Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 1.

—Louisville’s historic win over UConn Thursday night should provide this team (and this program) with the ultimate confidence boost.

—The CJ says that the Cards solidified themselves as a power house Thursday night.

—The KFC Yum Center will be opening its doors a little earlier than usual for tomorrow’s game.

—The newspaper of note in Richmond throws some love in the direction of Khwan Fore, who has “found another level” at Louisville.

—Here’s everything that Geno Auriemma had to say after his loss to the Cards.

—The Huskies appear to be lacking the type of transcendent talent that Louisville has in Asia Durr.

—Have to imagine the Bill Murray effect can only help us here.

—Here’s the GoCards.com preview for Louisville-North Carolina.

—Six U of L field hockey players were named to the ACC’s All-Academic team.

—At the moment, the future of the Louisville-UConn women’s basketball series is on hold.

—The NCAA: Still awful at everything it does.

Nobody talks, everybody walks. Rest of the world is learnin’.

—Asia Durr is the No. 2 pick in the latest WNBA mock draft from ESPN.

—Jim Boeheim is not enjoying coaching his son, and other notes from Jeff Goodman.

—Pretty cool to see Louisville dominating both the men’s and women’s college basketball pages on ESPN.com.

—Meant to put this in the Wake write-up, but Louisville was No. 83 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency after the loss to Pitt on Jan. 9 and is No. 24 in the same category today. That is an absurd jump for a team to make in the middle of a season.

The Cards are also one of just eight teams in the country that ranks in the top 25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Duke, Virginia, Michigan State, North Carolina, Kentucky, Iowa State and Nevada are the others.

Since Ken Pom started tracking stats in 2001-02, only one national champion (that fluke UConn title in 2014) has failed to be top 25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.

I’m not saying you should book your flight to Minneapolis or anything, I’m just saying ... we’re in solid company right now.

—Adidas has unveiled a new line of Black History Month uniforms for its schools.

No word on when (or if) the Cards will be sporting theirs.

—Will Leitch ranks the 50 best sports movies of all-time for Vulture. He got No. 1 right and that’s all I care about.

—U of L football has one more recruiting weekend before national signing day next week.

—Analytical proof that January was the best month for the Louisville men’s basketball team.

—The only thing that went wrong at the KFC Yum Center Thursday night was a scary escalator malfunction.

—Four-star 2020 shooting guard Pierre Brooks will visit U of L.

—Custom gloves, custom bats, custom everything for Louisville baseball this season.

—It’s a limited field, but this is the best Super Bowl bathrooms story ever written.

—Tom Brady’s agent wants Trevor Lawrence to stop playing football for Clemson. I also want Trevor Lawrence to stop playing football for Clemson.

—Senior night highlights from U of L signee Josh Nickelberry, who continues to put up big numbers.

—U of L’s Dorcas Wasike has been named the 2018 ACC Women’s Cross Country Scholar Athlete of the Year.

—The Dallas Mavericks have waived Ray Spalding.

—The Crunch Zone plays stat comparison for Louisville and North Carolina.

—They’re huskies in breed only.

—Tar Heel Blog says the relatively unknown Brandon Robinson may need to step up if UNC wants to snag revenge against Louisville on Saturday.

—Christian Academy has announced that head football coach and former Louisville QB Stefan LeFors is leaving CAL to take a head coaching position back in his hometown of Baton Rouge, LA.

That’s a huge loss for CAL. I’d still love to see LeFors on the U of L staff at some point.

—As you’d expect, very solid TV ratings for the women’s game in Louisville last night.

—This read from Mid-Major Madness on how 10 guys on a bachelor party in Vegas randomly became diehard UMKC basketball fan is a perfect college hoops story.

—Tar Heel Blog gives us both a preview of tomorrow’s game at the Yum Center as well as three specific things to keep an eye on.

The real Coby White

During the first game, Coby White picked up two fouls within the first three minutes of the game. This was instantly a huge problem for the Heels, but even worse than that, White struggled greatly when Roy Williams did put him back in the game. He finished the contest with four points, one rebound, two assists, three turnovers, and went 0-4 from the field.

The importance of his inability to get anything going is glaring in ACC play — since the loss, White has scored at least 15 points in each of UNC’s four wins. In the games against Notre Dame and Miami, the Heels won by a fewer amount of points than White contributed. To put it bluntly, Coby White needs to be productive if the Heels want any chance of coming away with a win.

The good news is that not only has White been better since the Louisville game, he was dominant against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. He flirted with an assist double-double in each game, and was just three points away from hanging 30 on the Hokies. His defense and facilitation skills have both seen some improvement, and tomorrow should be a big test to see if it has been competition-based, or if we indeed are seeing the McDonald’s All-American turn a corner and becoming the point guard that Carolina desperately needs to make a significant run in March.

—Well after last night’s game, the line for Asia Durr autographs was stretching from the court all the way out into the lobby.

—Blogger So Dear takes a look back at Louisville’s dominance of Wake.

—They may have had a hard time fitting in the same frame, but Grayson was pumped to get a pic with his favorite player Thursday night.

—Streaking the Lawn has Louisville at No. 4 in its ACC power rankings.

—A triple helping of Friday Irrelevance:

—The CJ tries to break down how Louisville can polish off a season sweep of North Carolina.

—Former U of L RB Eric Shelton is part of the 10-person KHSAA Hall of Fame class of 2019.

—And finally, beat North Carolina.