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Wednesday morning Cardinal news and notes

This is how Sophia Grace watches every Louisville basketball game. Holiday or no holiday.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium Spread check (Kennesaw State): Louisville by 35.

I_medium Spread check (Music City Bowl): Texas A&M by 1.5.

I_medium The Louisville women's team rolled to its most decisive victory of the season with a 94-52 win over Dartmouth Tuesday night. Myisha Hines-Allen notched a double-double and then sported a bomb ass Santa hat in the postgame presser.

I_medium Speaking of the women's game, it was ugly Christmas sweater night at the Yum On Tuesday, and this band member stole the show.

I_medium Mike Balado was in attendance earlier this week when 2016 recruit Rawle Alkins dropped 51 points in Lexington. Alkins doesn't plan to commit until the spring, but recently cut his list of potential suitors to eight: Alkins recently cut his list to eight schools: Louisville, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, NC State, St. John's and UNLV.

I_medium Monmouth notched its fourth impressive win of the season with a beatdown of Georgetown Tuesday night, but it was the Hawk bench which once again stole the show.

I_medium If you missed Todd Grantham's comments about his assumption that Devonte Fields will be sticking around for another season at Louisville, here's the gist.

"He grinded his way through a really good year," Grantham said. "I think when you look at the last half of the year, he's a guy who performed. I'm really excited about what he can do moving forward, meaning that he's going to be here for a full year, be here with our strength staff, who I think is the best in the country at what they do. ... He's going to get to work with those guys come next semester, and then we get him for a whole spring, getting spring practice with him. And then we get him again in the summer.

"He's a guy that will really benefit from all that. I think it's good lesson, and it shows you the value of having structure  in your life and being around other guys. I think it's hard to do those kinds of things on your own.

"I'm really proud of him as far as working hard. Obviously there were high expectations when he came in, but he continued to work, had a positive attitude, kept grinding away, doing well in school and has played well for us the last little bit."

Asked after that comment if that means Grantham expects Fields to return to Louisville, the coach said yes.

I_medium Overshadowed by his incredible celebration on Sunday was the fact that William Gay has now scored on each of his last five interceptions, which is an NFL record.

I_medium Louisville is No. 12 in the latest CBS Top 25 (and one).

I_medium A professor at Kansas has discovered the only known audio from basketball creator James Naismith, which is pretty cool.

I_medium I've watched this like 15 times.

I_medium The next stop for Damion Lee in his progression as Louisville's top offensive threat is learning how to deal with double teams.

I_medium Sheldon Rankins says he would be Obi-Wan Kenobi if he were a Star Wars character, because he likes the name.

I_medium I'm going with she knew.

I_medium An interesting look at the history of St. Matthews and the impact that potato farming had on its growth.

I_medium Puddles, the Oregon Duck mascot, dressed up as Santa and scared the absolute crap out of a small child.

I_medium Louisville commit Micheal Boykin says that other schools can stop trying, he's definitely going to be a Cardinal.

I_medium When you're dunking in a game and you remember that you forgot to DVR the Fargo finale.

I_medium One of U of L's big visitors last weekend was 4-star cornerback Trayvon Mullen, a U.S. Army All-American who's ranked as the No. 17 senior in the country by ESPN. He also just so happens to be Lamar Jackson's cousin.

I_medium The legendary Chuck D shows some love for Samaki Walker.

I_medium I hope they lose the Music City Bowl, but the fact that Texas A&M runs out to "Power" and their fans don't even need the music to set the mood is pretty awesome.

I_medium CBS previews tonight's Louisville-Kennesaw State contest.

I_medium The Louisville Cardinal puts a bow on the first semester of U of L sports.

I_medium Cloid Scott Goodman informs me that this is an actual beer named "Supreme Leader."

I must taste it.

I_medium L.J. Scott admitted Tuesday that he does wonder sometimes if Louisville's season might have been different if the schedule had been flipped.

"All three of those (early losses), we were right there, two or three plays away," Scott said. "I keep telling myself personally, if we'd have played our schedule backwards, maybe we wouldn't have went 0-3, and we'd have gotten that winning attitude early and things would have been a lot different. But the best thing about that is learning, seeing how losing feels and letting that drive you to not let it happen again."

The U of L game was Clemson's second-closest of the season, and Scott said he's found himself thinking what could have been.

The Cards led by three points early in the third quarter, and in the fourth missed a tying field goal, then came up empty on a final drive in losing 20-17.

"The hardest one is Clemson," Scott said. "You look at that, they're the No. 1 team in the country, and we had them right where we wanted. We tell ourselves week in and week out, 'Get to the fourth quarter.' That's where we want to be, to be in position to win the game, and we were. Stuff like that happens. You're going to have two or three plays go your way, or don't go your way."

Steve Jones has the rest of your post-Tuesday practice notes.

I_medium Getting some extra practice in the weeks leading up to the Music City Bowl is a huge blessing for the younger members of the Louisville football team.

I_medium These guys are pretty much the best.

I_medium JuCo defensive tackle Chris Williams and cornerback Ronald Walker Jr. are both expected to officially sign their letters of intent to play at U of L today. Both players are expected to arrive on campus for the start of the second semester on Jan. 4.

I_medium A gambling website (Covers.com) has Louisville at No. 13 in its college hoops power rankings.

I_medium Yahoo's Jeff Eisenberg has Louisville among his four most pleasant surprises in this review of the best and worst from the first quarter of the 2015-16 college hoops season.

4. LOUISVILLE (7-1): The Cardinals don't have any noteworthy wins yet, but they proved themselves better than anticipated in a four-point road loss at top-ranked Michigan State. Despite losing 82 percent of its scoring from last season's 27-win Elite Eight team, Louisville has reloaded behind transfers Damion Lee and Trey Lewis and a young frontcourt that controls the glass.

I_medium Via John Ramsey on yesterday's show, Deng Adel has returned to practice and is set to return to the court for the Billy Minardi Classic next week. Adel was adamant over the weekend that he would, without question, be back for the Kentucky game.

I_medium The latest stunner in a first month of the college basketball season loaded with them came last night when Bo Ryan announced that he will be retiring at the end of Wisconsin's semester. Long-time assistant Greg Gard will take over as the Badgers' head coach.

I_medium Thank you. Happy Holidays.

I_medium Lorenzo Mauldin has found his rhythm late in his rookie season with the New York Jets.

I_medium The Houston Rockets have recalled Montrezl Harrell from the D League.

I_medium Luke Hancock has zero qualms about bombing your holiday work party photo.

I_medium Louisville is No. 3 in the fist 2015-16 installment of ESPN's BPI ratings.

I_medium Lamar Jackson and Geron Christian are both honorable mention Freshman All-Americans according to the folks at College Football News.

I_medium If you're headed to the Kennesaw State game, might want to arrive to the Yum Center a little bit earlier than usual this evening.

Tuesday was the first night for UofL's increased security measures at the KFC Yum! Center.

The changes include random metal detector screenings as soon as people walk through the door. Event goers then pass through another set of attendants who will scan their tickets to get in.

Tuesday night was a practice run, as they expected a crowd of 7,500 for the game against Darmouth. Wednesday night, they expect 22,000 fans.

The new security measures will be in effect at all UofL events at the KFC Yum! Center. Similar measures were put in place at Rupp Arena earlier this month.

UofL officials are hoping fans give themselves extra time to make it to the game to avoid frustration.

I_medium The University of Louisville Cardinal Singers are the second-ranked college chorus IN THE FRIGGIN' WORLD.

We're comin' for that No. 1 spot, Stellenbosch.

I_medium And finally, Ramsey & Rutherford will be live from the Sports & Social Club at Fourth Street Live from 3-6 this afternoon/evening. If you're going to be down there for the game, drop by and say hello. Maybe get some cool ish, I don't know.

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