Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The U of L men’s soccer team got back in the win column with a 5-0 trouncing of Eastern Illinois Tuesday night.

—Lamar Jackson has been named the NFL Player of the Week for the eighth time in his brief professional career. The youngest player in the league with more POW honors than the 24-year-old Jackson is 31-year-old Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, who has 10.

—In a conversation with Eric Crawford, Chris Mack made his most significant public comments so far about his six-game suspension and upcoming bout with the NCAA.

“I’m in year 24 of college basketball,” he said. “I’ve always done things the right way and I always will. It’s frustrating with the Level 2 allegations that have been levied. GAs practicing? Videos? In the context of college basketball? But that’s for another day. With my last breath, I will fight those. My focus has strictly been on our team.”

Some of the baggage Mack and his program are dealing with is baggage he inherited. Louisville is still waiting for a resolution to violations alleged as part of the college basketball pay-for-play scandal that had its origins in 2017. The most recent NCAA allegations were tacked onto those in the NCAA’s new Independent Accountability Resolution Process.

The NCAA has acknowledged that the process hasn’t moved as quickly as it had hoped. Mack had another word for it.

“At some point, that will get resolved — both these recent issues and issues that we had no control over when we came in,” Mack said. “But going on year 5, I think it’s ridiculous that there hasn’t been closure. But when there’s finally closure, it’ll be a good thing, and we’ll move forward.”

—Louisville baseball’s annual Pizza Bowl is winding down.

—The U of L women’s golf team tied for first place with Georgia at the Illini Women’s Invitational at Medinah.

—Louisville Report gives some midseason position group grades for Louisville football.

—Bellarmine checks in at No. 198 and Western Kentucky at No. 85 in Matt Norlander’s countdown of all 358 Division-I college basketball teams for CBS. DePaul is No. 131.

198. Bellarmine: I’ve received a few opinions from other coaches who say this school might pop in the ASUN. The Knights went 14-8 last season, its first in Division I, and Scott Davenport runs an offense with no shortage of grease.

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85. Western Kentucky: Maryland transfer Jairus Hamilton is a nice bonus. The Hilltoppers also have the nation’s tallest player, 7-5 Jamarion Sharp. He plays point guard. Kidding. Sharp is new to D-I after spending the past two in junior college, where he averaged 5.8 blocks. Over/under 4.0 per game this season?

Norlander hasn’t revealed the top 68 teams in his rankings.

—Jeff Walz is the guest for the first episode of the new Louisville women’s basketball podcast over at State of Louisville.

—The latest episode of The Cardinal Sports Zone podcast is here.

—Good news here from U of L’s top QB target.

—Clarkson’s teammate, four-star safety RJ Jones, is also planning on visiting U of L.

—A third St. John Bosco standout, four-star DB Jshawn Frausto-Ramos, is also coming in for the Clemson game.

—Samuell Williamson will talk to the local media during a virtual press conference on Thursday afternoon.

—Football Scoop takes stock of all the college football coaching hires of 2019, and says that only four of the 23 appear to be on solid footing. Scott Satterfield is not one of those four.

Scott Satterfield, Louisville (15-15, 9-11 ACC): Satterfield and co. won the Rookie Staff of the Year in 2019, transforming a team that was nearly Kansas-level bad, left for dead by Bobby Petrino, into an 8-5 product that won the Music City Bowl.

And in the two seasons since, Satterfield has taken that hard-earned goodwill and flushed it down the drain. There was the open flirting with South Carolina, compounded by last season’s 4-7 record. The 2021 Cardinals are 3-3, and all three losses were painful in their own way: out-classed by Ole Miss in the opener, a near miss over new ACC favorite Wake Forest, and then blowing a 17-point lead at home to Virginia this past Saturday. The Cardinals will be underdogs to Clemson and No. 11 Kentucky, and favorites over Syracuse and Duke. That leaves the next two games that, barring an upset, will shape the tenor of the season, and thus the Satterfield regime: home against Boston College, at No. 22 NC State.

—David Cobb lists Syracuse as a 2021 NCAA tournament team that could be in danger of missing the big dance in 2022.

—At the request of the league’s players, the 2021 NWSL Championship is moving (Athletic link) from Portland to Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville.

—Ten things to do in Louisville for $5 or less this week.

—Very strange way to “show your Kansas pride.”

—Sports Illustrated gives us 64 reasons to be excited about the upcoming college hoops season.

—Georgia Tech players want Josh Pastner to wear his hair in braids. I also would like Josh Pastner to wear his hair in braids.

—Guy is unbelievable.

—Everyone seems to agree that regional sports networks, and particularly Sinclair, are in deep shit. That’s fine with me, even though I’d miss the cheap page views from “how to watch” posts.

Get them completely out of our lives.

—DeJuan did a terrific job at Valley. Best of luck to him at the college level.

—Three takeaways from Louisville’s time at ACC media day.

—Louisville’s Arina Openysheva has been named the ACC Women’s Swimmer of the Week.

—Louisville field hockey alumnae Ayeisha McFerran and Mercedes Pastor have been named to 2021 Women’s European Qualifier Teams.

—This was awesome.

—The Cards are No. 9 in BC Interruption’s latest ACC football power rankings.

—A reporter for the Oklahoma student newspaper used binoculars from a public building to report that Caleb Williams was taking first team reps at QB. The reporter also got quotes from Spencer Rattler’s dad, and Lincoln Riley has now apparently canceled all media availabilities.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is back from 3-6 this afternoon on 1450AM/96.1FM. You can stream the show here and text into the show on the Thornton’s Text Line at 502-414-1450.