Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check (bowl game): Louisville by 1.5.

—Bucky’s 5th Quarter celebrates yet another Final Four win over an undefeated team from Kentucky.

—Malik Cunningham and Marshon Ford answered questions from the media about the First Responder Bowl on Friday. Here’s a transcript of what they had to say.

—Here’s the U of L recap of the women’s basketball team’s blowout of EKU.

—ESPN’s Jeff Borzello looks at how college basketball transfers are faring through the season’s first six weeks, and has a pair of Louisville guards in the “grass isn’t always greener” section.

Mason Faulkner and Jarrod West, Louisville: The Cardinals’ offense has not been able to get up to speed yet this season, and Faulkner and West have struggled along with the rest of the perimeter group. Faulkner did score 12 points in Tuesday night’s win over Southeastern Louisiana, but he’s averaging 4.0 points after putting up around 17 per game each of the last two seasons at Western Carolina. West has gone from a tenacious two-way player averaging 12.5 points and 6.0 assists last season at Marshall to 6.6 points and 3.7 assists this season on 36.1% shooting. He’s still been Louisville’s best defender, though.

—If you have a kid who is turning threeeeeeeee and you’d like a special greeting for the occasion (or for any other occasion), Sean Moth is now on Cameo.

—The NFL’s Covid outbreak is already out of control, and now college hoops doesn’t seem to be far behind.

—Dr. Ricky Jones takes to the Courier Journal to write that Louisvillians and U of L athletic fans alike need to stop acting like losing Neeli Bendapudi and Vince Tyra is the end of the world.

—Some awesome scenes last night inside the Yum Center.

—Brian VanGorder has landed a head coaching gig.

—Louisville native Lara McGregor is today’s Woman of Worth.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic is taking the Cards over the Tops in a 1-point nailbiter tomorrow afternoon.

—The upgrades to the U of L women’s basketball locker room are complete.

—The Wisconsin State Journal has the best online reactions to last night’s 5-set thriller in Columbus.

—ESPN previews this weekend’s women’s basketball showdown between Louisville and UConn.

—U of L players are unloading the toys — which were all donated by Cardinal fans — tonight in Bowling Green.

—U of L’s depth chart for the First Responder Bowl is out.

—Both head coaches are expecting a great atmosphere in Bowling Green tomorrow.

“We’ll have to be at our best Saturday to have a chance at winning this game,” WKU coach Rick Stansbury said. “I know this, we need this arena packed. I know there’s a lot going on around town, but if you can get away for a couple of hours, maybe we can give you something different to think about and cheer for. … It’s going to be a great atmosphere in here.”

...

“It’s a great rivalry game,” Louisville coach Chris Mack said. “They certainly get up for us (and) we get up for them. … There is going to be a lot of emotion in the arena on Saturday and that’s a good thing. Our guys are looking forward to the challenge.

“Just because we’ve played well away from home the majority of the time doesn’t mean we’ve earned it on Saturday. We’ve got to have really good practices leading up to the game and go in there with an ‘outside the wire’ mentality.”

—Dalton Pence over at Cardinal Sports Zone pens an open letter to the U of L volleyball team.

—Now that he’s settled on his college home, four-star wide receiver Devaughn Mortimer is ready to prove that he can be an elite playmaker at the next level.

—One of the first real glimpses of Terry being scary.

—Louisville sits at No. 6 in the latest women’s basketball NET rankings.

—The Bowling Green Daily News previews tomorrow’s basketball tilt.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is wrapping up the week from 3-6 on 1450 The Big X. We’ll talk about last night’s heartbreaker in Columbus, tomorrow’s very important game in Bowling Green, and the Sunday showdown between the Cards and UConn. You can stream the show here.