If you love a good come back story then you will love cheering for Jay Scrubb. A guy who came up in the tough part of town Scrubbs personal and academic issues plagued his early basketball endeavors. He struggled to find his groove. A guy who could have easily given up and fell threw the cracks but continued to fight and find a way.

He found a way at Trinity High School and things started to change his junior year. Scrubb averaged 16 points per game and was named Seventh Region Player of the Year by The Courier-Journal. As a senior, he averaged 17.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game and repeated as Seventh Region Player of the Year. He was also a finalist for Kentucky Mr. Basketball.

For Scrubb the struggle was real and he had to join a junior college team after his senior season because he was academically ineligible for an NCAA Division I scholarship. Again he overcame adversity and instead of becoming just another Juco casualty he turned up. And turned up in a big way.

Scrubb is the #1 JUCO player in the country. He has made a name for himself with his grit, determination, athleticism and unique skill set.

He has a 40-inch vertical leap and a silky smooth jumper. This dude can score at every level and has superior court awareness. Scrubb averaged 20.2 points and 8.9 rebounds while shooting 46.4 percent from 3-point range last season for John A. Logan College.

Recruiting guru Evan Daniels said:

”Landing the JUCO standout is equivalent to getting a top 15 high school prospect”.

This summer Scrubb was invited to training camp for the United States national under-19 team. He was the only junior college player to earn an invite.

I love it when the University of Louisville gets the hometown guy but this is something even bigger. This young man has took all of crap that life threw at him. He took some big punches and got back up. He embodies the spirit of a young Ali.

Jay Scrubb has created quite a legend for himself over the last few years and I love that he decided to make the Cardinal Nation part of his story. Can’t wait to cheer for him and can’t wait to see how this story ends.

Louisville enters year six in the ACC with a winning record. At 21-19 the Cardinals have established some ground in the conference. We took our licks last year for sure (0-8) but have been competitive overall. The Cardinals have added a few new trophies to the case since being ACC members and have taken it right to the blue blood of the conference.

This year a new challenge. Louisville has never headed into a season in a Power 5 conference with a losing record from the previous season. To add to this challenge a complete overhaul of the coaching staff. The last time things were this bad in Louisville the Cardinals were coming off a 15-21 record in three years under Kragthorpe and the schedule was a little more forgiving for the first-year head coach Strong.

Coach Satterfield was named the 23rd head coach to lead the Cardinals back in December. He had a remarkable 51-24 record at App State including a 38-10 conference mark in six seasons with the Mountaineers. His conference record of 34-6 in five Sun Belt seasons is the best in the league over that span. The winning recipe has arrived in Louisville but will there be enough ingredients in the mix for a successful year in the ACC.

With 19 returning starters the cupboard is far from bare for Satterfield and his staff heading into the 2019 campaign. With 7 starters on offense and 10 on defense returning to the line-up, I’d like to believe that the program can be competitive in conference play and string together enough wins to make it into a postseason Bowl game.

We got rid of what was supposed to be the problem. The only thing left from that 0-8 ACC debacle last season is these players. How will they respond? Could it be that some of them were the problem last year? There are a lot of questions for this team heading into another ACC Football season. We’ll get answers to some of the trivial stuff this week as Coach Satterfield and players make the rounds at media days but the real answers will come between those lines this fall.

Coach Satterfield and the players with him at ACC Media Day will be at the podium on Wednesday from 3:30pm to 4:00pm. You can catch all of the live video and coverage at ACC KICKOFF CENTRAL.

The Cardinal 9 (as we call them affectionately) has become a household name nationally enjoying a historic run by remaining ranked in at least one major national poll every week since the release of the 2012 preseason rankings. It is longest such span in school history.

All of that success has equaled to a lot of fun for Cardinal fans and my family looks forward to our trips to Jim Patterson Stadium in June for postseason baseball. Louisville has hosted the NCAA regional round eight of the last 11 seasons. My son is 7 years old and that playground on the Berm has become a staple of his young summer life. I think he has a little click of dudes he sees every summer. It’s awesome.

My wife is not even a sports person and she enjoys our summer trips to Jim Patterson Stadium. I remember the first time she saw the rooftop renegades. She thought it was awesome that folks could sit on top of their house and cheer for their favorite team. Oh, yea we get on the rooftops for our Cardinals. Just one of the many unique and glorious things you’ll see at the University of Louisville’s baseball stadium in June.

I also love seeing fans sitting on the rooftops and that one group of Louisville fans that park their RV down the third base line. They tailgating like it’s September down there. What other ballparks in the NCAA will you see these things?

I’m no college Baseball aficionado. I follow the team loosely through the season getting most of my updates and Louisville Baseball news from @GeneralWasp on Twitter. I am a sucker for nostalgia. And I really look forward to going to Louisville Baseball games with my family in June.

It was awful missing out on our summer tradition in 2018, but the Cardinals are back in the friendly confines of Jim Patterson Stadium, where they have won 15 consecutive regional games. Win, lose or draw, ”Fullerton’s 11th inning always-bending line drive over the left-field wall in 2015”, ”the UC Santa Barbara walk-off home run off Zack Burdi in 2016”, ”that awesome dog pile after beating the Cayuts 6-2 in 2017” the good and the bad all part of the experiences. I have been there for them all.

With guys like Alex Binelas, Tyler Fitzgerald, Justin Lavey and Logan Wyatt leading the Louisville offense and guys like Reid Detmers and Michael McAvene controlling the mound our Cardinals are going to be a tough out at home where the Cardinals are 20-3 in regional games.

Kimble says that the “Fresh” nickname has followed him around since he was younger. Lamarr says that the Fresh nickname was originally given to his father and he just adopted it over the years. He says that it has meant different things during his life and has been used to describe his skills with a basketball. I don’t know about fresh, but he has proven to be a winner throughout his basketball career and seems to have the character and leadership qualities we have grown accustomed to here at Louisville in regard to graduate transfers.

An all-state performer throughout high school he helped his teams win multiple state titles. He carried that ability with him to St. Joseph’s where he earned Atlantic 10 All-Rookie honors helping the Hawks win a conference Title coming off the bench his freshman season. He started to really find his groove averaging 15.5 points and 4.5 assist a game before injuring his foot. This injury would cause him to miss the final 7 games of his sophomore season and all but one game during his junior season.

Despite having to overcome yet another injury to his hand missing another 10 games Kimble had a great final season with the Hawks where he was the second leading scorer with 15.6 points per game…, and ranked second on the team in assists with 2.8 per game… A couple of times last season he had back to back 22-point games and even hung a career-high 31 points on #13 West Virginia.

In doing my research on Kimble two things stood out to me. 1. Is that this dude had 3 game winning shots during his time at St Joseph’s. That tells me that he is a game winner and wants the ball in his hands when it’s all on the line. You can’t have enough guys like this on a team. And 2. Kimble is the only player in St. Joseph’s school history to serve as a team captain for three years. Now that’s Fresh.

We have been very lucky to have some quality young men come into the Louisville program as graduate transfers. Guys with exceptional ability on the court and exceptional character off the court. By all accounts Kimble follows that mold. We have a great group of freshmen coming to campus next season. That group is going to need the kind of leadership and example that Lamarr can provide. Former St Joseph’s Coach Phil Martelli said: “[Kimble] is not a scoring machine but he is a leader.”