Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Michigan State by 4.

—The U of L women’s basketball team will play in the 2022 Battle 4 Atlantis. The Cards will be joined in the field by Gonzaga, Marquette, Rutgers, South Dakota State, UCLA, Tennessee and Texas.

—Yahoo’s final bowl projections have Louisville taking on Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl on Christmas Eve Eve.

—Seth Davis of The Athletic makes his pick for Louisville-Michigan State.

Louisville at Michigan State (-6), 7:15 p.m., ESPN. This will be a heck of welcome back for Chris Mack, who is returning to the Louisville bench following his six-game suspension. Under acting coach Mike Pegues, the Cardinals lost at home in overtime to Furman in their second game, but they scored a pair of quality wins over Mississippi State and Maryland in the Bahamas last week. As noted above, the Cards were able to bully the Terrapins on the boards, but that won’t be the case on the road against Rebound U. The Spartans rank second in the country in defensive efficiency, and they have some tough bangers inside in 7-foot senior center Marcus Bingham Jr., 6-9 junior forward Julius Marble II and 6-8 senior forward Gabe Brown. The bigger question for Michigan State is when (or whether?) it will solve its turnover issues. The Spartans are ranked 288th in the country in turnover percentage, and they coughed it up 20 times against Loyola Chicago in the Bahamas last week. One remedy to that problem (and a bunch of others) could be the emergence of 6-4 freshman guard Jaden Akins, who had his best game of the season against Baylor, finishing with 12 points and three rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench. The pick: 20 on Michigan State.

—It’ll be No. 5 Louisville hosting No. 9 Michigan tomorrow night in the women’s ACC-Big 10 Challenge. Here’s a preview.

—Bellarmine hung tight in Morgantown for a half before ultimately falling to West Virginia by 19.

—Your recap of yet another not great night in men’s college basketball for the ACC:

Ohio State 71, No. 1 Duke 66
No. 2 Purdue 93, Florida State 65
Syracuse 112, Indiana 110 (2OT)
Minnesota 54, Pittsburgh 53
Wake Forest 77, Northwestern 73 (OT)
Rutgers 74, Clemson 64

The Big Ten now leads this year’s Challenge by a count of 6-2 heading into the final night. That means the ACC has to go a perfect 6-0 to win the Challenge outright.

—Single session tickets for the NCAA volleyball tournament matches in Louisville this weekend are now on sale.

—This thread is unbelievable, and extremely interesting. The player in question is Hassan Hall.

—Eli Hershkovich likes Louisville to cover the spread in East Lansing this evening.

—Jack Harlow makes this year’s Forbes “30 Under 30” list.

—Single game tickets for the Louisville men’s basketball ACC slate go on sale Thursday.

—Matt Norlander is the only CBS college hoops writer rolling with the Cards over the Spartans tonight.

—Such a dumb, beautiful, dumb, dumb sport.

—Cardinal Authority previews tonight’s game in East Lansing.

—The CJ’s Prep Rally Podcast previews all six of the Kentucky state high school football championship games on tap for this weekend.

—DeVante Parker is returning to practice for the Miami Dolphins this week.

—Matt McGavic of Louisville Report likes Sparty over U of L by a point tonight.

—The Cards will be in their more traditional road reds this evening.

If the game goes poorly, we must make the permanent shift to the throwbacks for the rest of the season.

—The ACC Network and Comcast coming to an agreement is a huge deal (financially) for the entire league.

—This week has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that there are no “stepping stone jobs” in college football, because they’re all stepping stone jobs.

—The latest episode of the “Off the Walz” podcast previews the U of L women’s team’s Thursday night game against Michigan.

—The Detroit Free Press has a preview of tonight’s game at the Breslin Center.

—Probably my favorite hoops video of the season thus far.

Specifically this part:

—The College Football Playoff appears poised to expand to 12 teams beginning in 2024.

—Former Western Kentucky head coach Mike Sanford will not return as the offensive coordinator at Minnesota.

—Eric Crawford writes about Chris Mack’s first meeting with the media in nearly a month.

—Brent Pry is officially the new head football coach at Virginia Tech.

—For the sixth straight year, Kentucky high school football’s 6-A title game is an all-Louisville affair.

—Beautiful.

—Former J’Town High School football coach Brian Schutte has passed away. His son, is the quarterback for Male High, which is set to take on St. X for the 6-A state championship this weekend.

—After spending some time with family to mourn the loss of his father, Scott Satterfield is back on the recruiting trail.

—Top 300 running back Speedy Luke is visiting U of L next week.

—An increase in energy and effort have led to a surge in production from Dre Davis recently.

—Spartan Avenue has three keys to a Michigan State victory.

1. Malik Hall needs to come back strong

Malik Hall had a strong performance in the absence of Joey Hauser. He then backed that up with a huge game against Loyola Chicago. Hall shot 9-for-9 on the floor to finish with 24 points. He also added seven rebounds.

In his next two games he was basically non-existent. He only had five total points against UConn and Baylor. And in the game against Baylor, he had five turnovers. Rumor has it he tweaked his ankle in that game but it’s nothing too concerning, according to Tom Izzo.

The Spartans will need Malik back to his old self. He is a great defender and scores any way you want him to. He has no problem moving his feet on defense and getting a hand up in the passing zone or in your face. He also can score off the dribble, get to the rim, or shoot from deep off a screen.

Hall needs to come back and find confidence early in this one. He has the capability to be a top guy in this offense and he is always a top guy on the defensive side of the ball. Hall will shine and the Spartans will win this game.

—Wednesday night’s game in East Lansing gives Chris Mack and Louisville a chance to create some buzz on the court for a change.

—Louisville Report previews the matchup between the Cards and Spartans.

—A street in West Louisville is going to be named after Dr. Dunkenstein.

—Pitt QB Kenny Pickett is the ACC Player of the Year.

—And finally, beat Michigan State.