Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The latest NBA mock draft from Sports Illustrated’s Kevin Sweeney has Mikel Brown Jr. going 8th overall to the Mavericks.

—Louisville women’s soccer standout AG Gibson joined the Southern Hang Podcast to talk through her journey to U of L.

—Flory Bidunga might be leaving Kansas, but at least he’s not headed to KU’s arch-rival like Bryson Tiller.

—Myisha Hines-Allen is now a member of the Indiana Fever.

—The Louisville volleyball team wrapped an undefeated spring season with a 3-1 win over Kentucky.

—This week in Cardinal athletics:

Tuesday, April 21

• Baseball vs Kentucky – 7:00 p.m. ET (Jim Patterson Stadium)

Wednesday, April 21

• Softball vs Kentucky – 6:00 p.m. ET (Ulmer Stadium)

Thursday, April 22

• Men’s Golf at ACC Championship (Waterside, Fla.)
• Track & Field at Jim Freeman/Clark Wood Invitational (Owsley B. Frazier Cardinal Park)

Friday, April 23

• Men’s Golf at ACC Championship (Waterside, Fla.)
• Track & Field at Jim Freeman/Clark Wood Invitational (Owsley B. Frazier Cardinal Park)
• Rowing vs Lake Wheeler Invite (Raleigh, N.C.)
• Softball vs Syracuse – 6:00 p.m. ET (Ulmer Stadium)
• Baseball vs Clemson- 6:00 p.m. ET (Jim Patterson Stadium)

Saturday, April 24

• Men’s Golf at ACC Championship (Waterside, Fla.)
• Track & Field at Jim Freeman/Clark Wood Invitational (Owsley B. Frazier Cardinal Park)
• Rowing vs Lake Wheeler Invite (Raleigh, N.C.)
• Softball vs Syracuse – 1:00 p.m. ET (Ulmer Stadium)
• Baseball vs Clemson- 7:00 p.m. ET (Jim Patterson Stadium)

Sunday, April 25

• Men’s Golf at ACC Championship (Waterside, Fla.)
• Softball vs Syracuse – 12:00 p.m. ET (Ulmer Stadium)
• Baseball vs Clemson- 2:00 p.m. ET (Jim Patterson Stadium)

—The U of L softball team swept Pitt over the weekend, with all three wins coming via the run rule.

—The CJ’s Alexis Cubit writes about what we learned from Louisville’s spring game.

—Evan Miayakawa’s in-depth look at the NIL market trends for this offseason is a must-read.

The NIL Market Is Way Up

There are about 30 teams that use the Front Office Suite, spanning 12 conferences in the high-major and mid-major ranks. By summarizing the NIL player data entered across all teams and comparing it to last year’s market data, we can gain a pretty good understanding of how the NIL market has changed over the past year.

As mentioned at the top, **the NIL market for Division 1 players is up about 65% from last year.**That means that a player good enough to be valued at $1 million last offseason would be getting around $1.65 million this offseason. It’s pretty hard to fathom how market rates have increased this much, especially since we saw a similar increase from 2024 to 2025, if not even higher.

The market is up even higher for players coming from high-major programs: **There has been a 73% increase in the going rate for players on power conference teams.**The market increase for players from low- and mid-major conferences is slightly lower, up 44% from last offseason.

—If Louisville were to land John Blackwell this week, the Cards would have three of the top eight players in The Athletic’s portal rankings.

—Lance Robinson says that so far the transition from guard to center has been “seamless.”

—Louisville-Michigan State was the 10th-most watched game of the NCAA Tournament.

—Racing Louisville is at home on Friday night and Lou City will be playing at home on Saturday night. It’s the perfect weekend for Card Chronicle readers to pick up some discounted tickets and make it out to Lynn Family Stadium.

—This is very cool.

—This story from Mark Spears is the most we’ve heard from Mikel Brown Jr. since shutting it down at Louisville.

—Koen Entringer has only been on campus for a few months, but the transfer safety from Iowa is already establishing himself as one of Louisville’s top leaders.

—The Athletic’s NFL Draft Guide ranks Chris Bell as the 8th-best wide receiver available.

—After his performance in the spring game, should Davin Wydner have a shot to win Louisville’s starting QB job?

—And finally, Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic has a rundown of where all the various NFL mock drafts currently have Chris Bell (and other Louisville players) slated to go.