Tuesday Morning Cardinal News And Notes

Bobby Petrino will be a guest on The Paul Finebaum Show this afternoon at 3:30. You can listen to the show here. It should be worth your time.

The Houston media is aware of the enormity of what's about to take place on Thursday.

UH forward @ChickenKnowles3 on "Get Chicken to Bucket" movement by L'ville fans. "The fans love me 4 some reason. Maybe it's the nickname."

— Joseph Duarte (@Joseph_Duarte) January 13, 2014

There will be much more on this tomorrow.

The most talked about story of the past couple of days around here has likely been Louisville (reportedly) pulling the scholarship of fullback Daniel Gresham, who had been the second highest-ranked recruit in U of L's 2014 class. He is also currently rated as the No. 2 fullback in the country by ESPN.

The flip side of that coin is that Louisville has reached out to Nashville Ensworth standout D'Andre Ferby, who is currently committed to Western Kentucky. Ferby is a back with a build very similar to that of Gresham. You may remember him as the kid who ran all over Trinity on national television back in August.

Gresham becomes the sixth "former member" of U of L's 2014 class since Charlie Strong left town, joining Isaiah Ford, Kavaris Harkless, Poona Ford, George Rushing and Chris Nelson. He seems like an outstanding young man and I wish the best for him going forward.

Tight end Micky Crum also received a call from the new staff on Sunday, and made it clear that he isn't planning on going anywhere.

Glad that coach petrino is excited to get me to the Ville . He said he loves how I play, and that I'll make an impact there . #blessed

— Micky Crum™ (@TooHypeCrum) January 13, 2014

Fellow commits Desean Blair and Henry Famurewa also appear to be on the train....on board.

@DeseanBlair they cool Af! Lol

— Henry Famurewa (@therealfamfam15) January 13, 2014

Louisville is once again watching more college basketball than any city in the universe. The Derby City has been ESPN's top college hoops market for the past 11 years.

Preston Brown and Hakeem Smith are both turning the heads of scouts in Florida while practicing for the East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 18 in St. Petersburg.

Hakeem Smith just made every scout in stands let out an "Ooohhhh" with the hit he just put on at the goal line.

— NFL Draft Tracker (@NFLDraftTracker) January 13, 2014

BACK OF THE HOUSE (old school(?) CC reference).

Jeff Walz and the U of L women's team are a No. 2 seed in the latest ESPN Bracketology.

It's not too late for all of us to become big-time college football coaches.

Louisville reportedly is luring away Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham for something in the neighborhood of $1 million annually. Georgia will get only $40,000 in buyout money from Grantham.

And, on the subject of these buyouts, are they really keeping coaches from going anywhere?

Strong's is hard to fathom. Not only will Texas pay him a salary that ranks him No. 3 among college football coaches in the NCAA, but it will pay a buyout to Louisville that itself would rank in the top 10 salaries in college football. Texas is paying Strong more NOT to coach Louisville than most coaches are making to actually coach their teams.

Louisville, in turn, will take that money to pay salaries, and Petrino's $1.2 million WKU buyout, which will mean he actually will have paid WKU athletic director Todd Stewart for the right to coach last season (his salary was $800,000). New WKU coach Jeff Brohm, meanwhile, will operate with a $1.5 million buyout.

That's nothing compared to Petrino's buyout at U of L - $10 million. (Details of Petrino's deal aren't yet completely known because the contract has not yet been signed.)

IT'S NOT TOO LATE.

The Cards took out Michigan State in the 2013 Commie Football Peach Bowl.

The latest NBA mock draft from DraftExpress has Montrezl Harrell going at pick No. 17 and Russ Smith being selected with the sixth pick in the second round.

In case you hadn't seen it...

Yeahh, that's not really cool, man.

Chris Jones is considered day-to-day after missing almost all of the second half of Sunday's win over SMU. Aren't we all.

Mark Coomes of Insider Louisville provides a thorough takedown of the members of Big Blue Nation attempting to play the holier than thou card in the wake of the Bobby Petrino hire.

Accusations are being leveled by two constituencies that have every right to do so: media pundits (because that's their job) and disapproving U of L fans (because that's their program).

But the loudest howls are coming from Big Blue Nation, which has no dog in the fight nor a pebble of moral high ground to stand on.

The University of Kentucky is among the most frequently sanctioned schools in the history of college sports. What's more, UK made an expedient hire of its own just five years ago, entrusting its famous (and infamous) men's basketball program to John Calipari - two vacated Final Fours notwithstanding.

It's been a quite a while since UK has suffered a visit from NCAA investigators, but glass houses don't morph into marble cathedrals overnight. Old sins grow fresh legs when penitents get haughty and forgetful.

With their indignant yowling, UK fans imply - or downright assert - that their program is an exemplar of probity. Nothing, history shows, could be further from the truth.

For UK fans to pretend otherwise betrays a tragicomic lack of self-awareness, fueled by a convenient case of selective amnesia.

You're winning some basketball games now. Go back to annoying each other and leave us alone.

A closer look at new U of L offensive coordinator Garrick McGee's contract.

In some general college hoops news, Colorado star Spencer Dinwiddie is done for the season with a torn ACL. Russ Smith offered the junior point guard some kind words of encouragement.

Dick Vitale finally gets the nerve to send the tweet he's always wanted to.

@DickieV

— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) January 14, 2014

A terrific deconstruction of the NCAA's myth that bowl games aren't very profitable.

Russ Smith was named to the AAC's weekly honor roll on Monday.

The only thing I've ever had against Tubby was almost making it hard to pull against Kentucky.

The details of Charlie Strong's new contract...if you're so inclined.

Rick Pitino will check out 2015 guard Isaiah Briscoe of from New Jersey on Jan. 28.

If you're not doing this you're an awful parent. Even if you don't have kids.

Using @CardChronicle articles as bed time stories for my daughter is what we like to call: Good for baby AND DAD

— Lee Lester (@LeeLester14) January 14, 2014

Our minds will remember this being every day in 2013.

There's an AP voter out there who moved Louisville up from No. 8 to No. 6 this week. I can't praise this type of behavior, but that doesn't mean I can't support it.

Via Michael McCammon, the Russell Athletic Bowl trophy has found its home.

After a short stint with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (just wanted to type it out) of the D League, Peyton Siva has been recalled by the Detroit Pistons.

ACC commissioner John Swofford gives his thoughts on the recent happenings at U of L.

Were you disappointed at all to see both Charlie Strong and Teddy Bridgewater, the two Louisville stars, not coming back next year?

JS: That's all part of college athletics. As much as we would've loved to have both of them as part of Louisville's first season in the ACC, we invited the university and a quality program to join us. I think they will be an excellent addition from a football standpoint, as well as an overall program standpoint.

What was your take on the hiring of Petrino, since it was a little bit controversial, given his background?

JS: He obviously is an excellent football coach. I don't know Bobby personally. I have a lot of respect for and confidence in Tom Jurich and Jim Ramsey, and obviously the people at Louisville know Bobby from his previous tenure there and felt he was the right person for the University of Louisville to continue the upwards trajectory of that football program.

Houston could be getting a pair of starters back in time to play in Thursday night's game at the Yum Center.

AAC Tournament tickets are now officially on sale.

U of L is all the way down to an 11 seed in the latest Bracketology from CBS Sports.

And finally, I'm back on the radio with Mark Ennis tonight from 6-8. We will discuss athletics live on ESPN 680 and ESPNLouisville.com.