Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Danielle Lerner of the CJ says it’s time for everyone to start paying attention to the best sports team in the city of Louisville: Jeff Walz’s Cardinals.

—Louisville has typically been all about the drama under Walz, but there was no drama at all in last night’s rout of Notre Dame.

—I’ve gotta give the MVP award for this discussion to the kid whose only input is “Teddy Bridgewater’s back.”

—Chris Dobbertean, SB Nation’s resident Bracketologist, attempts to forecast how many teams from each conference are going to wind up dancing with the committee’s new definition of “quality wins.” He likes the ACC to send nine.

—Louisville avoids mention in Bleacher Report’s “Bubble Watch” feature, which I suppose is a good thing.

—I firmly believe that the more Louisville plays two true guards, the more success the team will have. More times than not that second guard is probably going to be Ryan McMahon.

The late-game performance was the latest illustration of the impact McMahon has made since returning from fractured ribs that kept him out of Louisville’s first seven games. In nine appearances off the bench, McMahon averaged 6.6 points and 1.6 assists, making 39 percent of his shots from 3-point range, but his influence on Louisville goes beyond numbers.

”He’s been very valuable,” Padgett said, “not only with his ability to shoot the ball but his experience, his understanding of what we do, his understanding of the game. ... He just does a lot of little things that are valuable that might not show up on the stat sheet.”

As Padgett and his staff fiddle with Louisville’s lineup rotations, a process most coaches take much of the season to perfect, McMahon’s play is making Padgett’s decisions easier.

McMahon can spell point guard Quentin Snider or, as shown at Florida State, play as Snider’s off-guard, an extra ball-handler who can also initiate offense.

”It was a relief to me,” Snider said. “I feel like we should play with two guards on the floor more, with another ball-handler in case I get tired. Ryan really did a great job doing that, knocking down 3s and playing good defense.”

—There is actually a cool thing happening tonight involving DePaul basketball, and for the first time in the history of this site I’m saying that with zero tinge of irony.

Tonight, for the first time in the history of NCAA men’s basketball, a game will be presented commercial-free and both coaches will be mic’d up. The FS1 broadcast of Providence vs. DePaul will feature zero commercials, and the commentary will be mostly audio of Ed Cooley and Dave Leitao coaching their teams. This sounds pretty cool, and I am legitimately excited to see how it works.

—Malik Williams’ (the football one) adaptability increases the likelihood of him making it at the next level.

—Arguably the best high school soccer player in the country is officially going to be a Cardinal next season.

—Eric Crawford recaps U of L’s throttling of Notre Dame.

—I’m thinking of a reverse Ladybugs scenario where we find a way to get Durr pulling double duty and playing for the men’s team as well.

64 of 128 from three is absurd.

—Andrew Ramspacher of The State takes a closer look at Brian Bowen going to South Carolina.

—An obscure rule is going to keep former Western Kentucky signee/player (I guess) Mitchell Robinson from playing in the G League.

—This is a good vine.

—Mike Daum is college basketball’s very own urban legend.

—FanBuzz ranks college basketball’s last 10 national champions and has the 2012-13 Louisville Cardinals at No. 5.

—The ACC Digital Network hits us with episode 2 of the road to the women’s tournament.

—WFPL investigates why we say “Loo-uh-vull” the way we do. The Get Down Click, as always, is exempt from this discussion.

—Lamar Thomas has been fired at Kentucky. That’s a shame.

—Last night proved that you can never trust a Tiger with a game-tying free-throw and less than second to play.

This shouldn’t distract anyone from the fact that NC State tried harder than any team I’ve seen this season to give a game away. They didn’t though, and that’s because ...

—U of L swimming is still killing it.

—This is probably my favorite picture of 2018 and I’m not sure it will be topped.

—We found out yesterday that both Auburn’s Austin Wiley and USC’s De’Anthony Melton will miss this entire season because of their ties to the FBI scandal.

—With Duke having already been dealt a couple losses, the title race in the ACC looks far more wide open than most were predicting.

—And finally, we will be braving the elements and talking sports from 3-6 this afternoon. We’ll recap last night’s fantastic night at the Yum Center and also look ahead to tomorrow’s game against Virginia Tech. I will not say “boner” in an ‘80s robot voice because apparently that makes people mad.

This country, man. Listen here.