Halloween afternoon Cardinal news and notes

Got a BOO BOO this morning whilst trying to read my HORRORscope and drink my deCOFFINated coffee at the same time. 'Bout to have a STAKE sandwich for lunch. Really hope it doesn't give me BAT breath.

We can do this all day. I don't care.

I'm going to link the story from The Oklahoman that has Louisville fans all riled up again, but I'm refusing to discuss it at length.

While I don't think Louisville's dance with the Big 12 is completely over, I do think it's done for the immediate future. More than anything this feels like the folks at OU attempting to downplay the public perception that Texas got their way in this whole saga, which, of course, is the truth.

Because of Breeder's Cup coverage, the Louisville/West Virginia game has been moved from WHAS-11 to WBNA-21 on Saturday.

Spread check: West Virginia by 14.

Seems high, but WVU's scoring margin at home is +22 in 5 games. Take out the LSU loss and it balloons to +34. Aside from being a 6 pt dog to LSU at home, the next closest Mountaineer home spread was -17.5 vs. Bowling Green State; WVU won 55-10.

The previous paragraph was brought to you by hothot. So was this: OVER/UNDER: Louisville at WVU opened at 47.5 pts at Wynn sportsbook. TRENDS: Under is 7-0-1 in UofL games; Over is 7-1 in WVU games.

Louisville's Nov. 12 home game against Pitt, the final one of the season, will again kickoff at noon. Lame sauce.

Cool stat from Sir Charles:

The Syracuse reaction to Saturday's game from Troy Nunes.

One good thing about going to the ACC, we won't have to play Louisville anymore.

Syracuse's 27-10 loss to the Cardinals was their third-straight on the gridiron. Couple with seven-straight losses to them on the hardwood (last time our basketball team beat L'vlle was 2006) and we should just feel lucky they don't have a lacrosse team.

And Orange 44:

With the huge win over West Virginia only eight days prior, one would have thought that the Syracuse Orange would be riding that momentum into Louisville. But no. Syracuse played one of its worst games in recent memory, and lost to the Cardinals 27-10. The loss drops the Orange to 5-3 (1-2 in Big East play) and still one win away from bowl eligibility. It also keeps Head Coach Doug Marrone winless against Louisville. Let's break it down to see what went wrong (spoiler alert: everything).

C.L. Brown goes ahead and openly asks the question we're all secretly thinking about: could Louisville be this year's UConn?

Check out the vampire mouth piece that Big East defensive player of the week Preston Brown was sporting on Saturday:

Love him. Also, he's awesome.

The ninth-ranked women's basketball team kicked off its 2011-2012 season in style, blasting Lindsey-Wilson 118-41 in an exhibition game on Sunday.

Still nothing official as far as the deal with Shenard Holton is concerned, but I can say that he has not been kicked off the team, and the word is that he will be dressing again before the season's over. I never would have guessed at the beginning of the season that we could lose him and have it go relatively unnoticed. Guys like Calvin Pryor and Mike Evans have made that the case.

So Cameron Indoor got Card Chronicled on Saturday.

Who's next?

Andrea Adelson has some praise for the Cardinal defense.

The good: Start with the Louisville defense, which is playing like the best unit in the Big East right now. The Cardinals have held each of their opponents to 25 points or fewer this season. Only one other team has done the same: Alabama. Pretty nice company for the Cardinals, who now rank No. 1 in the Big East in total defense and scoring defense. They are the top Big East team in the national rankings in those categories as well, ranking No. 12 nationally in total defense (295.63 ypg) and No. 11 in scoring defense (16.25 ppg).

Rivals.com that Louisville has offered class of 2013 quarterback Travis Wright from Trinity a scholarship. Nebraska and Mississippi State are among the other schools that have already offered, and Alabama has also expressed some recent interest.

I'm not going to lie, I'm surprised. Wright's good, but I was never convinced he was major D-1 good. Apparently I was wrong. It happens. Six times.

"The Sports Bank" has Louisville at No. 13 in its preseason countdown.

"The Hoops Report" has the Cards seventh.

I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't post this on Halloween:

Louisville's injury luck has, for lack of a better and less-rhyming term, sucked.

Prize recruit Wayne Blackshear – who was expected to start on the wing – will miss the season due to a torn labrum. Forward Rakeem Buckles – another likely starter – is still rehabbing from a torn ACL and won’t be ready until mid-December at the earliest.

Throw in nagging injuries to three other players and a still-recovering Swopshire and Louisville’s essentially back to where it was last season – solid in its starting five, but without much depth.

"That starting five, they’re ready to go, especially at the offensive standpoint," coach Rick Pitino said. "The next five, it’s been very difficult getting them ready."

Coming on the heels of not receiving a Big 12 invite, Cardinals fans are more than a little miffed at the news. Who wouldn’t?

The Cards are up to No. 3 in ESPN's latest Big east power rankings.

3. Louisville (4-4, 2-1). Look who is moving on up the charts. Back-to-back wins over Rutgers and Syracuse have losses to FIU and Marshall in the rear view. This is the best defense in the Big East right now, and we are seeing a young team really mature. Huge test Saturday at West Virginia.

I wonder if one team has ever occupied all eight spots?

Syracuse fans really aren't happy with the coaching or penalties from Saturday's game.

And finally, a nice post on Anthony Conner from Syracuse.com.