Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The fourth-ranked Louisville baseball team opened its 2019 season by dropping two of three to nationally ranked Connecticut. The Cards will now enjoy (weather permitting) 14 straight games at Jim Patterson Stadium.

—Louisville falls one spot from No. 16 to No. 17 in the updated NET rankings.

—These are the 12 things you need to know from the weekend that was in college basketball.

—The Athletic did the thing where they have coaches speak honestly and anonymously about the other teams in their conference, and here’s what one had to say about Louisville.

Louisville: “They’re not very good defensively but they’re a skilled offensive team. Jordan Nwora is a special offensive player, but he’s a real weak defender. He just doesn’t guard. Tries to steal every pass. He’s an undersized four so if you have a strong four man you can hurt him inside. He’s more athletic than people think, but he’s not overly tough, Ryan McMahon is not overly tough, Malik Williams is not overly tough. They’ve played a little bit of a softer schedule in the league to this point. They don’t have an elite-level scoring guard, but they run their stuff real well. Nwora has an unbelievably quick release. Their bigs can make 3s. They guard you well, but Duke showed that if you have good athletes you can press them and speed them up.”

The circular thinking points me in the direction of Pastner, but it’d be hard for him to criticize anyone’s defense after what Louisville did to his team. That’s still my best guess though.

—Shoutout the U of L researchers who made what could be a huge discovery in the fight against cancer.

—Bryan Brown’s bringing the intensity at spring practice.

—Asia Durr’s assessment of her play in Louisville’s upset loss to Miami on Sunday? “I sucked today. I played like butt.”

She is the best.

—Andy Katz has Louisville at No. 23 in his Power 36 rankings.

—Derby City taking over auto racing.

—A multi-sport star from Southern Indiana who already holds a scholarship offer from Louisville baseball was a Louisville basketball visitor over the weekend.

—A Purdue student is walking over 100 miles to Tuesday night’s rivalry game against Indiana to help raise money for Tyler Trent’s Cancer Research Fund. He was hoping to raise $10,000 but he’s already passed the 11K mark.

—The 3X3 national championship tournament is going to be back, bigger and better in Minneapolis during Final Four weekend.

—A horse named “Knicks Go” is currently No. 2 on the road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard. There’s no way that horse winds up making it to the first Saturday in May.

—Here are five teams that could make a play for Teddy Bridgewater.

—U of L signee Nyah Green is one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Girls High School Player of the Year award.

—Two really good semi-basketball related tweets here.

—247 Sports has five Louisville baseball newcomers to watch in 2019.

—Dabo Swinney says he’d love for Zion Williamson to play at quarterback at Clemson. If I’m Trevor Lawrence, I’m taking that personally and I’m transferring to Louisville immediately.

—Donovan Mitchell shares the story of how he found out that he was getting a signature shoe.

—Rick Pitino and Panathinaikos took home the Greek Cup championship on Sunday.

—This story on a football coach who doesn’t have arms or legs is just awesome.

—Tim Sullivan details — because I guess he has to — how U of L women’s basketball does not turn a profit.

—The only thing I take away from this is that we’re definitely winning the national title in 2020.

—SB Nation’s Kofie Yeboah went back and graded every single dunk in the history of the Slam Dunk Contest. Donovan Mitchell graded out favorable.

—U of L men’s tennis blanked Austin Peay 7-0 over the weekend.

—Gamblers are not fond of this Louisville basketball team.

—High school basketball district tournaments get underway tonight.

—This made me happy.

—Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician says Syracuse has an opportunity to put its past era of struggles against Louisville behind it starting Wednesday night. I would expect a similar narrative from our side when we get ready for Virginia on Saturday.

—Shakin’ the Southland recaps Clemson’s loss to Louisville.

—Big Red Louie wonders if Darius Perry is turning a corner.

—Love Uber Andre.

—A new podcast looks at the ACC’s best traditions.

—LJ Nesbitt of The Crunch Zone recaps one of the strangest weeks in KFC Yum Center history.

—And finally, despite the loss to Miami, Louisville remains a No. 1 seed in ESPN’s latest women’s bracketology.