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Wednesday Evening Cardinal News And Notes

The Coomer triplets feel like they've been waiting their whole lives for FSU game week to finally get here.

By Mike Rutherford

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I_medium Bye Week Spread Check: Taquan Dean the Cat by 3.

I_medium Bobby Petrino says he's "encouraged" by the playing statuses of the banged up trio of DeVante Parker, Lorenzo Mauldin and James Quick.

I_medium ESPN says (Insider) that Louisville is the top "trap game" left for Florida State.

I_medium All the pieces are starting to come in.

I_medium The U of L men's soccer team continued its winning ways Tuesday night with a dominating 3-0 win over visiting Evansville. The Cards return to action Friday night with a huge ACC match against Clemson at 7:30 inside Lynn Stadium. The Cardinals and Tigers are tied, along with Syracuse, atop the Atlantic Division standings with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.

I_medium So the theme for this year's Kentucky Derby Pegasus Parade is "The Best of Louisville." Participants are being asked to decorate their floats with themes of what they love about Louisville.

Giant DJ Matz float? Giant DJ Matz float.

I_medium Gorgui Dieng (and Corgi Dieng) make appearances on Grantland's annual Triangle All-Star Team.

PF Gorgui Dieng, Minnesota Timberwolves

Why We Love Him: We can start with his name. "Gorg-ee" is just fun to say. It's even better to scream. The only thing better than the first name is his nickname: DIENGHIS KHAN.

You may be wondering now, "Why am I reading about a power forward who averaged 4.2 points per game last year?" Well, did you read the part about the nickname? That alone earns him a spot.

And don't let the numbers deceive you. As most true basketball addicts know already, Rick Adelman refused to unleash Dienghis Khan until the final months of last season, when he averaged 12 and 12 and 2 blocks as a T-Wolves starter. That was just a prelude to the FIBA World Cup, where Gorgui blew up for 16 and 11 and had at least one blogger calling himSenegal's Dirk Nowitzki.

What more do you need to know? He speaks five languages, and as a profile from last preseason notes, he's fluent in basketball. Most importantly: Would you rather watch the Wolves with a pouty superstar who will never be good enough to carry them anywhere or would you rather watch Rubio, Wiggins, and Dienghis Khan?

Video Evidence: Meet the future of the T-Wolves.

Great Moments in Social Media History: Gorgui doesn't really have time for social media - his Twitter account is a bunch of blurry photos, mostly - which only means that Gorgui is smarter than the rest of us. We did findthis, though. Also the future of the T-Wolves.

corgidieng

It's totally fair if you're not ready to lose your mind over Gorgui Dieng, but everyone in the world can get onboard with Corgi Dieng.

Why Some People Don't Love Him: He's in Minnesota and nobody watches the T-Wolves? He averaged only 4.8 points per game last year? His name's hard to pronounce? There are plenty of reasons people may not love him. But then again, there are plenty of people who don't love pizza, people who don't love ice cream. It's not worth getting hung up on why. The point is that those people are wrong.

Final Word/2015 Predictions: Double-double machine. Alley-oops. Most Improved Player award. Good enough down low to convince the Wolves to move Pekovic. Good enough to own Minneapolis by April. Good enough to wipe out 10 percent of the NBA's population. Prepare yourselves.

I_medium Rick Pitino visited with four-star class of 2016 forward Veer Singh from out of  St. Peter's Prep on Tuesday.

I_medium The seventh-ranked U of L field hockey team improved to 12-4 on the season with a 2-0 win over Ohio Tuesday afternoon.

I_medium U of L is No. 4 in TNIAAM's latest ACC power rankings.

I_medium These are pretty much a must-purchase before the Notre Dame and Kentucky games:

Severed head? Who cares? You're warm and the Cards are winning.

I_medium The U of L baseball team ended its fall season with the ninth annual Pizza Bowl series over the weekend.

I_medium Bill Connelly projects the ACC conference race using advanced stats, and says that Louisville has a better chance of winning at Boston College (62.3%) than Florida State does of winning inside PJCS (58.3%).

I_medium The CC Pumpkin Challenge is really getting revved up now.

I_medium Wednesday, North Carolina released the results of an independent investigation into widespread academic fraud at the university, finding that more than 3,100 students took classes under a "shadow" curriculum. Here are the five most important takeaways from that report.

I_medium Fox Sports' Phil Ervin has a really terrific feature on the tight-knit relationship between Gorgui Dieng and Richard Pitino.

I_medium Tomorrow night's women's soccer match between Louisville and Pittsburgh can be seen live on ESPN3.com.

I_medium Bruce Pearl had some high-praise for Rick Pitino during the SEC's media day on Wednesday.

Pearl's going to have success at Auburn, largely because he recognizes the importance of stuff like this:

As for the rest of SEC media day....

Pretty much.

I_medium Rick Pitino's book The One Day Contract is now available in paperback.

I_medium Jeff Greer goes three questions with Terry Rozier.

Rick Pitino was talking last week about what the difference on offense would be without Russ Smith, and he said, "We'll actually run an offense last year." How do things change with you and Chris (Jones) running things this year?

Terry Rozier: A lot of people can say different things, but I don't want to say it's a lot different. It's not as easy. You can't really look at a guy and say, 'OK, the offense is not going well, go get a bucket.' He and Luke (Hancock) were the two of the toughest players to guard in college basketball last year. It's not like that -- we don't have either one of them this year.

I_medium If a Kentucky fan tries to brag to you about UK football having the CBS "showcase" game this weekend....

Basically, CBS gave them the spotlight for the same reason you have to go get your oil changed.

I_medium Offensive line help is coming in the form of Chandler Jones, who says he is "100 percent committed" to Louisville.

The offensive lineman out of Powder Springs (Ga.) McEachern who chose the Cardinals over Mississippi State back in June is a strong commitment.

He feels he has found his future home.

"I am 100-percent [committed] to Louisville and I am not looking around at all," said Jones. "I stay in touch with the coaches, I love what Coach [Bobby] Petrino does as a coach, and that is where I am going."

The 6-foot-4, 305 pound offensive guard saw his first game at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium earlier this fall and he is excited about his opportunity to play there.

"I was up there for the Wake Forest game and I loved the experience."

"Me and my parents got to walk onto the field, see all the red, and I loved it. I just can't wait to get there."

I_medium The week of unprovokedly mocking Michigan continues.

I_medium A source tells the Hartford Courant that the Louisville-Connecticut women's basketball series will resume during the 2016-17 season.

I_medium It's been a strange ACC football season, and U of L's struggling offense is a part of that.

13 -- This is where the University of Louisville currently ranks in total offense in its first season in the ACC. Only Wake Forest is worse. Since new/old coach Bobby Petrino is known for offense (we could call him Mr. 69 for the 69 points he once put up on UNC and that would make Ruffin McNeill Mr. 70 since the ECU Pirates broke that record this year), the Cardinals' offensive showing has folks in Papa John's Stadium getting antsy. Injuries account for some of the yardage drought, but not all.

48 -- The number of punts by Wake Forest and Louisville, most in the ACC. Wonder how long it's been since Petrino (remember he's Mr. 69) has seen his team punt six or seven times a game? It's probably been a few years. On another note, we want to state here that nobody, and we mean nobody, punts more efficiently than Wake Forest. The Deacons average 43.6 yards per punt with a net of 42.3. And get this, Wake Forest has not punted a ball into the end zone for a touchback all season. Clearly, practice makes perfect.

But on the flip side ....

15 -- Louisville leads the ACC in interceptions with 15. Incredibly, one player, Gerod Holliman has eight.

He good.

I_medium Still no official statement from WDJX on their "Seminole Wind" stance.

I_medium U of L will have some recognizable NFL alumni in the building next week.

I_medium U of L freshman defender Tim Kubel earned a pair of honors this week when he was named as the ACC Men's Soccer Player of the Week as well as the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Week.

I_medium TNIAAM previews the Cardinal hoops team.

I_medium And finally, a good feature on Teddy Bridgewater from Fox Sports.

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