Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Florida State by 6.

—The Daily Nole previews tonight’s game in Tallahassee.

—Jeff Greer and I talk hoops, the next Louisville coach, dogs and other nonsense in this week’s Courier Journal podcast. Listen here.

—Today marks the six year anniversary of one of the more surreal nights in recent U of L basketball history: The Cardinals’ bizarre 31-point loss at Providence.

Considering what happened a couple months (and 14 months) later, it’s fun to go back and read the immediate reaction after the game and the full breakdown of the calamity a day later. I’ve also enjoyed seeing people post their social media Time Hops from five years ago.

If we couldn’t laugh at ourselves we’d all have found other ways to spend our time by now.

—I was very surprised to see Louisville not even on the board for Bovada’s odds to win the next college football national title. Even Kentucky makes an appearance at 500/1.

Odds to Win the 2019 CFP National Championship

Alabama 11/4

Clemson 6/1

Georgia 15/2

Ohio State 15/2

Michigan 9/1

Penn State 11/1

Oklahoma 18/1

Auburn 20/1

Texas 20/1

Miami Florida 22/1

Wisconsin 22/1

LSU 25/1

Michigan State 25/1

Washington 28/1

Florida State 33/1

Notre Dame 33/1

Stanford 33/1

Texas A&M 33/1

USC 33/1

Virginia Tech 33/1

West Virginia 33/1

Florida 50/1

Oregon 50/1

TCU 50/1

UCLA 75/1

Arizona 100/1

Boise State 100/1

Kansas State 100/1

Mississippi State 100/1

Missouri 100/1

NC State 100/1

Oklahoma State 100/1

Central Florida 100/1

Utah 100/1

Wake Forest 100/1

Iowa 150/1

Nebraska 150/1

Northwestern 150/1

South Carolina 150/1

Washington State 150/1

Memphis 250/1

Minnesota 250/1

Purdue 250/1

Syracuse 250/1

Tennessee 250/1

Arizona State 500/1

Arkansas 500/1

Baylor 500/1

Boston College 500/1

BYU 500/1

California 500/1

Duke 500/1

Florida Atlantic 500/1

Fresno State 500/1

Georgia Tech 500/1

Houston U 500/1

Illinois 500/1

Indiana 500/1

Kansas 500/1

Kentucky 500/1

Maryland 500/1

Nevada 500/1

North Carolina 500/1

Mississippi 500/1

Oregon State 500/1

Pittsburgh 500/1

Rutgers 500/1

San Diego State 500/1

South Florida 500/1

Texas Tech 500/1

UNLV 500/1

Utah State 500/1

Vanderbilt 500/1

Virginia 500/1

—Jeff Greer gives us three things to watch tonight against Florida State.

—A new Gorgui joins the fray.

—College football writer Matt Hinton has Louisville at No. 24 in his final 2017 rankings. I don’t get it, but sure.

—Kyle Boone is an objective CBS writer with no ties to Louisville, but Kentucky fans have reached a point where they see any sort of negative view directed at their team and they instinctively churn out the same response.

They’re also collectively spanking it over the dream of hosting a watch party for the 2013 banner coming down.

(*whispers* i think they might all be very disappointed in 8-10 days)

—We’ve talked about this before, but the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee is using a new “quadrant system” to evaluate teams this season. Here’s an easy to digest explainer.

Louisville, for those wondering, is 0-4 in “Quadrant 1” games and 0-0 in “Quadrant 2” games.

—TraSean Smith, who was injured in the TaxSlayer Bowl, is having surgery today.

—I wrote a guide for college football fans hoping to catch up with the first two months of the college basketball season.

—Phillip Olympia over at Never Nervous wonders if he’s a fair-weather fan for wanting some time apart from Louisville basketball.

—Saturday, Jan. 21 is Kids Day at the KFC Yum Center. Here are the details from U of L:

Bring the family out to the KFC Yum! Center Sunday, January 21 for Kids’ Day, as Louisville hosts conference foe Boston College. The concourse will be filled with Kids’ Day activities that are sure to be a great time for the whole family! Tickets are on sale now for $20/ticket.

Kids Day activities feature:

Size Me Up StationsFeaturing life-size cutouts of current and former UofL athletes thatmake for a great photo op!

Face Painters

One minute face painting stations

Kentucky Science Center Stations

Engineering: activity stations highlight the different fields of engineering through a series of design, team work, and building challenges

Body: activity stations investigate the inner workings of the human body, by exploring the circulatory and digestive systems,, and ocular anatomy

Louisville Leopards Performance: Youth purcussion band

Kids Only Giveaway: Team autographed poster

Interactive Photo Booths

Balloon Animal Artists

Inflatable basketball toss

—Scott Davenport’s Bellarmine Knights have climbed to the top of one Division-II poll.

—The NABC has also named the Knights its National Team of the Week.

—No Cardinals make ESPN’s All-Bowl Team.

—Pretty sweet Donovan video.

—The story of fugitive Kentucky lawyer Eric C. Conn would be too strange to believe if it were a movie.

—Louisville was the No. 14 market in the country for Monday’s national championship game.

—It took a while, but Mike Boykin has finally arrived at U of L.

—Louisville-Alabama is one of the best games of next college football season’s opening weekend.

—Louisville finishes fourth in the Atlantic Division in Gobbler Country’s final ACC power rankings for 2017.

—Third time’s the charm.

—Really awful news out of Austin, where Texas point guard Andrew Jones — a former top Louisville recruit — has been diagnosed with leukemia. Here’s hoping he beats this and is back on the court faster than anyone could have predicted.

—Myisha Hines-Allen has emerged as a “gutsy” senior leader for the 18-0 Louisville women’s team.

--Louisville baseball is No. 14 in the Perfect Game USA preseason top 25.

—John Feinstein says the ACC is worse off with Louisville and without Maryland. John Feinstein is also a Maryland resident and Duke grad.

In fact, the case can be made that, at least in a basketball sense, the ACC has suffered much more because of Maryland’s departure than Maryland.

While most in the league responded to Maryland saying sayonara with derision — “Who needs them?” was a frequently heard claim coming from the South — the absence of Maryland hasn’t worked out so well for ACC Commissioner John Swofford and his Greek chorus of presidents and athletic directors.

Why?

First, hiring Louisville (hiring being the correct word here) to replace Maryland has been an utter disaster, especially in terms of basketball, and it was Louisville basketball that Swofford and company were courting.

The Cardinals were a perennial national contender and were coached by Hall of Famer Rick Pitino. The league fell all over itself boasting that it now had four Hall of Fame coaches among its 47 (okay, 15) basketball coaches: Pitino, Jim Boeheim (when Syracuse was added), Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski — who, let’s face it Maryland fans miss the chance to hate up-close-and-personal every season.

The Terps, it should be noted, have been to the NCAA tournament just three times since 2011 and won just three games in the Big Dance over that span. They also haven’t been past the Sweet 16 since winning it all in 2002.

—Fox Sports previews Louisville-Florida State.

—Seminoles.com says the new-look Cards look plenty familiar to FSU.

—And finally, beat Florida State.