clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Friday morning Cardinal news and notes

It took a considerable amount of guessing and checking, but Grant and Leo DeLaney have finally found the matching hats necessary to get the Cards rolling in March. .

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium The Louisville women's team begins postseason play tonight against sixth-seeded North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. Tip is scheduled for 8 p.m., and you can watch on the ACC Regional Sports Networks (Fox Sports South in Louisville).

I_medium The Wall-Street Journal's Ben Cohen notes that the city of Louisville is the college basketball capital of the world.

The residents of Lexington, Ky., have an unbeaten team in the Kentucky Wildcats. But the citizens of Louisville can claim a different title: People there watch more college basketball than any other place on the planet.

Louisville has entered a rarified group of cities with almost nothing in common except their unhinged devotion to a single sport. In short, Louisville is the television capital of college basketball-just like Buffalo, N.Y., is the hub of hockey and Oklahoma City is the nerve center of golf.

People in Kentucky don't just watch their own teams more than anyone else. They watch every team more than anyone else. Louisville has registered the country's highest television ratings among metered markets in college-basketball programming for at least the last dozen years, according to ESPN data.

...

Fans there are taking their obsession to new levels of excess as a result. ESPN's games are averaging a 5.9 rating in Louisville, which translates to 5.9% of Louisville's households with televisions watching college basketball on ESPN anytime it airs. That isn't just the highest number of any significant market. It's also twice the size of the next largest market on the list.

We enjoy the game.

I_medium Here's a pretty interesting inside look at Notre Dame before, during and after Wednesday night's win at the Yum Center.

Dammit, Brey. You make me want to hate you, and then you make it impossible not to love you. I won't let you make me cry again. Not this early.

It's legitimately not even possible, but somehow we're going to see you in the semis.

I_medium Jim Boeheim isn't especially confident about Louisville's chances against Virginia on Saturday.

Oh, really? Well then I guess we'll just have to settle this in the postseas-OH SO SORRY.

I_medium The Cards slip all the way down to No. 29 in the latest SI power rankings from Luke Winn.

I_medium Congratulations to Wayne Blackshear, Montrezl Harrell, Anton Gill, Mangok Mathiang, Chinanu Onuaku, Terry Rozier and Quentin Snider, who were all named to the ACC's All-Academic team on Thursday. The seven Cardinals made up 1/3 of the 21 total honorees.

I_medium Sooo, I'm pretty confident I know why Louisville lost to Jerian Grant and Notre Dame, and it has nothing to do with poor defense or underperforming stars...

Because Jerian and Jerami are just two years apart, they often played on the same teams, bridging the age gaps between their oldest brother and youngest. Here's how Jerian describes their group dynamic:

"We talk about ourselves as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There were four of them, and there are four of us," he said. "Leonardo's like the leader: That's my oldest brother. Jerai says something, you gotta listen, gotta follow. Me: I'm Michelangelo, the clown. I joke around a lot, play games. Then Jerami is Raphael. He can be a hot head, has a temper, gets ticked off - just has a real fire inside of him. Jaelin is the youngest, but he holds things together. He's got a bit of everybody's best qualities, you know?"

Son of a bitch. He stole my line.

I_medium U of L commit Ryan McMahon will be on campus this weekend and at the game on Saturday.

I_medium D1Baseball.com details Louisville's odd beginning to its 2015 season.

It has been a whirlwind of a past few weeks for Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell. His club has had a series completely moved from Louisville, Ky., to Emerson, Ga., on just a couple of days notice because of brutally bad wintry weather. And on top of that, the Cardinals, who sit at 8-4 overall, haven't completely played their best brand of baseball just yet ... but who could blame them with the obstacles they've had to overcome thus far?

As we're on the eve of the Cardinals' first ACC series against perennial power Miami, a team looking to make a statement in chilly Kentucky this weekend, McDonnell began his day doing anything but preparing for the Hurricanes. He spent the morning talking with ‘Canes head coach Jim Morris, both coaches wondering if the series needed to be pushed back to Saturday because UM was having trouble getting a flight to Louisville because of the heavy snow and icy conditions in the northern half of the country. McDonnell also is the leader of the movement to get the several inches of snow cleared off the field, something that's of great importance with the series 24 hours away.

"I've got a big group of guys right here ready to clear the field," McDonnell said with a laugh. "But not me, I'm doing other things. I'm the guy driving all over the place getting pizza and other food to make sure everyone is fed while they're doing it [clearing the field].

"The last two winters have been especially brutal for us. It's really affected some of the northern schools, and it's caused some teams to struggle a great deal early on," McDonnell continued. "Everyone was saying this was going to be a bad winter, then we get to practice outside during spring workouts because the weather was so great. Then bam, we get all of this. The kids are invincible, but this type of thing is a nightmare for coaches and administrators. It's pretty absurd."

Absurd, controversial, or whatever else you want to call this winter and the mid-February start date, the games must go on and the Cardinals enter the weekend looking to make a statement, proving to the country they deserved a lofty preseason ranking.

I_medium Louisville drops a spot to No. 5 in the new ACC power poll from the Greensboro News & Record.

I_medium This is so much better than dogs playing in the snow on Instagram.

I_medium Notre Dame's 247 Sports site details its three biggest keys to the Fighting Irish's win Wednesday night.

I_medium Louisville is down to No. 22 in the current RPI rankings.

I_medium The U of L softball team's scheduled Louisville Classic tournament for this weekend has been canceled.

I_medium This state is so weird.

I_medium Prince really could ball. Never doubt Charlie Murphy.

I_medium The average Louisville basketball player is worth $1.3 million, the highest figure of any program in the country.

I_medium Kansas freshman Cliff Alexander is under NCAA investigation for his connection to an NBA agent, per a Pat Forde report.

I_medium Put it on a banner, Pastner.

I_medium The 12th-ranked Louisville lacrosse team will host William & Mary at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

I_medium The staff over at Streaking the Lawn named Terry Rozier to its All-ACC first team, and Montrezl Harrell to the second team.

I_medium This is fairly hilarious.

I_medium Greg Scruggs has re-signed for another season with the Seattle Seahawks.

I_medium With school out yet again, the boys' 6th and 7th regional semifinals have been postponed until Monday.

I_medium Nice try, guys.

I_medium Louisville women's signees Asia Durr, Taja Cole, and Brianna Jones will all participate in the first girls' Jordan Brand Classic. The game will be played April 17 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

I_medium The 2nd-ranked Bellarmine Fighting Mike Rutherfords are into the semifinals of the GLVC Tournament.

I_medium This....this is some next level ish.

I_medium Not a bad head coaching debut for Kevin Keatts, who was named CAA Coach of the Year on Thursday. His UNC-Wilmington squad was picked to finish next-to-last at the beginning of the season, and instead earned a share of the regular season title and is the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.

I_medium Terry Rozier breaking out his current slump would be cool.

I_medium And finally, I'm posting the two ways how Louisville can earn the double bye again today because people keep asking about it.

The short answer is, beat Virginia and the Cards are the No. 4 seed. Simple as that.

If U of L loses, however, then the following needs to happen for the Cards to pick up the final double bye:

Duke beats North Carolina
NC State beats Syracuse
Miami beats Virginia Tech
Pittsburgh beats Florida State

If any of those don't happen and Louisville loses to Virginia, the Cards will be the tournament's No. 5 seed. Regardless, we're going to be dealing with some afternoon basketball next week.

More From Card Chronicle