Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—NET Rankings Update: No. 32 (down one).

—Jeff Walz is on the late season watch list for the Naismith Coach of the Year award.

—Louisville’s Alex Binelas is Baseball America’s Preseason National Player of the Year.

—We are all forever indebted to Big Russ.

—The U of L track and field teams are geared up for the Lenny Lyles Invitational.

—Before the game was canceled, The Athletic’s Seth Davis liked Syracuse to knock off Louisville.

Syracuse at Louisville (-4½), 6:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network. The Cardinals are playing for the first time in 16 days following their second COVID-19 pause of the season. Coach Chris Mack is expected back after recovering from the virus last week, and the team will be missing two scholarship players. (The school hasn’t said which ones for privacy reasons.) Syracuse has had a rough season but has won five of its last seven and is getting some pretty good offensive balance. The Orange are catching Louisville at the right time. The pick: Syracuse

—The U of L lacrosse team will host No. 24 Colorado on Thursday.

—Sports Illustrated’s latest Bracket Watch has Louisville as an 8-seed facing Will Wade and LSU in the first round.

—The West Coast Conference will be seeding its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments based on a Ken Pomeroy-concocted formula.

—A day after suffering an achilles injury in just his second game with the franchise, Ray Spalding was waived by the Houston Rockets. Cold world.

Ray deserves about three decades of good luck.

—Seven Louisville football seniors are utilizing the extra year of eligibility granted to them by the NCAA.

—These uniforms are bad ass.

—Shannon Russell looks at how Louisville’s first return from a Covid pause could shed some light on how the Cards will look in their second return ... whenever the hell that actually happens.

—This is a wild stat.

—Pro Football Network has a draft profile of TuTu Atwell.

—After 50 years on Bardstown Rd., Another Place sandwich shop is closing its doors.

—When you put it this way ... pretty nuts.

—Florida’s Keyontae Johnson has done his first Q&A since collapsing on the court back in December.

—Jim Boeheim discusses tonight’s canceled game.

“It’s the year that we’re in,’’ Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said shortly after receiving word that the game had been called off. “It’s difficult, but you have to expect things like this to happen in times like these and just be ready to deal with it.’’

...

“We’ll get 1 one game in that last week, I think, after we play North Carolina,’’ Boeheim said. “I’m not sure who it’ll be, but I think we’ll play someone on that Wednesday.’’

Boeheim also said Syracuse might be able to play on the final Saturday of the regular season. The Orange currently does not have a game for March 6, but could get a game in the event another ACC team has to go on pause that weekend.

In talking about the possibility of making up some ACC games, Boeheim shot down the notion of playing a non-conference opponent.

“We need to look at playing conference games,’’ he said. “There’s some chance that maybe one team won’t be able to play on that Saturday and we’ll get a game. But we’re just going to play conference games. That’s what we have to do.’’

—Louisville baseball’s Michael Kirian and Henry Davis have picked up a preseason First Team All-American nod.

—The TNIAAM made their predictions for tonight’s game before it was canceled.

—Volleyball state.

—The Daily Orange sports staff unanimously picked Louisville to beat Syracuse.

—Cardinal Authority has five newcomers to watch on the Louisville baseball team.

—Your first weekend rotation of the 2021 Louisville baseball season is set.

—Today/tonight in the ACC:

NC State at Pittsburgh (4:30 p.m./ACC Network)
Northeastern at North Carolina (7 p.m./ACCNx)
Duke at Wake Forest (8:30 p.m./ACC Network)

—And finally, stay strong everyone. There will be Louisville basketball again at some point between now and the end of March.

Almost certainly. Probably.