Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Here’s Eric Crawford’s take on the Louisville women’s team’s closer than it should have been win over North Carolina last night.

—Dewan Hernandez, Miami’s best player, had his appeal denied by the NCAA on Thursday and will be forced to sit out the entire 2018-19 season. The NCAA determined that Hernandez had a contract with now-infamous runner Christian Dawkins.

—The Hurricanes, Louisville’s opponent on Sunday, blew a sizable second half lead and lost to NC State last night, 87-82.

The Wolfpack are now off to a 13-1 start for the first time since 1974. Why? Because ...

That was the only action in the ACC last night.

—I wrote about UCLA, which needs to nail its upcoming coaching hire (something it’s in a better position to do now than it was six year ago) in order to maintain its spot in the college hoops hierarchy.

—The final numbers are in, and it appears Louisville’s offense was, contrary to popular belief, not better without Lamar Jackson.

—In its first mock bracket of 2019, Sports Illustrated joins the ranks of those predicting a Louisville-Minnesota first round matchup.

—The Chuck Person trial is moving forward, but now it’s set to take place in June instead of next month because the judge had a conflict. Bruce Pearl’s deal with the sports devil continues to pay dividends.

—Speaking of Richard Pitino’s/Matz Stockman’s team, they snapped an 8-game losing streak to Wisconsin with a huge road win over the Badgers Thursday night.

—TuTu Atwell appears pumped about the return of Cort Dennison.

—Via Jody Demling, expect former UK and North Carolina RB Chad Scott be named the new running backs coach at Louisville.

—The UConn women’s team saw its 126-game regular season winning streak — which spanned across four seasons — snapped last night with a road loss at Baylor.

—Sports Illustrated has Jordan Nwora at No. 70 on its updated NBA Draft big board, which ranks the top 80 prospects.

70. JORDAN NWORA, F, LOUISVILLE | SOPHOMORE

Height: 6’8” | Weight: 215 | Age: 20 | Last Rank: NR

Oftentimes, Nwora has been Louisville’s only consistent source of points this season, and while that leads to some frustrating shot attempts, he does have a smooth jumper and a natural talent for scoring. He’s a strong rebounder but does not provide much defensively on the interior, meaning he will likely have to defend forwards at the next level. Nwora’s deep range and ability to catch and shoot could make him dangerous as a stretch-four, though he could do to eliminate some of the wild midrange pull-ups he takes. His talent level is apparent, though he may end up having to return for another year of school.

—We’ve got a longform piece over on SBNation.com about Virginia’s Kyle Guy and what life’s been like in the nine months since he was on the wrong end of the most embarrassing loss in college hoops history.

—Votes for the NBA All-Star game count double today, so go vote for the former Cards who are in the league.

—I would drink this. Don’t know anything about it, but I’d drink it.

—Neal Brown will be the next head coach at West Virginia.

—Dan McDonnell is the guest on the latest episode of the Top Coach Podcast.

—Last night, official Karl Hess — notable for his unlikability and poor work performance and nothing else — acted like he wanted fight Samford head coach Scott Padgett in the middle of a game.

This led to what I think has to be the best press conference moment of the 2018-19 sports season thus far.

Obviously I wasn’t the biggest Scott fan during his playing days, but this is gold.

We need a thousand times more “steppin’ to” talk in coaching press conferences.

—The latest ESPN women’s bracketology has Louisville as one of the four No. 1 seeds.

—U of L honored Asia Durr last night for becoming the fourth member of the school’s 2,000-point club.

—Tim Sullivan writes about how Durr has become even more lethal as a senior by learning how to slow down and be patient.

—Bobby Reagan predicts that Chris Mack will be named ACC Coach of the Year.

—U of L soccer product Tate Schmitt has signed an MLS homegrown contract with Real Salt Lake.

—These are sensational.

—The CJ lists six stats that help explain Louisville basketball’s offense through 13 games.

—Cole Hikutini has signed a futures contract with the Minnesota Vikings.

—Very solid buzzer-beater from the Missouri Valley.

—For the dumbest story of the day: USA Basketball mistakenly sent Maori Davenport a check after winning the FIBA Americas U18 Championship. Now, the No. 15 prospect in the 2019 class has been ruled ineligible for her senior season.

—Bol Bol’s season and college basketball career are both over, eliminating one of the maybe two or three reasons to pay any attention whatsoever to Pac-12 basketball this winter.

—Former Louisville offensive coordinator Shawn Watson was fired by Pitt today.

—Terry Rozier doesn’t watch much television.

This also counts as your Friday Irrelevance.

—And finally, congratulations to Lamar Jackson on being named the AFC’s Offensive Rookie of the Month for December.