Wednesday evening Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 5.

—Jeff Walz, like Chris Mack, is one of 15 finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year award.

—Your game day GIF from Chris Mack:

—The Crunch Zone compares the stats between Louisville and Boston College.

—The Eagles have been inconsistent (at best) over the last five years, but BC head coach Jim Christian says he’s not worried about his job.

—Hang the banner: “Worst Three-Point Shooting Team To Play In The Final Weekend Of A College Basketball Season”

—Sports betting may come to Kentucky, but you might not be allowed to bet on U of L and UK games.

—Two U of L track and field stars are headed to the NCAA indoor championships.

—I love Rich Brooks.

—An Illinois agency may consider approval of Churchill Downs’ proposed deal for majority ownership in Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. Sports betting cited as the reason Churchill wants to expand its Chicago-area presence beyond Arlington Park.

—The NCAA says it’s “actively trying” trying to obtain relevant documents from the FBI college hoops trials to help with its own investigations.

“Hey, we tried.”

—Super early Heisman odds for 2019:

—The Louisville baseball team took a 5-4 extra inning loss to Xavier Tuesday afternoon. Should have had Chris Mack throw out the first pitch.

—The court is making the defendants from the first FBI college hoops trial repay the schools they defrauded, including Louisville.

The government said the real financial impact on Louisville is in the “millions of dollars,” quoting a letter authored by Amy Elizabeth Shoemaker, deputy counsel for the university.

”The loss suffered by Louisville over the actions of these defendants and the others involved reflects an impact way beyond just the cost of a scholarship,” Shoemaker wrote in the letter, dated Monday. “... The University of Louisville suffered the impact of a demoralized alumni, a defeated fanbase, and a rapid decline in ticket sales, sponsorships, donations and revenue.”

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will hand down a final order on prison terms and restitution payments on the sentencing date.

What might not be accounted for, Shoemaker wrote, is the mental impact on those associated with Louisville and the affected schools.

”It does not help to quantify the human toll the defendants’ actions took on a host of individuals, 18- to 22-year-old students on their own for the first time and entrusted to us; and the professionals committed to supporting, developing, and educating them before launching them into the world,” she wrote. “That development of students – not just good basketball – is the real purpose of the University of Louisville.”

By this logic, I think the court needs to force the NCAA to do some repaying as well.

—Indiana’s NCAA tournament chances still somehow have a pulse after last night’s almost unwatchable double OT win over Wisconsin.

—Montrezl Harrell wearing a Boobie Miles jersey makes me so, so happy.

—The CJ catches up with Denny Crum.

—The Ringer has a lengthy feature on Rick Pitino’s Greek adventure.

—The Athletic’s Bracket Watch has Louisville listed as a lock.

ACC

Locks: Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Florida State

Should be in: Syracuse

Work to do: N.C. State, Clemson

Syracuse (18-9, 9-5 — NET: 44, SOS: 20): The main narrative surrounding Syracuse’s 75-65 loss to Duke on Saturday had very little to do with basketball, and almost everything to do with Jim Boeheim’s clearly tortured and heartfelt reaction to the highway accident that ended in another man’s death last week.The secondary narrative was all about Duke star R.J. Barrett’s 30 points on 20 shots, including 12-of-15 (!) from inside the arc (not to mention seven assists and five rebounds). Whether Syracuse was going to the 2019 NCAA Tournament barely warranted a mention, and rightly so: The Orange remain in very solid at-large shape even as they embark on a trip to Chapel Hill on Tuesday night and a slightly brutal three-game finish (at Wake Forest, vs. Virginia, at Clemson) beyond it.

N.C. State (20-8, 8-7 — NET: 32, SOS: 215): You have to hand it to the Wolfpack. They’ve held the line. Last week was a good example: Wednesday’s home game against Boston College went to overtime before N.C. State finally took charge, and Wake Forest presented another bad-loss opportunity on Sunday night. Both ended in NCSU wins. As we’ve been writing for weeks, this team’s nonconference strength of schedule makes its margin for error slimmer than even the most mediocre of mid-major bubble hopefuls, but N.C. State — even if it hasn’t picked up the marquee wins it might have hoped — has avoided every bad loss but one (at Wake on Jan. 15). A win at Florida State on Saturday would be huge. A loss there, but two wins to finish the regular season — vs. Georgia Tech, at Boston College — would more accurately align with what we’ve seen from N.C. State thus far. It’d also likely be enough.

Clemson (16-11, 6-8 — NET: 43, SOS: 33): When you’re as close to the bubble as Clemson is, any win is a good win. So it was Saturday at home against Boston College. Neither the strength of the opponent nor the location of its happening will have meaningfully altered the Tigers’ résumé from where it stood on Friday. But when an alternative outcome carries so high a cost, simply not incurring it counts as profit. A home game against North Carolina — one Tigers fans’ desperately want to win each and every year, no matter when it happens on the calendar or how close Clemson is to the bubble — awaits on Saturday. (First: Wednesday night at Pitt.)

—Lamar Jackson is going to be on family feud. He taped the episode this week and it’s set to air at some point this summer.

—The future of the Boston Celtics

—Corey Ray: Still really good at baseball.

—Louisville signee Samuell Williamson scored 23 points to lead his Rockwall High School team to a 1-point win in the Texas Class 6A Regional Quarterfinals Tuesday night.

—Louisville football has hosted around 200 high school coaches for spring practice and clinics the past two weekends.

—Quinn Slazinski’s always repping the Cards.

—Scott Satterfield is in no rush to formulate his first U of L depth chart.

—Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery has been suspended one game after calling an official a “cheating mother f—-er” following a game the Hawkeyes lost by 20.

—Dwayne Ledford is the latest Louisville football coach to get the mic’d up treatment during spring practice.

—The Louisville lacrosse team fought back to force overtime but ultimately fell to Vanderbilt, 9-8, Wednesday afternoon.

—This is an awesome website that allows you to see what the ACC tournament bracket will look like if any result in any remaining league takes place. I’m not the biggest fan of the bracket that would happen if favorites win every remaining game.

—Just another reason to make it out to the U of L women’s game on Thursday.

—Louisville is the No. 30 overall team in the updated daily seed lines from Blogging the Bracket.

—NET Rankings Update: Up one spot to No. 21. Also, NC State jumped to No. 30, making Louisville’s home win over the Pack (at least for now) a Quad 1 win.

—And finally, beat Boston College.