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Friday Morning Cardinal News And Notes

Happy Oktoberfest and first October game day from the CCBM.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium Spread Check: Louisville by 3.

I_medium Three of the five folks over at the Syracuse Post-Standard predict a Syracuse victory tonight. All five predict a tight, low scoring game.

I_medium Mike McCallister of Scout.com's Syracuse breaks down tonight's position matchups, and says that the Orange have the edge in four of the six major areas of play.

I_medium Now it's game day.

I_medium Your official game preview from Syracuse.

I_medium The Post-Standard asks its handful of writers how the struggling Orange offense can be fixed.

I_medium If ever there was a week for Louisville to play on Friday, this is it, because Saturday's slate of games is absolutely loaded.

I_medium Russ Smith is really pumped up to be making his (sort of) professional debut inside the Yum Center, but he already really misses Rick Pitino.

I asked Russ how it has felt not to hear Pitino's voice anymore, not to hear the indelible shouts of 'Russ!' Pitino's instructions, a mix of frustration and compassion, had become almost a soundtrack of winter here.

"I actually kind of miss that," Smith said. "I realize how much he cares about me and I just, you miss playing for him. You miss him."

Russ also misses his teammates. But he said that so many of the players he had grown so close to-Siva and Dieng and Rakeem Buckles and Mike Marra and Kyle Kuric and Kevin Ware-are already gone. Those memories had already begun to fade. Smith stays in touch with current Cardinals, but he also understands he must move forward.

Nah, I'm not crying, I just finally got around to doing my ice bucket challenge. I can't believe you didn't see me do it.

I_medium Russ also talked with the Pelicans' NBA.com site about some of his interests and his on the court and off the court lives.

Best moments as an athlete: "Winning a national championship in college at Louisville; beating Florida to go to the Final Four and playing the final eight minutes of that game at point guard; and my Senior Night last season. That was really special - we beat UConn by 40-something points and I had 14 assists. That was pretty amazing."

How he chose his current uniform number of 9: "I thought it was time for a change. I knew I was going to leave 2 at Louisville and start something different. Fate gave me this number being available, so I took it and I want to make something out of it. There were a few numbers I could've taken, but I just decided to go with 9. Plus, Rajon Rondo (who wears 9 for Boston) was one of my favorite point guards before coming into the league. He's from Louisville and I got a chance to know him really well. I played some open runs with him for the last three years, hung out with him a few times. He's a good guy to be on the same team with!" [smiles]

One thing fans might be surprised to know about him: "I listen to a lot of different music and I'm very social."

No I just did another ice bucket challenge. Have a lot of friends. Got challenged a lot.

I_medium Jay Bilas has signed a contract extension with ESPN and will now also call the network's Saturday primetime game of the week, a la Kirk Herbstreit.

I_medium Syracuse QB Terrel Hunt previews Louisville.

I_medium This....this is not okay, Otto.

I_mediumWhile he's making significant strides in his second season of MLS play, former Cardinal Andrew Farrell is also being billed as a potential future defender for the USMNT.

I_medium Unsurprisingly, no Cardinals are on the list of choices for the ACC's top offensive player of September.

I_medium If you hate football or just don't want to pay for a pregame meal, here's a solid option for tonight.

I_medium The U of L men's soccer team is also in action this evening, taking on NC State. Here's your match preview.

I_medium Christian Ponder was drafted 20 picks earlier than Teddy Bridgewater. That is all.

I_medium If he'd only added "that's important," then Beamer would have been doing a Grand Budapest Hotel riff, and he would have gone up about 8,000 points in my book.

I_medium Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier are both selected in the first round of Jeff Goodman's latest 2015 mock draft for ESPN.com.

I_medium Your standard AP preview for tonight.

I_medium Teddy may not have been in uniform last night, but that doesn't mean his fans weren't.

I_medium The Daily Orange looks back at the last time Louisville and Syracuse met on the gridiron.

I_medium The folks over at TNIAAM have an insightful roundtable discussion of tonight's game.

I_medium There has been a formal request to increase the number of recs it takes to red (or pink) a comment from three to five. I welcome your thoughts on this matter in the comments section.

I_medium And finally, beat Syracuse.

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