Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—NET Rankings Update: No. 26 (up one spot from yesterday)

—The Winston-Salem Journal has three things to know about Louisville vs. Wake Forest.

—The U of L women’s basketball game against North Carolina has been rescheduled for what I believe is the 37th time. The Cards will now host the Tar Heels on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.

—Wake Forest basketball coach Steve Forbes talked with the media Tuesday morning about Wednesday night’s game against Louisville. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

Forbes: “This will be four nationally ranked teams in a row, starting with Virginia on the road last week, Duke Saturday, Louisville tomorrow and then Sunday at home against Virginia Tech. Louisville is a really good basketball team. They defend at a high level. They play an aggressive type of pack line defense, like Virginia. They don’t give up easy baskets or offensive rebounds. They contest shots. They do a great job of keeping the ball out of the post. They mix up their ball screen coverages. They have a lot of activity on the ball. We’re going to have to really move the ball, take good shots and make them in order to have a chance to beat them.

“Carlik Jones is one of the premier guards in the league. He’s really good. He’s from Radford. He’s high usage. I think he’s fourth in the league in usage, which means the majority of possessions end with the ball in his hands. David Johnson is an outstanding 3-point shooter. They just have a lot of 6-foot-7, long, athletic guys.

Did not think we’d be seeing David Johnson’s game summed up with that one line at any point this season, but here we are.

—Brett McMurphy has Louisville in his top 40 teams for the 2021 college football season.

—Stadium’s latest NCAA tournament bracket has Louisville as a 4-seed and the projected ACC champion.

—Horrible news out of Lexington this morning.

Twenty-two is far too young. My thoughts and prayers are with Ben and all those mourning his loss today.

—U of L women’s basketball signee Payton Verhulst is on the Naismith High School Girls Midseason Team.

—Cardinal Authority’s latest U of L women’s basketball notebook is here.

—Louisville football is back at it.

—Ole Miss, Louisville’s first opponent in 2021, is getting some love in the way too early college football rankings for next season.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic likes the Cards over the Deacs by 10 tomorrow night.

—The NCAA has once again tabled any sort of action on name, image, likeness and new transfer rules because .... reasons?

—Louisville checks in at No. 18 in Gary Parrish’s daily hoops rankings for CBS.

—Jeff Greer (hey, remember that asshole?) has launched a new newsletter covering all things Louisville basketball. You can check out the introduction here.

Here’s what you can expect to see here:

—nuanced, in-depth analyses (like explaining why Chris Mack values baseline out-of-bounds situations or how Mack’s hybrid pack line is supposed to work) that break down what you’re watching and why things happen the way they do

—some detail-packed features that give a fuller picture of the team and program you follow — like when I visited the all-girls Cincinnati high school where Chris Mack got his coaching start; or the time I walked Freedom Hall with Denny Crum and just asked him to let his mind wander; or the oral history of Donovan Mitchell’s time at U of L; or the story behind the three men who integrated U of L hoops; or who came up with throwing your Ls up?; or an obituary of the man inside the Cardinal Bird costume who flew from the Freedom Hall rafters

—some wonky items, too — I will get into the nitty-gritty of Louisville’s NCAA Tournament resume, as I have in previous seasons, so you can have a much clearer idea of where the Cardinals stand week-by-week and not just rely on Bracketology and uninformed takes

—Andy Katz lists Louisville as one of 10 teams that have “turned it around” this college basketball season.

—Former Manual High WR Jaelin Carter has announced that he’ll spend his final season of college ball as a walk-on at Louisville. Carter has spent the last three seasons at EKU.

—Cardinal linebacker Robert Hicks has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Hicks has two years of eligibility remaining.

—Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Juddmonte Farms, one of the most successful owners and breeders in thoroughbred racing, has died.

—BetOnline has Louisville at 250/1 to win the College Football Playoff in 2022.

—The Athletic’s Dana O’Neil doesn’t have much faith in the ACC at the moment.

Are there any ACC teams that you have confidence in making the second weekend of the tournament right now? UVa and Duke seem like the best bets, but a bad draw could cause trouble. — Charlie L.

Nope. Which is so weird to say, isn’t it? That’s not to say that some of them — Virginia, Duke, Louisville, Clemson, Virginia Tech, even North Carolina — couldn’t get there, but none of them are a lock. We sort of knew that going in, what with the turnover of good players in the conference. It’s nonetheless jarring to see it play out.

It’s interesting, if you think about it. Some of this has been coming for a while. The middle of the ACC has been soft for some time. The dominance at the top by Duke, North Carolina and Virginia has made it tough sledding for anyone else to get real traction. Louisville has been fairly steady, as has Florida State, but I’m not sold on either as second-weekend teams this year. Georgia Tech, Boston College, Wake Forest and Miami have struggled for some time, though I am bullish on what Steve Forbes can do at Wake. Kevin Keatts and Jeff Capel are finding the rebuilds tricky at NC State and Pitt. Notre Dame is trending the wrong way, and Syracuse is OK but lost some of its zing. I do give Mike Young a ton of credit for engineering a turnaround at Virginia Tech, but I’m not sure the Hokies are built for a long March run.

So here we are: Those top teams are just OK, and no one has really made up a ton of ground. Who do you trust? In my opinion, maybe the best team with a chance is Clemson — from the who’d a thunk it category? The defense is good enough to keep the Tigers in most every game and can be an equalizer against better competition.

Having said all of that, five ACC teams will now make the Sweet 16. Book it.

—Former Western Hills star Wan’Dale Robinson is transferring from Nebraska.

—Move the First Four to Nickelodeon.

Bobby Hurley drenched in slime and on the verge of committing a murder after blowing a 15-point second half lead to BYU.

—Former Cardinal WR Corey Reed is headed to Jackson State to play for new head coach Deion Sanders.

—Another post-victory video for the Louisville ladies.

—A Louisville music program is being honored with a national award and a $50,000 prize.

—ACC hoops tonight:

No. 19 Duke at No. 20 Virginia Tech (7 p.m./ACC Network)
Miami at Boston College (7 p.m./ACC Network Extra)
Syracuse at North Carolina (9 p.m./ACC Network)

—Shoutout to Quentin Snider on being named the Player of the Week in Cyprus.

—Blogger So Dear identifies the key matchup to watch in Wednesday night’s Louisville-Wake Forest game.

—Louisville makes its debut in Matt Norlander’s college hoops power rankings at No. 13.

—And finally, Field Level Media previews Louisville-Wake.