Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Miami by 6.5.

—State of The U says Miami can’t afford to have a Florida State hangover against Louisville tomorrow afternoon.

—The U of L women’s basketball team hosts Murray State tonight at 9. Here’s a preview.

—Danielle Lerner of The Athletic writes about how Louisville found its rhythm against Miami.

Louisville shot 69 percent (impressive!) from underneath the basket; six of those 11 field goals were courtesy of Sutton.

Samuell Williamson was the most efficient at creating shots for himself off the dribble; the freshman used his length and athleticism to make three of his six field goals on contested mid-range jumpers, including a fast-break shot banked off the high glass as part of a first-half run.

Enoch twice successfully executed his signature right-handed hook shot by posting up to receive a feed on the left block, and the center ended up with a double-double by scoring all 11 of his points in the paint.

Louisville generally left the outside shooting to its best marksmen, setting up McMahon and Nwora to take 13 of the team’s 19 shots from beyond the arc. Williamson also knocked down his only attempt from deep.

There were also a few welcome anomalies: Kimble made a tough turnaround jumper near the elbow in the first half, and McMahon splashed a pull-up 2-pointer in the second half. The Cardinals have enough depth that they don’t need every player to do everything well, but they will certainly be a tougher team to beat if a few guys can hit shots outside of their usual repertoires.

—Via his head coach, Boo Brewer, U of L commit JJ Traynor will sign his national letter of intent to play for Louisville during a ceremony at Bardstown High School next Wednesday, Nov. 13 around 4 p.m.

—Bellarmine was down 1 with 1:20 to play at Notre Dame last Friday and damn near upset the Fighting Irish on their own floor. After the game, you would have thought Scotty Davenport was dealing with a 30-point conference loss. This is why they in every year.

Eric Crawford’s full all-access piece on the Knights’ trip to South Bend is worth a read.

—Tom Izzo said today that Seton Hall might be the best team Michigan State plays in the early part of the season. Thank God he’s not on Twitter.

—Tomahawk Nation isn’t buying the reports that Deion Sanders is a legitimate candidate to be the next head football coach at FSU.

—You can’t have enough Lamar Jackson video content.

—This weekend’s game in Miami will be a homecoming for U of L quarterbacks coach Frank Ponce.

—Ohio State superstar Chase Young won’t play in this weekend’s game against Maryland because, according to him, he accepted a loan from a family friend last year.

—Louisville women’s soccer star Emina Ekic has been named a first team All-ACC selection for a second straight year.

—Mark your calendars for NETmas.

—Louisville basketball will be hosting class of 2020 PG Jalen Terry and 2021 forward Bryce Hopkins this weekend.

—U of L commit Jay Scrubb dropped 30 Thursday night in his first game of the season for John Logan Junior College.

—The 6th-ranked U of L field hockey team scored a 1-0 win over No. 12 Syracuse Thursday in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.

—A reddit user did an amazing amount of research to find a correlation between James Harden’s lack of performance on the road and the quality of strips clubs in that city.

—This is awesome.

—Gary Parrish’s top 25 and one rankings have Louisville at No. 4.

—Lucas Aulbach of the CJ writes about how quickly Ryan McMahon can shift the direction of a game.

—New U of L license plates have arrived.

—This is quite the hook for a new ESPN 30 for 30: “Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird talk openly about their stranger-than-fiction experience with Shabtai Kalmanovich, former owner of their Russian basketball team and possible double agent.”

—Ian O’Connor writes about college basketball, the NCAA, and the “morally bankrupt industry” over which the NCAA presides.

—Friday Irrelevance, quadruple helping:

—Chris Mack said during his Friday press conference that he expects both Malik Williams and David Johnson to be healthy and available in the next 2-4 weeks.

—247 Sports has 10 keys for Miami against Louisville.

—Athlon is riding with Miami in a nailbiter tomorrow.

Final Analysis

Miami has lost two of its last three games at Hard Rock Stadium. But after the two road wins against Pittsburgh and Florida State, this appears to be a totally different team than the one that lost to Georgia Tech three weeks ago.

Louisville’s offense is averaging 32.8 points per game, but scores could be difficult to come by against an excellent defense like Miami’s. The Hurricanes love to win close, defensive battles, something Louisville isn’t necessarily used to. This should be a close game, but it is hard to go against a great defense.

Prediction: Miami 24, Louisville 23

—The Official Youngstown State athletic site previews the Penguins’ game at Louisville on Sunday.

—The Cards are taking over South Beach.

—Every time Miami has seemed to have things figured out this season, they’ve responded with one of their worst games of the year. That has ‘Canes fans nervous about their team being a touchdown favorite tomorrow.

And one more not-so-trivial thing: With at least one victory in UM’s next three regular-season games, the Canes will become bowl eligible.

“We’d be very foolish, with some of our past performances,’’ said UM coach Manny Diaz, “to walk around and act like we’ve got anything figured out — other than we know that when we work very hard and prepare at a very high level, our chances of winning go up. We should not be able to say anything other than that.”

Diaz knows of what he speaks.

After a rout against FCS opponent Bethune-Cookman in mid-September, UM had an ugly victory against Central Michigan, then lost to underdog Virginia Tech, beat favored Virginia and lost to now 2-6 Georgia Tech. Then, a previously reported player-led, bare-your-soul meeting heading into Pittsburgh brought the Hurricanes, they say, closer together than ever before, and sparked a turnaround against Pitt and Florida State.

Now, many are wondering if the Canes can keep it together Saturday and win three consecutive games for the first time in the Diaz era.

—The CJ lists three matchups to watch in this Louisville-Miami game.

—Louisville and Maryland continue to lead the country when it comes to having the best combined men’s and women’s basketball programs.

—And finally, beat Miami.