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Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

Jaxson Lea Gentry is ready to witness the first Cardinal victory of his life. He's three days old and he already thinks Josh Pastner is hilarious.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium Spread check: No line yet.

I_medium It's Friday, and on Friday we watch this.

And any other day we want, really.

I_medium I've said this a number of times on the radio, but I keep seeing mascot debates about the Old Louie vs. the New Louie, so I'm going to talk about it here as well. Three words: Trained Actual Cardinal.

Picture the scene: Huge game against Clemson next year, Papa John's Cardinal Stadium is packed well in advance of kickoff, Tom Jurich walks out to the midfield logo and just stands there, tiny ass actual cardinal slowly makes its way down from the sky and lands gently on the shoulder of a stoic Jurich. Orgy in the crowd. Guaranteed.

Plus, it'd just be fun to see people look at the sky and be like, "Is that it? No, no.... I think that's it! .... Nope, just another normal bird."

And don't tell me a cardinal can't be trained. I already have my Louisville zoo people on it and the early reports are that it's feasible. It's going to take some effort, but we can make this happen.

I_medium Blogger so Dear, which covers Wake Forest, has a three-part statistical breakdown that tells you everything you could possibly want to know about point guard play in the ACC.

I_medium The latest mock NBA Draft from Draft Express is here, and it has Donovan Mitchell going to the San Antonio Spurs with the 29th overall pick.

I_medium GG Robinson would like the world to know that he disagrees with Ben Boulware's comments from earlier this week.

I_medium The first Bracketology of the year from SB Nation's Chris Dobbertean is out, and he has Louisville as a No. 3 seed squaring off against Oakland in round one. Villanova, Baylor, UCLA and Kansas are your one seeds.

I_medium Trinity sophomore David Johnson is a player you should probably start familiarizing yourself with. Here are some highlights from his MVP performance in the King of the Bluegrass championship game.

I_medium The best way to listen to 93.9 on your phone without using any data:

I_medium T.J. Leaf threw down a vicious dunk on California last night. It would have been so much cooler if he'd come here instead of UCLA, and I think he probably would have had it not been for ... some stuff. Thanks for that, everyone involved.

I_medium Football Scoop says Arkansas' defensive coordinator could be headed to Wake Forest to take the same job there. Everything's turning up Dave Clawson these days.

I_medium This previously unseen (at least by me and probably you) video of Teddy Bridgewater's famous touchdown pass to Damian Copeland at Cincinnati in 2013 is pretty fantastic.

I_medium Scotty Davenport's Bellarmine Knights moved to 3-0 in conference play with an 80-71 win over Rockhurst last night.

I_medium I can't get enough of these commercial outtakes from Minnesota of a polar bear mascot falling down on ice.

I_medium Louisville is all the way down at No. 20 in Gary Parrish's rankings for CBS. Minnesota makes an appearance at No. 24.

I_medium Welcome to the city, C.J. Avery.

I_medium Brandon Radcliff has signed (Instagram) with First Round Management as his professional representation.

I_medium Luke Winn's latest power rankings for Sports Illustrated have Louisville at No. 14.

14. LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
LAST WEEK: 6
RECORD: 12-€”3

Yet another way the ACC is crazy this year: The Cardinals are the only winless team—yes, they're in last place through two games—but they rank 11th nationally in efficiency and have the resume of a No. 4 or 5 seed in bracketology, with victories over Wichita State, Purdue, Kentucky and Indiana, and zero bad losses. There will be a few more games where this team just can't muster the shooting to keep up with quality, ACC offenses—and that's what happened at Notre Dame on Wednesday—but Louisville's general formula of elite defense, elite offensive rebounding and turnover-avoidance gives it a chance against every opponent.

Next up: 1/7 at Georgia Tech, 1/11 vs. Pittsburgh

I_medium After entering the season on one of the hottest seats in the country, Richard Pitino is two wins away from doubling the number of games Minnesota won in all of 2015-16. Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo writes about the job the younger Pitino has done, here.

I_medium U of L is a three seed taking on Canisius in the new Bracketology from NBC.

I_medium Keith Kelsey and Jamari Staples have both announced that they have received invited to the NFL Draft combine. Preston Brown couldn't help taking a shot at the former.

I_medium Congrats to 2017 Heisman Trophy candidate Mason King on being named to the NCAA's All-Bowl Team.

I_medium I already know what I'm doing for tomorrow morning.

I_medium If you didn't hear, Rick Pitino is going to be on John Calipari's next podcast, and he says that he and Coach Cal have a relationship similar to that of Coach K and Roy Williams.

I_medium The Indianapolis Star wonders what in the world is going on with Indiana basketball.

I_medium CBS' conference power rankings (for hoops) have the ACC at No. 1.

I_medium When you're still pumped about the Heisman, but also confused about the way the season ended:

Same.

I_medium At least the U of L women have been able to solve the Virginia enigma.

I_medium Josh Harvey-Clemons at No. 110 is the highest-rated Louisville player on CBS' NFL Draft big board.

I_medium Despite an unusual snowfall expected in Atlanta, Louisville-Georgia Tech is scheduled to go on as planned tomorrow.

I_medium And finally, beat Georgia Tech.

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