Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: North Carolina by 4.

—NET Rankings Update: No. 33 (no change).

—Louisville’s request to have its NCAA case resolved through the IARP has been granted. When will said resolution occur? Probably at some point before 2040. Probably.

—It certainly appears as though Louisville is planning on heading to Chapel Hill for the North Carolina game.

If it happens, I would be mentally prepared to watch a very shorthanded Cardinals team.

Or maybe everyone’s fully healthy and Malik Williams scores 40 points in 40 minutes! Who the hell knows? But bracing for the worst always seems like the safest play these days.

—Five names to know before the 2021 Louisville baseball season gets started tomorrow.

—GoCards.com recaps the women’s basketball team’s win over Pitt from Thursday night.

—Highlights from the dub:

—The NCAA has announced that it will allow limited fan attendance (25 percent capacity) at this year’s men’s basketball tournament in Indiana.

—The Cardinal lacrosse team scored a win over nationally-ranked Colorado on Thursday.

—The Athletic polled ACC writers about who would get their vote for league Player of the Year if the season ended today. Pitt’s Justin Champegnie received the most votes, but Carlik Jones is right behind him.

Carlik Jones, Louisville (16 points)

First place: Three votes. Second place: Three votes. Third place: One vote.

Credentials: Leads the ACC in minutes played (37.6), third in scoring (17.4) and assists (4.9), fourth in free-throw percentage (83.8), fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1), and 15th in field-goal percentage (41); scored in double digits in every game, including a season-high 25 against Miami, in his first ACC campaign after transferring from Radford.

What voters said

“I’m going to inject the word ‘value’ into this vote and ask, ‘Where would Louisville be without Jones?’ Chris Mack really should share some of his salary with the Radford transfer. The Cards would be in the ACC basement without him. They are a tournament team with him.” — Joe Giglio (NC State), WRALSportsFan (Raleigh, N.C.)

“Chris Mack needed someone to take the ball and run with it. Arguably the best graduate transfer in the country has done just that while adjusting to the talent jump of the ACC.” — Tom Noie (Notre Dame), South Bend (Ind.) Tribune

“His consistency and explosiveness have helped the Cardinals thrive this season. He does a little bit of everything and plays extremely hard all the time.” — Trevor Hass (Boston College), Boston.com

—The folks over at State of Louisville have a new podcast centered around Cardinal baseball. The first episode is here.

—ESPN looks at how Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz have turned into an unlikely juggernaut.

—Louisville baseball’s Alex Binelas and Henry Davis are both on the preseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award.

—The U of L women’s basketball team has announced minor schedule changes for its final two games of the regular season.

The Louisville at Florida State game scheduled for Sunday, February 21, has been moved to a 2 p.m. tipoff on ACC Network Extra.

The Louisville at Notre Dame game on Feb. 28 will have a 3 p.m. start and air live on ESPN.

—Junior right-hander Glenn Albanese is ready to be Louisville’s new No. 1 starter.

—Chris Dobbertean’s latest mock bracket has Louisville as a 9-seed and getting a rematch with Seton Hall in the first round.

—There will be no fans at Madison Square Garden for this year’s Big East tournament.

—Cardinal baseball returns tomorrow.

—U of L has offered three-star linebacker Jared Badie from Illinois.

—Alvin Sims’ daughter gets a nice write-up here.

—Lonnie Douglas, the chief of sports medicine at U of L’s medical school, is being accused by the feds of taking part in a conspiracy to order unapproved HGH from China. That seems ... not great.

—If anyone in Louisville, especially near the U of L/Churchill Downs area, has seen or sees Chelsey White, please reach out and alert her family.

UPDATE: Chelsey has been found and she is safe. Thanks to anyone and everyone who helped in the search.

—The KFC Yum Center will announce a “new professional sports tenant” on Monday. All signs point to that tenant being the Louisville Xtreme arena football team.

—The Atlantic 10 is flipping the dates of its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which seems like a move other leagues would be wise to mimic.

—Louisville is an 8-seed with a spicy first round matchup against Xavier in The Athletic’s latest bracket watch.

—Interesting convo between Steve Masiello and Wayne Turner here.

—The U of L men’s tennis team opens ACC play with matches against a pair of top 20 opponents.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic is taking Carolina by five tomorrow night.

—The official Pitt website recaps last night’s loss to Louisville.

—Nate Oats, the new hottest name in college basketball coaching, has signed a contract extension with Alabama.

—Best of luck to o-lineman Jackson Gregory at Stony Brook.

—Three players are in the race to be U of L’s starting nose tackle next season.

—Stadium’s latest mock bracket has Louisville facing Indiana in a 6/11 game.

—And finally, play and beat UNC.