Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Former Louisville and KCD catcher Will Smith is set to make his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers after being called up on Monday.

—Today is the all-important day as far as Jordan Nwora’s stay or go decision is concerned, but don’t expect to hear what that decision is until tomorrow’s deadline.

—NBC lists the decisions of Nwora and Steven Enoch as the fifth-most important of tomorrow’s deadline.

5. JORDAN NWORA and STEVE ENOCH, Louisville

Nwora is a bigger deal here than Enoch. One of college basketball’s most improved players, Nwora is will be a first-team All-ACC player and a potential All-American if he comes back. He will be the veteran scorer that the Cardinals need as Chris Mack brings in a loaded, six-man recruiting class. With Nwora back, the Cards will be a top ten team, and perhaps top five. He plays a very important role in Chris Mack’s offense.

—The U of L men’s golf team wrapped up a highly successful 2019 campaign with a 29th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

—Former 7th Regional Player of the Year and current JuCo star Jay Scrubb is visiting U of L today.

—The Mick Cronin-Xavier feud isn’t dying just because Cronin is at UCLA now.

—Brendan McKay is set to make his Triple-A debut tonight for the Durham Bulls who are facing ... the Louisville Bats.

—The Orlando Sentinel looks at three questions facing ACC football this offseason.

3. Which new coach will make a bigger impact in 2019?

For the first time since 2015, the conference saw a significant number of coaching changes among its member schools with Louisville, Georgia Tech, Miami and North Carolina all making moves in the offseason.

Half of those new jobs appear to be more long term projects with Louisville and North Carolina coming off two-win seasons each.

Scott Satterfield takes over a Cardinals program rich in resources including an expanded stadium and renovated football complex. Satterfield spent five seasons turning Appalachian State into a contender and it shouldn’t take him too long to do the same at Louisville.

Mack Brown returns to Tobacco Road to take over a North Carolina program which stumbled to just five wins over the past two seasons. Brown turned the Tar Heels into conference contenders back in the 1990s and doing so again will take time and patience.

Geoff Collins returns home to the state of Georgia and to the program he cut his teeth as an assistant coach in Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are just five years removed from an Orange Bowl win but have performed unevenly ever since. Transforming the team from a triple-option offense to Collins’ no-huddle, spread offense will take time to adjust.

Much like at Georgia Tech, Manny Diaz has injected unbridled enthusiasm in the Miami program. The Hurricanes are coming off a disappointing 2018 followed by the sudden retirement of coach Mark Richt in the offseason. Diaz’s flirtation with the job at Temple cost the program some recruits but since returning to Coral Gables, the Canes have brought in more than a handful of talented transfers including former Ohio State quarterback Tate Martell.

—IndianaHQ previews the Louisville Regional.

—Teddy Abrams is cool.

—Tickets for the regional games at Jim Patterson Stadium this weekend are now on sale.

—The NCAA has reversed its original ruling on Kansas’ Silvio De Sousa and declared the big man eligible for the 2019-20 season.

—Dan McDonnell says that his team’s practices last week weren’t as clean as they needed to be and that he has his team’s attention after a rough showing in Durham.

“It’s all about preparation,” McDonnell said. “It’s challenging when you’re the No. 1 seed and everybody’s telling you how great you are and you win the conference tournament. But in the ACC you know you’re playing in a 12-team grind. Either way, you turn the page. You move on. And so far these guys have done that. They’ve prepared to play good baseball Friday night.

“I share history with these kids a lot, so they know the ACC Tournament isn’t do or die,” McDonnell added. “Sometimes it may be why we don’t play as well. Believe me, I want to play well down there. I want to win it. Last year we were one hit away from winning it. So next year, we’ll try to be the first (Louisville) team to win that tournament. But it really starts with the regular season and the resume you can put together. They’re smart enough and schooled enough to know that what happened last week has no bearing on who can play well in the Regionals, Super Regionals and ultimately who can win the national championship.”

Losing, in fact, for a team that had been successful enough to build a top-eight resume all season, can provide its opportunities. In no way did McDonnell go to Durham looking to make a quick return home. But once the Cardinals did, you’d better believe he was using it.

“I wish I was that smart to intentionally try to lose or play that bad,” McDonnell said. “But when it happens, you feel like as a coach, you know, ‘I have their attention now.’ It’s a heightened awareness right now. I can get on them and they’ll respond better than if you keep winning and dominating. We said last year, when we lost (in the ACC Tournament), the team that won (Florida State) was giddy and happy, and they should be. But I said, ‘Man, you can lose your edge,’ and they went 0-2 in the regional. It happens.”

—Eric Crawford writes about the Romeo Langford experience at Indiana.

—Five-star recruit RJ Hampton surprised the basketball world Tuesday morning by announcing that he’ll spend next year playing in the Australian professional league instead of playing in college.

—Samuell Williamson is ready for U of L.

—Two Louisvillians will be competing in the National Spelling Bee.

—One area where U of L football appears to be strong heading into 2019 is special teams.

—And finally, I have no voice and an embarrassing sun burn on my forehead that makes me look like Marv from Home Alone after he gets hit with the iron, but I’m back on the radio this afternoon from 3-6. You can listen here.