenix, who lost to Milwaukee in the 2021 finals. Anthony Davis and Rajon Rondo helped the Lakers beat Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro of Miami in the 2020 finals. And DeMarcus Cousins played for the Warriors in the 2019 finals.
▪ Prediction: Warriors over the Celtics in six games. Golden State’s big three of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have been here before. That will spell the difference.
▪ Mel Kiper Jr.’s initial 2023 NFL Draft rankings are out. The venerable ESPN analyst has Kentucky quarterback Will Levis ranked as his 22nd-best player overall. Kiper ranks Levis No. 5 among quarterbacks.
▪ Fun fact: Levis was in Penn State’s 2018 recruiting class with Micah Parsons, Pat Freiermuth, Jahan Dotson and Odafe Oweh. Parsons, Friermuth and Oweh are all in the NFL. Dotson was a first-round pick of the Washington Commanders in April.
▪ The SEC is holding its annual spring meetings this week in Destin, Florida. It’s the first time since the 2019 that the meetings have been held in person. Kentucky is the only SEC school in the conference that currently has the same athletics director, head football coach and head basketball coach as it did at the end of the 2018-19 season.
▪ Tennessee baseball is a perfect example of what can happen if you hire the right coach. UT went 13 straight seasons (2006-2018) without making the NCAA Tournament. Now, under fifth-year coach Tony Vitello, the BaseVols are the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
▪ No surprise that Kentucky baseball did not make this year’s NCAA field. The Cats played well down the stretch, but a 12-18 SEC record and 33-26 overall mark wasn’t going to cut it. The Cats haven’t been to the NCAA’s postseason tournament since 2017.
▪ Looking for better days for the Cincinnati Reds? Last year’s No. 1 draft choice, shortstop Matt McLain has hit 10 home runs with 28 RBI for the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts. McLain is hitting just .253 but has a .915 OPS. The former UCLA star was the No. 17 overall pick in the 2021 draft.
▪ Since that horrific 3-22 start, the Reds were 13-9 heading into Tuesday night’s game at Boston.
▪ Condolences to Nicholasville’s Ken Ramsey, the longtime horse racing owner and breeder whose wife, and business partner, Sarah Ramsey, passed away on Sunday at age 83.
▪ Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike looked fit in his Monday work at Churchill Downs, covering 5 furlongs in 59 seconds. The Eric Reed trainee was to depart Louisville on Tuesday for New York and the June 11 Belmont Stakes.
▪ Former Alabama coach Gene Stallings on how new SEC football scheduling might affect long-standing rivalries: “There will always be rivalries. Now, it may not be the way we would exactly like them, but there’s going to be rivalries.”
▪ The never-ending arms race continues. Georgia athletics announced last week the launch of a $300 million capital campaign over next five years. Its board approved $68.5 million for Sanford Stadium improvements.
