In the first of two Alabama-Louisville previews, we talk to Al.com Alabama beat writer Michael Casagrande. He details Alabama's offseason storylines, focusing on the Crimson Tide's quarterback situation. The discussion covers just about every other position group for the Tide, too.

Who does Michael like in Saturday's game? Well ... his best piece of advice is beware of openers. The rest? You'll have to listen to find out.

Louisville football season is fast approaching, which means there is no better time than now to start throwing out wild predictions.

The Courier Journal's Louisville football writer Jake Lourim joins the CardsHQ podcast for this week's episode, and he was tasked with picking stat leaders for the Cards. He was also given an over/under for Louisville's win total this season, and we put him on record for expectations for Jawon Pass.

The discussion is all about Louisville football from the beginning to end, so strap in and turn it up.

Josh Nickelberry became a popular figure with Louisville sports fans when he became the first high school player to pledge to play for Chris Mack's Cardinals. The North Carolina native, a four-star prospect ranked in the top 100 nationally in the Class of 2019, is a scoring guard who committed to Louisville in May.

In this episode of the CardsHQ podcast, we talk about Josh's upbringing and his family. He reveals his go-to video game. He details life with a new puppy named Bella. And he discusses his goals for the upcoming season. Oh, and he is pretty sure key recruits will be joining him when he makes his official campus visit in September.

"In four months' time, they've become involved with these tip-top guys they've maybe spoken with once before. That's impressive in its own right."

Rivals.com recruiting analyst Corey Evans breaks down Louisville basketball's recruiting strategy under the new guidance of Chris Mack.

It was a banner season for former Louisville basketball stars in the NBA.

Donovan Mitchell was in the thick of the Rookie of the Year race, winning the players' vote but falling in the official award chase, voted by a panel of journalists. He also led the Utah Jazz to the Western Conference semifinals.

Terry Rozier broke through in the playoffs, helping the Boston Celtics reach the Eastern Conference finals with Kyrie Irving sidelined.

Naturally we enlisted Louisville's own Haley O'Shaughnessy, an NBA writer The Ringer and graduate of U of L, to break down their campaigns and what's next for the two former Cards guards.

You can follow Haley's work on Twitter by following her @HaleyOSomething.

The NBA draft is Thursday night.

For Louisville basketball, there isn't a prospect on the same level as Montrezl Harrell, Donovan Mitchell or Terry Rozier in previous years. There is, however, some intrigue.

Where does Ray Spalding end up? Do Deng Adel or Anas Mahmoud get drafted? What is Quentin Snider's professional future?

To help us, we enlisted Sam Vecenie, who writes exhaustive, well-researched NBA draft analysis for The Athletic and hosts the Game Theory Podcast.

Former Louisville center Anas Mahmoud is two months into the NBA draft process, training with a small group of prospects in California. He graduated from Louisville at the end of April with a degree in sports administration and is hoping to become one of the few Egyptians to play professional basketball in the United States.

In his conversation on the CardsHQ podcast, Mahmoud talks first about his workouts and lifestyle changes since his college career ended. From there, the discussion turns to his former teammates and new Louisville coach Chris Mack.

Lastly, Mahmoud details just how much superstar soccer player Mohamed Salah means to his home nation of Egypt. And of course, the World Cup comes up.

Louisville basketball assistant coach Dino Gaudio joins the show this week to discuss his new gig and much more.

The conversation starts with Gaudio's childhood story of growing up around the steel mills in eastern Ohio. Gaudio tells the funny tale of joining Skip Prosser's staff at Central Catholic in Wheeling, West Virginia, too.

From there, Gaudio details his close friendship with Prosser, who was his primary basketball influence. The two coached together at Xavier and Wake Forest, and at one point against a fiery player named Chris Mack. Mack eventually transferred to Xavier, became a coach and developed his own close relationships with the Gaudio and Prosser.

Gaudio's interview ends with his thoughts on the current Louisville roster and what the Cards have to work with for next season.

To complete the episode, Jeff breaks down Louisville's recruiting prospects after a busy spring for Mack and his staff.

It's a jam-packed new CardsHQ podcast this week, with lots and lots to talk about, but it starts off, well, extremely uncomfortably.

We hope you're sitting down for the first few minutes, because Jeff tells the awkward story of his flubbed handshake with Condoleezza Rice, the chairperson of the Commission on College Basketball better known as the former national security advisor and secretary of state. Then he tries to settle his stomach with the tale of his introduction to Joe Biden a few years ago.

On to more serious topics, there's some good in the commission's report and a lot that needs fixing. That conversation starts around the 26-minute mark.

From there, some thoughts on Courtney Ramey and the NFL draft finish out the pod.

This episode is wide-ranging, starting with a breakdown of Louisville basketball's roster and what it needs for next season. Then there's the graduate transfer and Courtney Ramey discussion.

From there, I take a detour for a mini-rant about the extremely silly season that is the NFL draft portion of the calendar. If a guy can play, he can play. That simple.

Then we finish with NBA draft chatter about Louisville's four departing players.