Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check (football): Louisville by 9.

—Congratulations to the Louisville men’s soccer team, which smashed South Florida 4-1 Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Special congrats to first-year head coach John Michael Hayden on locking up his first postseason win.

The Cards will now travel to face UC Davis, the tournament’s No. 14 overall seed, in the second round on Sunday. That match will kickoff at 4 p.m. ET.

—Every member of the Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician staff believes Louisville is beating Syracuse tomorrow.

—Mykassa Robinson landed at No. 8 on the SportsCenter top 10 last night.

—The Democrat & Chronicle looks at the keys for Syracuse to pull off an upset inside Cardinal Stadium on Saturday.

—The U of L women’s soccer team saw its incredibly successful 2019 season end with a loss to No. 2 overall seed BYU in the second round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night.

Even so, how cool is it that Donovan Mitchell showed up in Provo to cheer on the Cards?

Louisville love is just different.

—TNIAAM serves up some game day beer picks for tomorrow.

—Louisville is a No. 2 seed in ESPN’s latest women’s basketball Bracketology.

—The best and dumbest sport at the same time.

—Last night’s Notre Dame-Toledo game was better than ‘92 Duke-Kentucky, ‘83 NC State-Houston and ‘16 Villanova-UNC combined. Here’s an appreciation.

—Danielle Lerner is doing the Lord’s work and taking an in-depth look at Keith Oddo’s love of Oreo milkshakes.

“At first it was a joke, like I had I enjoy Oreo milkshakes in my social media bios,” Oddo says. “And then over time it became, Oh, this dude actually has a problem.”

On Thursday, Oddo agreed to take The Athletic along on a milkshake tour of Louisville for a behind-the-scenes look at his taste-test process.

After refilling his white Toyota SUV with gas (Oddo explains that his car gets a lot of use as the unofficial “team mobile”) it’s off to the first of three stops: the Comfy Cow on Cardinal Boulevard, a short drive from the basketball practice facility.

In his reviews, Oddo gives each milkshake a letter grade along with a numerical score, making sure to tag the restaurant’s Instagram handle. Among his criteria are flavor, Oreo ratio, appearance and consistency. He’s partial to whipped cream and to a slightly thicker shake, though he doesn’t mind if one is melted. His favorite is when he gets to the bottom to find chunks of cookie or candy sediment that he can scoop out with a spoon.

His go-to order is an Oreo shake, sometimes mixed with other flavors. Because Oddo had yet to try Comfy Cow, he sticks with plain Oreo.

—From walk-on to starting offensive tackle, Tyler Haycraft is ready to step on the field at Cardinal Stadium one last time on Saturday.

—Louisville DE recruit Yaya Diaby is taking his official visit to U of L this weekend.

—This is pretty wild.

—Ricky O’Donnell writes about the eight best NBA Draft prospects in college basketball at the moment.

—Hero Sports looks at Hailey Van Lith’s commitment to U of L.

—Business First writes that circulation for the Courier Journal has plummeted 36% since 2017.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—Our own Cardinal Strong answered some Louisville-Syracuse questions for the TNIAAM crew.

—The Daily Orange previews Louisville-Syracuse.

—Every staff writer over at Syracuse.com likes Louisville over the Orange in a one possession game.

—Athlon likes Louisville in a close one.

Final Analysis

The big question is if you believe the Orange have turned the corner last week or was it a temporary blip on the radar following a bye week. Louisville is a young team that is heading in the right direction under head coach Scott Satterfield. However, I’m not ready to think that everything is okay with the team out of New York. I think it’s closer then the spread indicates, but it’s a win for the home team.

Prediction: Louisville 27, Syracuse 23

—Akron pasted Youngstown State 82-60 on Thursday night, meaning Sunday’s Global Sports Shootout between the Cards and Zips will be between two teams that are 3-0 in the event.

—And finally, beat Syracuse.