Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Georgia Tech by 3.5.

—I’m still not over Saturday. A 98.8 percent chance of victory. Good god.

—The folks over at Tomahawk Nation feel differently.

—They also felt our pain though.

—Asia Durr will be the player representative for the U of L women’s basketball team ACC media days.

—For all those trying to convince themselves that football is a sport that doesn’t exist, NBC Sports has a solid ACC basketball preview podcast.

—U of L basketball explains its new “Tough, Together, Unbreakable” motto.

—Every quarterback in college football is now interchangeable, apparently.

—ESPN’s updated ACC power rankings have Louisville in dead last.

14. Louisville Cardinals (2-3)Advice to coaches out there: Run the ball on first down when you have a lead, you’re in opposing territory and there’s less than two minutes to play.

—Former Louisville commit JaQuan Lyle was all set to finish up his (yes, still on-going) college career at New Mexico, but a torn ACL will force him to miss the entire 2018-19 season.

—Rivals recruiting writer Corey Evans says Louisville is one of three programs that dominated September.

Did you miss something last month in the sport of college basketball and the recruiting world? The Deep Three has you covered as Oklahoma and Louisville won September, Duke sure didn’t, and North Carolina and Texas could reign supreme in October.

THREE CRUISIN’

LOUISVILLE

Louisville came through in a major way in September by landing commitments from Jae’lyn Withers, Samuell Williamson, David Johnson and Quinn Slazinski. The Cardinals are looking to add shot-makers and scorers in the 2019 class, and those are areas where the program’s four newest pledges excel. They’re also versatile, multi-positional ballplayers that should work well underChris Mack’s system.

—The Louisville volleyball team downed Clemson in five over the weekend.

—The sixth-ranked U of L men’s soccer team played No. 12 NC State to a 2-2 draw Friday night in Raleigh. Tempers flared throughout the game and nearly boiled over following the final whistle.

A rematch between these two in the ACC tournament would be interesting.

—The USA vs. Gatto, et al trial begins today, and like everything else with this college basketball scandal, no one seems to have any idea what the hell is going to happen.

Starting on Monday, we’ll find out if the entire sport is truly on trial as many predicted last September, when 10 men were arrested and the feds staged an elaborate news conference. The biggest question hanging over this trial remains simple: Will there be more light shined on exactly how college basketball’s black market operates? If the feds do indeed “have your playbook,” as New York FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney memorably boasted a year ago, this trial should allow everyone to read the pages.

Officials inside and outside the case told Yahoo Sports the collateral damage to coaches and programs through potential NCAA violations that could be revealed may end up as the most newsworthy elements of the trial. Still looming over the case are 330 days of federal monitoring that could come out in the three trials, which includes 4,000 intercepted calls, countless text messages and thousands of documents and bank records. Multiple sources indicated that programs previously not connected to the case are likely to be implicated via potential NCAA violations.

“Over the course of these three trials, you’re going to see major programs get touched by this, and the nature of how business is done is going to be exposed,” said a source with knowledge of the investigation. “The question is, ‘How many?’ The coaches who are mixed up in this are used to controlling everything, and they’ll have no control in how all this comes out.”

—Unless I’m missing something, Creighton, LSU and Oregon are the only members of this dubious group that haven’t been discussed in any earlier reports.

—The 8th-ranked Louisville field hockey team blanked No. 15 Virginia, 2-0.

—The Cardinal lacrosse squad opened its fall season with wins over Marquette and Butler.

—Congrats to Bilal.

I’d say it’s hard to believe that Steve Kragthorpe refused to give that guy the ball for three years, but it really isn’t.

—The guy always finds a way to make an impact.

—Bleacher Report has a lengthy feature on the prevalence of social media addiction among NBA players. It sounds like a ridiculous premise for a story, but it’s actually really interesting.

—247 Sports serves up its notes from Louisville-FSU.

—Dr. Bendapudi continues to be a fan favorite.

—Louisville basketball’s ticket revenues are on track, which is a big deal given the university’s current financial situation.

—The CJ says that Louisville showed signs of progress before its late-game collapse on Saturday.

—Happy first day of practice.

—Former U of L basketballer Lance Thomas is ready to start his new career at Memphis State.

—It’s an unusual week for Georgia Tech, which has placed a heavy emphasis on Friday night’s game in Louisville.

“Everybody knows what this game means,” Marshall said. “I just told the guys, everybody’s always talking about a big prime-time game. You got one. Friday night – the only game that’ll probably be on. Seven o’clock, they’re wearing all black (Louisville is promoting the game as a black-out), so their stadium will be jumping. That’s what you play college football for. It’ll be rocking, so everybody’ll be ready to play.”

Tech was to begin its practice week Sunday, a day ahead of schedule. Jackets players normally have Sunday off after games and then begin practice on Monday. The team will also practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and fly to Louisville on Thursday. It will be the first-ever meeting with the Cardinals.

It will be the sixth time that Tech has played an opponent on less than a week’s rest in coach Paul Johnson’s tenure. The Jackets have won three (Clemson in 2009, Presbyterian in 2012 and Jacksonville State in 2017) and lost two (Virginia Tech in 2013 and Clemson in 2016).

—Louisville is 14th out of 14 teams in Syracuse.com’s ACC power rankings.

—And finally, R&R is back on today from 3-6 on 790-KRD, where I will be equal parts mad and sad. We’ll be carrying the Bobby Petrino press conference live beginning at 4:30. You can listen here.