Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Despite STILL not playing a new game, the U of L women’s basketball team remains at No. 2 in this week’s AP top 25 poll. The Cards received one first-place vote.

U of L had been set to return to the court on New Year’s Eve to face Duke, but the Blue Devils announced over the weekend that they were canceling the remainder of their season. Louisville’s next game is now set to be played on Jan. 3 at Virginia.

—Virginia Tech OL Bryan Hudson discusses his decision to transfer to Louisville.

—Damion Lee put the perfect bow on a great weekend for Louisville athletics by netting this game-winner late Sunday evening.

—Earlier in the day, Terry Rozier made his own contribution to the weekend by dunking all over Kevin Durant.

I’m calling it: 2021 started on Saturday.

—Here’s the GoCards.com recap of Louisville’s win over Kentucky.

—Matt Norlander of CBS writes that we should expect the NCAA to announce next week that is has secured the greater Indianapolis area for the 2021 men’s NCAA Tournament. As of today all the venues haven’t been agreed upon, but there are target sites.

—Our video department remains the best, but especially in the wake of major victories.

—On the latest episode of his podcast, John Clay asks if Kentucky’s basketball season is over before the calendar even flips to 2021.

—Four-star wide receiver Tay’Shawn Trent out of Michigan has Louisville in his final eight.

—Ruthless.

—After playing less than a minute in last year’s Battle of the Bluegrass game, Davide Johnson played all 40 minutes on Saturday. The Louisville native, and former Kentucky Mr. Basketball snub, may have been the best player on the floor in the state’s biggest game.

—Johnson talked with NCAA.com’s Andy Katz in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s win.

—The perfect celebration clip:

—Louisville Report looks at the areas of improvement for the Cards as they head into ACC play.

—The ACCDN highlights from Saturday’s game are here.

—It was the Carlik Jones and David Johnson show for Louisville on Saturday.

—The act:

The aftermath:

—David Johnson thoroughly enjoyed the intensity surrounding Saturday’s win over UK.

—If you’d like to make your nomination for the 2020 Card Chronicle Person of the Year, you can do so here.

—Nice to see some Cardinals get to spend Christmas together.

—The college football AP All-America team is out.

—Cardinal Authority has 10 defensive players from the class of 2022 to keep an eye on during this recruiting cycle.

—Not surprisingly, college football viewership is down considerably this season.

—Keep it like this for a week.

—Donnie Kirksey, a huge figure in the world of Chicago basketball, passed away Monday morning after battling Covid-19.

—The A Sea of Blue tweetcap from Saturday is way more depressing than our’s was.

—Awful news from the over the weekend, as former Assumption and Western Kentucky volleyball star Alyssa Cavanaugh lost her fight with leukemia. She was only 24-years-old.

—This is what the holidays are all about, kids.

—BBN fans across the Commonwealth are wondering why Davion Mintz didn’t touch the ball on either of Kentucky’s final two possessions.

—The CJ looks at what we learned from Saturday’s game.

—Louisville scored a basket on its own goal on Saturday, which was more than two key Kentucky contributors were able to net.

—The rivalry never rests.

—The LHL has the key takeaways from the Kentucky side of things from Saturday’s game.

—Kentucky is now 1-6 for the first time since 1911.

—Chris Mack wasn’t thrilled with the way his team played, but he was thrilled to be on the right side of the rivalry.

“I thought our offense really hurt us in the first half,” Mack said. “We were just way too stagnant. I’ve got to find the right balance. We’re putting the ball in David and Carlik’s hands, but our other guys can’t just sit there. When we run set plays, we’ve got to be better about executing those set plays. Give Kentucky credit because they switched a lot on ball screens and off-the-ball screens, and we hadn’t really seen that a lot though we expected it. We’ve just got to do a better job against it.”

In the second half, Jones and Johnson repeatedly penetrated into the paint and found their way to the rim.

“It’s the name of the game for our team,” Mack said. “We’re not going to face a team — maybe North Carolina — that’s as long and as big as Kentucky, and really teaches blocking shots. We, for the most part, did a pretty good job when we got in the lane of making good decisions. We still have a long way to go. Carlik and David when they get in there have to play off two feet, and make the right decisions. … It’s super important for our team, especially when Kentucky is switching everything, you’re not going to be able to score off cuts. Getting the ball in the lane is essential. . . . I thought Carlik and David, despite making too many turnovers, they set the table for our team, and as guys learn to play off them a little bit better, and they play better, we’ll continue to grow as a team.”

There were plenty of rough patches. Mack wanted to foul in the closing seconds instead of allowing a potentially game-tying 3-point attempt. The foul wasn’t given. There were some inopportune turnovers. Kentucky held a significant rebounding edge.

But in the end, there was celebration and relief for Mack, who got the Wildcat off his back, with some lessons on tape that he can teach when his team returns from a brief holiday break.

“I think you’re allowed to have more than one emotion,” Mack said. “I wanted it for our guys. I think last year our seniors and fifth-year seniors and transfers played really hard (at Kentucky). We were up 3 with a minute left and gave up an offensive rebound and I felt sick. I felt like we really should’ve won 2 in a row, but we didn’t.”

—If you missed the emergency pod from immediately after the win over Kentucky, you can catch it here.

—Lamar Jackson has the Baltimore Ravens peaking at the perfect time.

—And finally, happy 2021 everybody. It’s here. Enjoy the first week.