Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

—Louisville clinched a win in its final series of the regular season with a 5-0 victory over Notre Dame Friday afternoon. The Cards and Irish are back at it tomorrow afternoon at 1.

—In an era where it seems like nothing seems to be shocking, Terry Rozier is a nice reminder that pleasant surprises can still exist in sports.

—Eric Crawford has a good column on Rick Pitino that included this haunting addendum.

Some have suggested that statement is untrue, because weeks earlier Pitino had sent Gatto a text noting that another adidas employee was helping connect Langford with UCLA, and Pitino hoped adidas wouldn’t do anything to hurt Louisville. Note – Pitino didn’t ask for any help from adidas with Langford (at least not in this text message), he only said he didn’t want to be hurt by adidas.

(Why would he do such a thing? Well, adidas had hurt Louisville before, coming through with a lucrative endorsement offer that swayed Louisville signee Sebastian Telfair to go to the NBA instead of coming to college years before. Losing Telfair, incidentally, kept Pitino in the market for a point guard, a spot he filled a year later with the addition of a California recruit named Andre McGee, but I digress.)

I had sort of forgiven Telfair for costing us Rajon Rondo because he (or at least his documentary) wound up getting us Terry Rozier. This tips the scales firmly back to the “we should despise Sebastial Telfair” side.

—Ray Spalding continues to help himself at the combine.

—Louisville is trending for four-star shooting guard Josh Nickelberry, the No. 55 player in the class of 2019 according to 247 Sports.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—Bonus Friday Irrelevance:

—Eric Crawford says that today’s agreement between U of L and Tom Jurich isn’t a settlement, but a surrender.

—Horse betting has long been America’s only federally legal form of sports wagering. As legal sports gambling takes root, an outdated industry finally has to get with the times.

—”If you leave school now, you’re gonna wind up playing in Europe.”

“Cool.”

—Google’s leaked “thought experiment” is incredibly creepy.

—Brian Bowen doesn’t seem to be ready for the NBA, but he also hasn’t been cleared by the NCAA, leaving the former Louisville recruit in no-man’s land.

Brian Bowen II, the former Louisville recruit at the heart of the federal basketball investigation, played his first competitive game in nearly a year. And it just happened to be a job audition in front of hundreds of NBA scouts and executives.

To be blunt, it didn’t go well. Bowen missed both his shots in his opening game, turned the ball over five times and looked like the most overwhelmed player on the floor.

“He’s in no man’s land,” said a veteran NBA scout who watched Bowen struggle on Thursday. “He may not be good enough to play in the G League right now.”

And that puts Bowen in a precarious predicament with the deadline to withdraw from the NBA draft coming on May 30. Does Bowen enter to compete for a spot in a league he’s clearly not ready to play in? Or does he return to school (he transferred to South Carolina) and attempt to gain eligibility via an organization (the NCAA) that’s given him no indication that’s a viable option.

“This is my career on the line, honestly,” Bowen said on Thursday.

—Bowen continues to have nothing but glowing things to say about Louisville and the university.

—A 93-year-old man who wrapped up 65 years of golfing with his first hole-in-one, says ‘the Lord knew’ it was his last round.

—Shoutout to Lou City for advancing in the U.S. Open Cup with a 5-0 win over the Long Island Rough Riders.

—Beloved former Kentucky player Bret Bearup died suddenly yesterday at the age of 56. Thoughts go out to his family and friends.

—Corey Ray has now hit a home run in three straight games.

—Not bad.

—Charlotte Wilder, my former colleague who is now killing it at Sports Illustrated, writes that America would love this Boston Celtics team if they were from any place other than Boston.

—NC State’s Saddiq Bey, who was recruited heavily by Chris Mack at Xavier, has received a full release to transfer with no restrictions.

—Former Cards killin’ it in the pool.

—Among other changes, the ACC wants the NCAA tournament to expand to 72 games. That’s gonna be a big fat no from me.

—A meteorite uncovered in Sudan contains diamonds that formed due to shock -- remnants of a “lost planet” from our early solar system that no longer exists. That’s both a fresh news story and the start of The Blob.

—And finally, Bama Hammer gives us our first dose of offseason Petrino-Saban smack talk.