Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: No line yet.

—NET Rankings update: No. 13 (up one spot)

—Every member of SI’s college hoops staff likes Duke to take care of Louisville on Saturday.

Molly Geary picks Duke: This is an interesting matchup. Louisville guards Darius Perry and Lamarr Kimble are both prone to turnovers, and that’s a major concern being hounded by Duke’s Tre Jones and Jordan Goldwire in a hostile Cameron Indoor. But the Blue Devils have struggled with defending athletic big men at time this season, and that could be a problem facing 6’7” star Jordan Nwora, who can stretch the floor out to the perimeter. There’s a path to Louisville winning on the road here, especially with Wendell Moore and possibly Joey Baker out. Vernon Carey has to stay out of foul trouble going up against the Cardinals’ collection of forwards, but ultimately, I think Duke’s guard play makes the difference in a marquee battle in Durham.

—Hoop Vision provides a quick overview of Louisville-Duke.

—The ACC announced Friday that it will be releasing its full 2020 football schedule next Wednesday, Jan. 22. That means we’ll know Louisville’s full 2020 football schedule next Wednesday, Jan. 22.

—I like busting out the Spida gear for the Duke game considering Donovan is the man who made Grayson Allen his son in 2017.

—The latest Bracketology from CBS has Louisville as a 4-seed.

—Cortney Braswell is joining Dale Jones in leaving U of L for Appalachian State. Braswell served as a defensive quality control coach at Louisville during the 2019 season.

—Danielle Lerner writes about how Steven Enoch found his confidence in his final season of college ball.

“When I go back to last year, a lot of my fouls were — I can say my opinion now because it doesn’t matter — they were tired fouls, and that’s kind of the battle I’m fighting every game we play,” Enoch says. “Mental mistakes, they lead to things like that, and the more endurance you have I feel like you make better decisions on the court.”

That’s not to say Enoch has been without fault. Two of his worst games came back-to-back last week, when he scored just two points on 1-of-8 shooting at Notre Dame and then shot 3-of-6 for eight points at Pittsburgh but struggled to pass out of the post or establish himself on the block.

In the past, Enoch says he would have let his anger over such performances fester into poisonous self-loathing. Since being at Louisville, however, he has channeled that frustration into constructive motivation. He reasons the only way to redeem himself is to take corrective action in the next game — in this case, Saturday’s road clash with Duke and powerful big man Vernon Carey Jr.

“I feel like that comes with growth and maturity throughout playing the game,” Enoch says. “Also, I feel like it’s people around you having trust in you. It’s hard to keep that mindset when you don’t have a group of guys around you like we do.”

—Clemson RB Travis Etienne surprised the entire football world Friday afternoon by announcing that he will be returning to school for his senior season. As the fan of a team that will now have to face Travis Etienne in 2020, I have to say that I think he’s making the wrong decision.

—That Satterfield chain though ...

—Damon Hazelton, Virginia Tech’s leading wide receiver in 2019, has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Hazelton came to VT by way of Ball State.

—The behind the scenes story of the re-brand of U of L football under Scott Satterfield is extremely interesting.

—Our ex’s are not living their best lives in the AAC.

—It’s weird to think that a Thursday in mid-January might go down as the most batshit crazy day in the history of Major League Baseball.

—SI ranks the most absurd moments of the MLB stories of the week.

—It took a village to transform JJ Traynor from a raw high school player into a U of L signee.

—Now Traynor can do this:

—The top-ranked Bellarmine Knights stayed undefeated with a 65-60 win over No. 18 Missouri-St. Louis on Thursday night.

—The CJ explores the secret behind Bellarmine’s smooth offense.

—Since the awful outing against Kentucky, Jordan Nwora has been pretty terrific.

—Congrats to former Louisville walk-on Tyler Sharpe, who dropped 33 points for Northern Kentucky last night, and in the process went over the 1,000-point mark for his career. He’s become a hell of a player for the Norse, who have a solid chance to make it back to the NCAA tournament this March.

—I talk Louisville-Duke here with Shane Ryan of The Cameron Lazies podcast.

—Highlights from the U of L women’s team’s road triumph over Boston College last night:

—Muhammad Ali would have been 78-years-old today. Happy birthday to The Greatest.

—Louisville-Duke headlines another loaded weekend in college hoops.

—Get hyped.

—Louisville has offered a scholarship to class of 2021 safety Kaine Williams.

—I have to give a massive shoutout to Professor of Punt Mason King, who let me know a couple of weeks ago that U of L had given him all of his old game-worn jerseys and that he wanted me to have one. After me telling him multiple times that he would be better served making some coin off of all those bad boys (except the ones he wanted to keep for himself) and him not backing down, he delivered this bad boy to CC Headquarters earlier today.

Mason is an awesome dude who has a bright future in whatever direction life ends up taking him, and this was a nice pick me up at the end of a pretty tough week.

King Stay the King.

—As most recruiting experts had been predicting for a while, four-star point guard Jalen Terry picked Oregon over Louisville and LSU on Friday.

—Even with its loss to Clemson earlier this week, a win over Louisville on Saturday would make Duke the clear front-runner in the ACC.

—Dwayne Sutton has made it clear this season that he’s one of the best defenders in the ACC.

—Duke Basketball Report has a series looking back at the ... uh, series ... between Louisville and the Blue Devils. Here’s part 2.

—BC Interruption recaps its women’s team’s loss to Louisville on Thursday.

—ESPN’s four college hoops writers all like Duke over Louisville.

John Gasaway, college basketball writer: I want to see if Louisville can score when its 3s aren’t falling. We don’t know the answer because, to the Cardinals’ credit, there hasn’t been a conference game yet where Chris Mack’s guys were off from the perimeter.

Fun fact: Louisville has shot better on 3s (44.4%) than on 2s (44.0%) to this point in ACC play. Jordan Nworais shooting a rather incredible 57% from beyond the arc against conference opponents. Yet on paper, this is the classic “die by the 3” offense if there’s ever a spell of cold shooting. The Cardinals aren’t great, or haven’t been, at scoring in the paint, taking care of the ball or crashing the offensive glass. Duke has a strong defense — that Clemson episode notwithstanding — and this game could be a telling test for an offense that has been able to coast on its 3-point ability.

—The Devils Den previews Saturday’s game and picks Duke, 73-69.

—A hearty thanks to everyone who has listened, subscribed, rated and reviewed the podcast this week. As I type this, the Card Chronicle Podcast sits at No. 35 on the top sports podcasts in the U.S. chart. That’s unreal. You guys are the best.

—And finally, beat Duke.