HUGHES: Louisville poised for strong finish

A gritty win over Boston College. A thrilling road victory over Wake Forest. And a blowout loss to No. 3 ranked Clemson, the defending national champs and winner of 22 straight.

Add it all up and it’s clear Satterfield has quickly remade the Cardinals into a competitive ACC program. Louisville still has a ways to go talent-wise to catch Clemson, but standing 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the ACC, the Cards have a great shot to become bowl eligible.

Louisville’s next game against Virginia (5-2, 3-1) figures the most daunting challenge remaining on the schedule. NC State (4-3, 1-2), Syracuse (3-4, 0-3), Miami (3-4, 1-3) and Kentucky (3-4) are each winnable contests. UofL only has to win two of those final five to be eligible for a bowl game; I think the Cardinals finish 3-2 — at worst — against the remaining field.

While it was clear that Clemson was in another league from a talent and depth perspective than UofL, Satterfield’s Cards played hard, competed until the final whistle and showed the kind of grit necessary to finish the season strong. Despite defeat, you can see the Louisville players growing in confidence the past few weeks. They trust Satterfield and the staff he’s assembled and wins over BC and Wake Forest should help this young collection of players overachieve in the final month and a half.

Satterfield admits his team, on both sides of the ball, remains a work in progress. That’s clear to see. It’s all clear that Satterfield has re-instilled a winning mentality inside the Louisville locker room. The only thing that will narrow the gap between Clemson and Louisville is top-notch recruiting. That won’t happen overnight, but the direction of the program seven games into Satterfield’s tenure is apparent — he’s going to built a program that goes toe-to-toe with Clemson in the ACC.

In many respects, Satterfield is cut from the same cloth as Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who essentially said as much leading up to Saturday’s game between the two rivals. Once Satterfield stacks a couple recruiting classes together, Clemson better look out.

Louisville is ascending in the ACC Atlantic, and a strong finish to Satterfield’s first season would signal that the task of rebuilding a program that ranked in the Top 5 nationally and produced a Heisman winner a few short years ago is on the fast-track.

Recruiting heats up

It’s an encouraging sign that both Scott Satterfield and Chris Mack hosted official visitors last weekend and immediately landed commitments following those visits.

Rarely has a recruit ever — on the record — told me bad things about the school or program following a visit. But it happens, and it definitely happened the last couple years under Bobby Petrino.

That’s why it was great to see 4-star receiver Christian Fitzpatrick flip his commitment to Louisville after his official visit. Fitzpatrick, and his family, have a strong pulse on the Louisville football program through Dez Fitzpatrick. I think it speaks volumes that the younger Fitzpatrick will follow in his brother’s footsteps at Louisville. It’s apparent the Fitzpatrick’s have total faith in the program Scott Satterfield is building at UofL. It also probably didn’t hurt Louisville’s chances that Dez Fitzpatrick had three straight 100+ yard receiving games prior to Christian’s visit.

The other positive about Fitzpatrick’s commitment? You know 4-star quarterback recruit Chubba Purdy is licking his chops at the idea of throwing to guys like Fitzpatrick and Tutu Atwell in the future at Louisville. Surrounding Purdy with talented receivers like Fitzpatrick should help solidify his commitment to the Cardinals.

Louisville basketball also received good recruiting news with a commitment from 4-star wing D’Andre Davis.

Davis joins Jay Scrubb, the nation’s top-ranked junior college recruit, as Louisville’s second 2020 commitment. With speculation that Scrubb could turn pro next spring, Davis, who has similar skills, provides some insurance in case Scrubb by-passes the ACC for the NBA Draft.

While Davis won’t be the highest-rated recruit in Louisville’s recruiting class, he’s a lot better than his current ranking in the bottom of the Top 100 nationally. Davis has good size and feel for the game, impacts on both ends of the court, and can score in a variety of ways. A good athlete with playmaking ability, Davis looks like a great ‘program’ guy — one of those players who will develop into a great college basketball player. Tom Izzo and Jay Wright have made a killing with those types. So has Chris Mack. I think he’s found another in Davis.

Big 10 scrimmage

I’m not concerned by the outcome of the Louisville vs. Ohio State hoops scrimmage last weekend, but I do believe those types of ‘games’ are important and can pay huge dividends later in the season.

Just like Rick Pitino liked those off-season games in Puerto Rico to help prepare for the season, Chris Mack will learn a lot from Louisville’s scrimmage against the Buckeyes. For one, that type of competition provided Mack an invaluable evaluation of his team, especially his young players.

Ohio State, it should be noted, is expected to challenge for the Big 10 championship this season. The Buckeyes have Top 20 talent, are well-coached and will be a factor in the NCAAs.

If Malik Williams, David Johnson and Quinn Slazinski had played the outcome might have been different for the Cards. But that’s not really important in October. The important point is that Mack received a strong early look at his team against an NCAA caliber squad and knows exactly what areas he’ll need to focus to get Louisville ready to open the season next month.

Louisville enters the season ranked in the AP Top 5 for a reason. When all the pieces come together, the Cardinals could be a legitimate Final 4 contender. An October contest against Ohio State may very well help Mack's team reach their potential.