Tuesday morning Cardinal news and notes

—The U of L women hold steady as the No. 1 seed in the Lexington region in the latest ESPN Bracketology.

—In the updated men’s Bracketology, Louisville is a six seed taking on Middle Tennessee in the South Region.

—If you somehow haven’t been paying attention, Darius Perry and the U of L bench are awesome.

Perry considers himself the bench mob’s leader, and his teammates agree. His celebration repertoire includes the flex, a finger-roll layup pose and a defensive slide, among other moves. Evans said he preferred the slide because it can be applied to actual games.

“(The moves) just kind of come,” Perry said. “I created a little Hulk flex in high school. I don’t have a nickname for them or anything, but I know when to do them. ... I egg on (teammates) to do it. Soon I’m going to have the coaches doing it, too.”

Ryan McMahon uses similar flexes and said Saturday that he enjoyed Perry taking over for him as the bench’s celebration director.

”The difference is he plays a lot more than I did,” McMahon said. “Whenever he’s not in, you can see him bringing that passion, that enthusiasm. Subconsciously it keeps you locked into the game.”

—U of L football will be hosting a National Signing Day party on Feb. 7. Details are here.

—All Sports Discussion takes a midseason look at every team in the ACC.

—Sometimes you gotta sing.

—Because Louisville refuses to go two weeks without a negative headline that makes all of us look and feel ridiculous, there’s a story out today that someone hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Tom Jurich. That person, who I now believe is the worst private investigator in the history of the field, went to the Courier Journal to try and get some info. The Courier Journal then wrote about it.

The low-key settlement talks between the University of Louisville and Tom Jurich have taken a more confrontational tone now that a private detective agency has been hired to investigate the former athletic director.

Kentucky Special Investigative Unit, a licensed detective agency based in Louisville, is pursuing leads related to U of L’s contract with Adidas and has approached Courier Journal seeking information on “any allegations of sexual harassment between Jurich and females involved with the University.”

”It is ironic to hire a private investigator to pursue allegations that simply do not exist,” Jurich said. “In fact, the implication of an allegation (of sexual harassment) is a bold lie. It is shocking and shameful that someone associated with the University of Louisville has hired a private investigator to pursue a witch hunt against me. The University of Louisville has attempted to destroy my reputation over the last six months; the same University in which my family and I gave twenty years of faithful service.”

How it has come to this less than eight months since University of Louisville interim President Greg Postel described Jurich’s performance review as “uniformly positive” is a mystery. But after 20 years of almost unbroken success, Jurich lost his job through a scathing termination letter in the wake of an FBI investigation of the recruitment of Brian Bowen -- a letter filled with disparaging generalities investigators now seek to substantiate.

Awesome.

—New Jersey is the newest basketball recruiting hotbed.

—This is the richest basketball picture I’ve ever seen.

—Louisville junior infielder Devin Mann has been named a preseason second team All-American by Baseball America while junior righthanded pitcher Riley Thompson is a third team selection.

—I finished reading The Last Shot by Darcy Frey last night and I highly recommend it. The book follows the basketball dreams of four high-profile players at Lincoln High School on Coney Island in the 1990s. One of the players of focus is a 14-year-old named Stephon Marbury. The book essentially served as the screenplay for He Got Game.

Though it was published in 1994, just about all of Frey’s thoughts on the NCAA could have been written this morning.

—I love seeing Louisville’s name on this list, but the name directly above us makes me less proud.

—Mini season ticket packages for U of L baseball are now on sale.

—Congrats to Jeff Goodman for setting Dan Dakich on fire over the weekend.

Keep in mind this whole thing started when Dakich said that Michigan State’s Miles Bridges has “no game.”

Uhh ...

At least he’s consistently inconsistent.

—NFL.com’s latest mock draft has Jaire Alexander going to the Rams with the 23rd pick, and Lamar Jackson to the Jags at pick 29.

—So Louisville beat Notre Dame into oblivion a few weeks ago, and now the Fighting Irish have beaten Florida State — the team that handed the Cards their only loss of the season to date -- into oblivion.

—Rob Dauster of NBC has a disturbing look at the willingness of college basketball coaches to take and play players with pasts that include sexual assault. LSU is the latest offender.

—In perhaps directly related news, LSU announced Monday the dismissal of two players and the suspension of two more.

—Boise State’s Leon Rice is the best.

—Friends don’t let friends claim Lamar Jackson is just a running QB who can’t throw. If they do, show them this.

—The best from Sunday at the KFC Yum Center:

—And the best from Saturday:

—Pat Forde has a good read in the increasingly gross situation at Michigan State.

—Louisville checks in at No. 23 in Andy Katz’s new Power 36 rankings.

23. Louisville (19):

The Cardinals lost by three in overtime at Miami. There is no shame in that at all. They turned around and beat Wake Forest handedly at home. The problem is that any momentum from the week could be stunted with a road trip to Virginia on Wednesday. The Cavaliers have a way of making teams look lost offensively. Still, Louisville has done a great job of playing the full 40 under David Padgett. A potential separation game comes on the weekend when Florida State arrives. The Cardinals are looking for the Seminole sweep after beating FSU earlier in the month in Tallahassee.

—Louisville has extended a scholarship offer to Trinity DE AJ McDuffie (2018).

—Never forget that Lamar is the best dude.

—I regret to inform anyone who was unaware that Virginia is even better than usual this season.

—Athlon ranks the QB recruiting classes since 2002 and features Lamar Jackson prominently.

—Shoutout to everyone who knows the out of town struggle.

—Virginia associate head coach Ron Sanchez talks (video) about turning the page to Louisville.

—If this record runs to 5-0 there is going to be some extreme celebrating here on Labor Day weekend.

—De’Andre Hunter, Virginia’s top reserve, suffered an ankle sprain in the win over Duke and was held out of practice Monday. He could be slightly hampered Wednesday night but should play.

—Football porn.

—Lindy’s looks at the news of Louisville hiring Brian VanGorder.

—The Louisville Cardinal looks at U of L fall athletes who are now competing at the next level.

—And finally, new U of L DC Brian VanGorder will join us on R&R this afternoon. Listen here.