Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Jeff Greer looks at why it’s taking the NCAA so long to respond to U of L’s appeal.

—The latest SB Nation mock NFL Draft has Lamar Jackson going to the Cardinals in the second round and Jaire Alexander not going in the first two rounds at all.

—The U of L men got two votes in this week’s AP poll.

—Been a great year for OSU hoops.

—Louisville is a 10-seed in SB Nation’s latest Bracketology.

—Donovan Mitchell catches up with the crew over at WDRB.

—This thread on Lamar Jackson is a great read.

—There will be a NIKE girls’ EYBL event in Louisville again this summer.

—The current top three projected picks in the 2019 NBA Draft are all going to Duke.

—Either he’s cooperating now or the feds’ missteps are already costing them. Probably the former.

—Virginia may have lost to Virginia Tech on Saturday, but at least one of their fans always hits the halfcourt shot when College GameDay is in town.

—If you live in the New York area, attended the Louisville-Michigan State 2015 Elite 8 game and would be interested in talking about your experience on camera, shoot me an email at MikeRuth5@aol.com.

—Louisville is a nine seed taking on Nevada in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology.

—I mentioned last week that I dreamed Louisville was going to play Arkansas in the NCAA tournament, which would be unfortunate because I sort of love this Arkansas team.

You guys feel free to go ahead and beat Kentucky.

—Here are the seven biggest takeaways from the Selection Committee’s Sunday reveal of its current top 16 seeds.

2. Road success was the biggest determining factor in the rankings

Our Chris Dobbertean explained the selection committee’s renewed focus on quality wins with an emphasis on road success this year. As a reminder:

Quadrant 1: games at home vs teams ranked 1-30 in the RPI, neutral vs 1-50, road vs 1-75

Quadrant 2: home vs 31-75, neutral vs 51-100, road vs 76-135

Quadrant 3: home vs 76-160, neutral vs 101-200, road vs 136-240

Quadrant 4: home vs 161-plus, neutral vs 201-plus, Road vs 241-plus

That has played out on the top seed line.

The four No. 1 seeds are 39-8 away from home. If teams currently on the two or three line want to make a climb to No. 1, they better start racking up quality road wins.

—Andy Kennedy will reportedly step down from his head coaching job at Ole Miss after this season.

—The Louisville softball team opened its season with a 4-1 performance at a tournament hosted by UCF over the weekend. The Cards’ only loss was a 2-0 defeat at the hands of conference mate North Carolina.

—Help out our guy Patrick McSweeney if you have the means.

Keep fighting, my dude.

—Loved this oral history on the investigation scene from The Wire where Bunk and McNulty only use one word.

—The FBI’s college hoops case is, uh, hitting some snags.

—The U of L men’s soccer spring schedule is here.

—Probably the greatest thing that’s ever been on Instagram.

Imagine being that proud or protective of a DePaul golf bag.

—The U of L men’s tennis team soundly defeated Georgia State.

—If you read this hat from front to back you can see the transition of recruiting power.

—U of L’s Sam Bordner has been named to the Stopper of the Year preseason watch list.

—This stretch of six days between games came at the perfect time for Louisville.

“These last two weeks, starting with the Virginia game, it was a tough stretch,” Padgett said. “We had a lot of basketball in a short period of time. ... We really have to rest up and get ready for this next stretch.”

Mahmoud and Padgett pointed to rebounding as an area in need of more work, though the Cards have actually improved at it over the past five games, even with three losses in that span.

North Carolina, though, is a “different beast,” Mahmoud said.

Junior forward Ray Spalding on Sunday high-fived freshman Lance Thomas and invited him to shoot around on Monday when asked how he’d spend his day off.

Freshman Malik Williams told Spalding to call him, too.

Once the team comes back together, Spalding said he wanted them to return to the concentration levels that helped them get ready for big road wins at Florida State and Notre Dame in January.

”We just need to focus back in,” Spalding said, “and keep preparing hard.”

The biggest thing, Padgett said, is getting Deng Adel healthy. The junior wing left the locker room at Pittsburgh on Sunday before speaking with reporters, but it seems likely Louisville will get its leading scorer back for the North Carolina game.

—The U of L lacrosse team doubled up Marquette 16-8 in its home opener.

—Louisville has the 22nd-best brand in college football at the moment.

—Jude Schimmel is on the board of a new museum honoring Lakota people.

—The UConn men are as bad as the women are good.

—William Gay continues to strengthen the fight against domestic violence.

William Gay lives and breathes football. Like most cornerbacks in the NFL, his energy goes into pouring everything onto the field — especially since he’s a part of a playoff-caliber team like the Pittsburgh Steelers. But when game day is over, Gay’s energy goes toward advocating against domestic violence, a subject matter that hits close to home.

The 33-year-old turned the pain he’s been carrying since 1992 into motivation, all in the name of his late mother, Carolyn Hall, who was killed by her boyfriend when he was just 8 years old.

He’s been vocal about his personal journey in the past few years. Now he is partnering with former vice president Joe Biden in an initiative that will address these issues.

Thursday, the Biden Foundation named Gay to its Advisory Council, which focuses on ending sexual assault and violence against women, among other causes.

As an Advisory Council member, Gay joins a prominent group of leaders, experts and advocates who have been selected to serve as ambassadors for the Biden Foundation, guiding strategic partnerships to create societal change.

“I received a letter, and when I saw ‘Joe Biden’ on it, I’m like, ‘OK, this might be a false letter,’ ” Gay told The Undefeated. “But then my agent told me about it and then the NFL also told me about, so then I was like, ‘OK, it’s real.’ His ideas are similar to what I have going on, what my beliefs are, and trying to end domestic violence. I was glad he thought of me. I jumped at the opportunity — not as quick as I wanted to, because I got the invite during the season and I’m 100 percent about football. So I tried to focus in on the playoffs, but I was all excited for the opportunity to be invited on the advisory committee.”

—Guy is unbelievable.

—And finally, a very happy 33rd birthday to David Padgett, the only Louisville basketball coach to ever be honored as Card Chronicle Person of the Year and the only human to be covered here as both a Cardinal player and head coach.

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