Balloon Glow Magic(TM) reached unprecedented heights on Thursday with the commitment of Wisconsin transfer point guard Chucky Hepburn.

For me, this is the addition that takes me from “there are some really nice pieces and this could be a surprisingly fun year” to “I am daydreaming in the middle of a late April Thursday about what this team might be capable of accomplishing next winter.”

Hepburn is a three-year starter at point guard for Wisconsin, where he was one of the biggest recruiting wins in program history. After three stellar seasons withe the Badgers, he’ll arrive in Louisville and instantly provide the Cardinals with an enormous boost on both ends of the floor.

Defensively, it’s simple: Hepburn is one of the best on-ball defenders in all of college basketball, and he has been for three years. Pat Kelsey loves to pressure the ball at the point of attack, a technique which only works if you have an absolute dog at the top of your defense. That’s precisely what Hepburn is.

Offensively, Hepburn is one of the best floor generals in the sport. He can score if need be, but he’s also an elite facilitator — posting an average of 3.9 assists against just 1.2 turnovers per game this past season.

Louisville had elite playmakers before the addition of Hepburn. What they didn’t have was a guy who, when things have gotten a little bit dicey and the opposing team has upped its pressure in the closing minutes of a game, a guy the Cards could hand the ball to in the backcourt and say, “ok everyone else get out of the way.”

Hepburn doesn’t rattle, and he has the skills to go hand-in-hand with that mindset.

This is a big, big addition for Kelsey and everyone who is desperate to see Louisville basketball back to looking like Louisville basketball as soon as humanly possible.

Let’s go.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has 120 million reasons to celebrate, so why not pop some champagne?

The Lions and their breakout star — famous for being able to recite every wide receiver selected before him in the 2021 NFL draft — agreed to a four-year contract extension on Wednesday. The deal includes $77 million guaranteed and has a maximum value of more than $120 million, according to NFL Network. The new deal makes St. Brown one of the highest-paid receivers in the NFL at $28 million per season, per CBS Sports, for the first three years of the contract.

NFL DRAFT LIVE UPDATES: ‘The scene in Detroit is insanity’: Maximum capacity reached at NFL draft

The Lions also signed right tackle Penei Sewell to a massive extension Wednesday worth up to $112 million, one day before the NFL draft got underway in downtown Detroit, giving football fans plenty of reasons to celebrate as they made their way to the event.

After officially inking his new deal with the Lions, St. Brown was met by a group who sprayed him with silly string as they all jumped up and down in celebration of the mammoth new contract.

In a video the Lions shared on social media, St. Brown celebrated the big news properly by shaking up what appeared to be a bottle of champagne, spraying it like he just won a championship.

Can you blame him?

St. Brown, a former fourth-round pick out of USC, has come to represent much of what the new Lions regime under general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell is all about. St. Brown is the epitome of a “chip on the shoulder” player, and now he will be with the Lions for the foreseeable future.

[ Lions fans: Celebrate the team’s epic 2023 season with a new book from the Free Press, “From Grit to Glory.” Order now! ]  

MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee man convicted of shooting his neighbor over money in 2023 has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Kenneth Burrows, 34, pleaded guilty in March to second-degree reckless homicide. Court records show, in addition to prison time, he was sentenced on Thursday to eight years of extended supervision. 

The victim, 31-year-old Victor Gillespie, was shot near 25th and Congress on Feb. 20, 2023. According to a criminal complaint, he was found at the top of the staircase leading to the second floor of his home with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest.

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Gillespie’s feet were in the entryway to a bathroom, per the complaint, where police found one bullet casing in the bathtub. On the second floor, one of the bedroom doors appeared to have been forced open.

The complaint states a witness said she was at Gillespie’s home that night when Burrows, who lived next door, showed up and demanded money that Gillespie owed him. Gillespie said he would pay him “tomorrow.” The witness said she stayed downstairs in the kitchen while the men went upstairs. According to prosecutors, she said she heard stomping, followed by a gunshot, and something then hit the floor.

Burrows then came downstairs and told the witness she should call an ambulance, the complaint said. She told police he had a gun in his hand. Her phone was upstairs, so she went to get it, and the complaint said she told police she heard Gillespie take his last breath.