Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 7.

—The U of L women stay at No. 4 in the new AP poll.

—We’re a week away from Louisville-UConn in Storrs so the CJ takes a look at the past meetings between the women’s hoops powers.

—Another day another misstep by the acting brass at U of L.

The University of Louisville board of trustees repeatedly broke open meetings laws — and may have strengthened the cases of Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich — according to a decision issued Monday by Attorney General Andy Beshear.

The ruling is a response to a complaint filed in December by Courier Journal, which argued state law prohibits public agencies, such as the board of trustees, from allowing its members to participate in closed sessions via video teleconference.

Several trustees, including pizza magnate “Papa” John Schnatter, used video teleconferencing to attend closed sessions in the past two years, according to minutes from board of trustees meetings.

The ruling is significant because it opens the door for Pitino and Jurich to sue to have disciplinary action against them reversed if it was discussed or acted on in a closed session.

Pitino has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the university. Jurich has not.

The no video conference rule seems dumb to me, but if you’re a board taking drastic steps to “clean house” and make the university “honest and transparent,” you just can’t keep tripping over yourself like this.

I’m sure the NCAA will use this as justification for vacating all men’s basketball wins over South Florida or something. I’m numb at this point.

—Blogger Amye Bensenhaver was apparently the first person to note that video-conferencing during executive sessions went down at 11 of 18 board meetings in 2017.

—Nobody puts Jacket Waiver in a corner.

—None of the writers over at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician like Syracuse to pull the upset tonight.

—TNIAAM also gives us five things to watch tonight.

—The Syracuse student newspaper recaps the Orange’s loss to the U of L women’s team on Sunday.

—I’ll never get it.

—Here’s your full Louisville-Syracuse preview from U of L.

—Jeff Greer says U of L’s late game shot selection has to improve if the Cards are going to stop losing close games.

—Louisville falls out of the Power 36 rankings from Andy Katz.

—I laughed very hard at this.

—This is a great read about a former two-time Super Bowl player’s struggle with addiction and homelessness over the succeeding decades.

—And finally, beat Syracuse.