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Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

The kids across the city are all dressed up in their Senior Day best, ready to bid farewell to Damion, Trey and Dillon.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium Spread check: Louisville by 12.5.

I_medium Happy March. Whatever.

I_medium Yes, there is a U of L board of trustees meeting at 2 p.m. No, I'm not sure exactly what's going to take place. Yes, we will talk about the news on the radio if anything major comes out of it.

I_medium This shouldn't come as a surprise, but here's how Damion lee spent the morning of his final home game:

Dude is the best.

And not to be outdone ...

I_medium The Louisville baseball team's scheduled game against Morehead State this afternoon has been moved to tomorrow because of the weather. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.

I_medium Marcus Paige's Senior Night speech last night was quite emotional.

I_medium The adidas postseason uniforms are here for the programs that are into that sort of thing, and they actually appear to be quite normal.


I'm not sure if the lack of absurdity this year makes me more or less upset.

I_medium The Louisville men's soccer program has been recognized as an "ACC game changer" because of its service to the special needs community.

I_medium Even though Rick Pitino is "highly likely" to return to Louisville next season, hope remains in Las Vegas that he'll wind up at UNLV, especially now that Archie Miller has reportedly made it known that he has no interest in the gig.

Jessup told a private meeting recently many impressive names have applied for the job, but he didn't identify the candidates.

Louisville's Rick Pitino is the biggest name linked to the job, and hope remains at UNLV of being able to land him. Pitino's season ends March 5 because Louisville has penalized itself from participating in the postseason because of a sex scandal.

One source said he expected UNLV to have a decision soon on the next coach, and if that is indeed the case, it would bode well for luring Pitino because he would be available sooner than most candidates.

But UNLV also isn't in the planning stages for a news conference to introduce Pitino as its next coach. Pitino figures to come with a lot of demands that would have to be met, but he also would change the complexion of the program overnight.

Names that also have been linked to the UNLV job include New Mexico State's Marvin Menzies, Long Beach State's Dan Monson and Grand Canyon's Dan Majerle. Jessup also is interested in Arizona associate head coach Joe Pasternack, and Rebels assistant Stacey Augmon has been vocal in his interest in the position.

The image of Pitino coaching a game at Air Force on Tuesday night at 1 a.m. on "The Mountain" network is still hard to conjure.

I_medium Former U of L recruit Terrence Ferguson has decommitted from Alabama. The five-star small forward is rated as the No. 13 player overall in the class of 2016.

I_medium Freak ... in the best possible sense.

I_medium I was very sad to hear of the unexpected passing of Bellarmine President Jay McGowan this morning. In the admittedly limited amount of time that I interacted with him, he was wonderful to be around and certainly played an enormous role in the growth of the university.

I_medium The Kansas City Sun Times weighs in on Rick Pitino's future.

I_medium Episode 5,607: Tink the Barber Strikes Back

The owner of a barber shop mentioned in "Breaking Cardinal Rules" has filed a lawsuit against Katina Powell and IBJ Publishing.

Powell, 42, has claimed that she hosted 22 stripping and sex parties from 2010 to 2014 inside Billy Minardi Hall, the on-campus dorm for athletes.

Powell has said that former Louisville graduate assistant Andre McGee arranged the parties and paid her $10,000 for supplying dancers.

According to the complaint, in the book's first few pages, Powell claimed she met a friend named "Tink" at Cardinal Kuts, a barber shop owned by Donald Kentae Patterson, "where the smell of marijuana wasn't unknown." The book says that's when Tink proposed that Powell provide dancers for University of Louisville basketball players.

...

The lawsuit says those statements cannot be true because Cardinal Kuts was not in existence in 2010 and 2011, and that Patterson didn't begin the shop until 2013.

WDRB has confirmed through the Secretary of State's office that Cardinal Kuts did not begin operating until 2013.

According to the lawsuit, Powell's book stated that "marijuana was commonplace" at the shop and implied that Patterson took part in introducing McGee to Powell "and set up the promotion, advancing, and profiting from dancers, escorts, strippers, and/or prostitutes at the University of Louisville."

Because of those statements, the lawsuit claims that Patterson has suffered "injury to his reputation, lost barber clients, lost income, had to quit coaching, and was required to change the name of his shop to Patterson's Barber Shop."

I'm quickly losing the ability/desire to make jokes about all of this.

I_medium The boys seventh region tournament kicks off tonight in what feels like the most wide open tournament the city has seen in years. The C-J previews the eight-team tourney.

I_medium The ACC Tournament's promotional poster confuses Washington D.C. with London, which totally makes me feel better about the fact that we're not participating .... it doesn't make me feel at all better about the fact that we're not participating.

As you might expect, the faux pas drew some attention.

That's not a Greensboro landmark.

I_medium Legends of the Hidden Temple might be coming back to TV .... as a movie? That's more confusing than the Shrine of the Silver Monkey.

I_medium Gary Barnidge and Breno Giacomini continue to bring American football overseas.

I_medium The mysteries continue.

If it's Bompy, I'm done.

I_medium The Atlanta Journal Constitution lays out 4 reasons why Georgia Tech both can and can't beat Louisville tonight.

Why - Tech's upset history

If there's one thing that Gregory has demonstrated that he's capable of doing, it's pull road upsets. In his second year, the Jackets came back from a 13-point second-half deficit to beat No. 6 Miami on a buzzer-beating tip-in by Marcus Georges-Hunt on a night when a Hurricanes victory would have clinched the league regular-season championship for Miami. Two years ago, the Jackets upset No. 7 Syracuse on the Orange's senior night. Last year, the Jackets ended their seven-game losing streak to open the ACC schedule by upsetting No. 23 Miami 70-50.

Why not - Louisville's home-court advantage

The KFC Yum Center should provide a considerable home-court advantage. The Cardinals are 17-1 at home this season and will be playing their final home game of the season. The game has further import for Louisville because the Cardinals have self-imposed a postseason ban because of a recruiting scandal that came to light last fall.

At the time the penalty was announced, Pitino said that his team would "play the last nine games of this season as if they're the last nine games we'll ever play the game."

At 11-5 in the league, Louisville still has a chance to tie for the regular-season championship. North Carolina leads at 13-4 with Miami in second at 12-4. Virginia is tied with Louisville at 11-5.

For good measure, the game is planned as a red-out.

I_medium The praise continues to roll in for Sheldon Rankins.

I_medium Your commitment is most commendable.

I_medium Conference tournaments actually begin tonight with opening round action in the Patriot League and Atlantic Sun. Your Championship Week Primer will be here tomorrow morning. I only cried a little when I put it together.

I cried a lot when I put it together.

I_medium Damion Lee has been cool for a while.

I_medium Your standard AP preview for tonight.

I_medium And finally, beat Georgia Tech.

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