Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Great read here from Jeff Greer on a tumultuous four month period for David Padgett that has seen him unexpectedly become a head coach for the first time and also lose two family members to cancer.

Padgett “does not say anything about his life to us, outside of basketball,” Mahmoud said. “He’s really quiet. When you talk about someone being professional, he is. ... When somebody came to me, (Adel) and (Snider) and told us about what was going on in his life, our first thought was we’ve got go to him. ... We asked him if he would mind if we did something for his family, and he didn’t.”

Padgett said it just made him “love these guys even more.”

”It says a lot about not only those three,” Padgett said, “but our whole team and the kind of kids they are.”

Back home, Padgett’s parents watched their son work through a trying basketball season on and off the court, impressed by his steadiness and appreciative of his players’ support of their son.

”We’re so in awe of the job he’s done,” Debbie Padgett said. “We’re just so proud of him and those kids and how they’ve stayed together.”

—It’s Cardinal Cap Day at Jim Patterson Stadium, where No. 10 Louisville is hosting Xavier at 3 p.m. Here’s a preview.

—Virginia Tech’s upset of Duke last night shook up the ACC tournament picture a little bit.

—A former Louisville athlete writes about how the U of L athletic department shaped her future.

—TV ratings for the Winter Olympics (like TV ratings for just about everything) hit a record low this year.

—My god, even “Kevin Can Wait” has turned on Louisville.

—So it turns out that Miles Bridges actually WAS declared ineligible, but he gave $40 to charity and was declared eligible like five minutes later.

—Damion Lee suited for Team USA last night in a FIBA World qualifier game.

With the NBA in full swing, USA Basketball had to turn to G-League players for the qualifier.

—There’s been some talk in the last week that high school players should skip college entirely and go straight to the G-League. Ricky O’Donnell writes that even with its flaws, the college game still has benefits that the G-League can never touch.

—Legends.

—There are some serious holes being poked in the ESPN report that alleged Sean Miller got caught on tape talking about paying Deandre Ayton 100K.

—Lonzo Ball lost a shooting contest to Bow Wow. To be fair to Lonzo, Bow Wow is the second best basketball player from the child rappers of the early 2000s group.

—A simpler time.

—U of L women’s lacrosse takes on Vanderbilt today at 4 p.m.

—The best thing to happen yesterday was Texas’ Andrew Jones, who has been battling Leukemia, being released from the hospital.

—Kevin Ware weighs in on the playing college athletes discussion.

—Not comforting.

—LeBron James is the latest to chime in on the NCAA being corrupt.

—Asia Durr has been named a finalist for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, which is given annually to the best shooting guard in women’s basketball. The five finalists for the award are Katie Lou Samuelson (Connecticut), Asia Durr (Louisville), Victoria Vivians (Mississippi St.), Arike Ogunbowale (Notre Dame), and Kitija Laksa (South Florida). The winner of the award will be announced during ESPN2’s telecast of the national semifinal games in the 2018 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, March 30.

—Always love the ultrasound Ls up photos.

—Jeff Walz’s U of L women’s team already has one ACC title. Now they’re heading to Greensboro in search of another.

—Sports Illustrated’s Charles Pierce writes that the FBI is ill-equipped to be the NCAA’s enforcement arm.

—Mark Schofield of Inside the Pylon rips Lamar Jackson detractors to shreds.

—Donny Matchmaker.

—The Raleigh News & Observer praising the NCAA’s punishment of Louisville as “a ruling worth applauding” is not shocking.

—There are going to be some interesting rule changes for this year’s NIT ... rule changes I hope we are able to take in from afar.

—And finally, Louisville might be the top seed at this week’s ACC women’s tournament, but the computers seem to like second-seeded Notre Dame.