Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Stanford by 10.5.

—Here’s the GoCards.com recap of Louisville’s Sunday triumph over Oregon.

—Mykasa Robinson’s slick behind-the-back pass to Dana Evans for an uncontested layup checked in at No. 2 on SportsCenter’s top 10 plays this morning.

—Gorgui Dieng has signed a deal with the San Antonio Spurs.

—Dana Evans has been named a Wooden Award All-American.

—Eric Crawford shares his take on Louisville’s Sweet 16 win, which featured a resurgent effort from star Dana Evans.

Evans didn’t score in the first quarter, then took the game over after that, finishing with a career-high 29 points, punctuated with a pair of long third-quarter threes after Oregon had cut its deficit to six.

But it was his team’s defense and rebounding that Cardinals coach Jeff Walz wanted to praise after the victory.

“What an unbelievable effort tonight defensively and on the backboard,” he said. “We’re giving up probably five inches at the five spot, then we’re probably giving up about seven inches at the four spot to start the game. I thought we came out and just competed, did a great job. Our guards did a great job of pressuring the basketball, which we had talked about for the past two days. Our ball pressure had to be elite, and it was. To force Oregon to try to start their offense further out, not let them get simple high-lows or side entries into the post. Our guards did a great job of that.”

Evans’ night was capped by a Mykasa Robinson steal and a highlight-reel behind the back pass to Evans for a layup that put the Cardinals up 20.

“I have great teammates,” Evans said. “They are always supporting me no matter how bad I play or whatever is happening. They are always working and I know that I can rely on them.”

Evans said an off-day text exchange with Asia Durr encouraged her to relax and have fun, to let the game come to her. Walz said it demonstrates the family nature of the Louisville program.

“We’ve been a program here that’s been pretty darn good for the past 14 years,” Walz said. “We have players that come through here that know this is a family. They stay in touch with each other. That starts with Angel McCoughtry. Angel is the first one to send me a text, the first one you’ll see things up on social media congratulating us. It’s pretty remarkable. Our alum have tremendous pride in what this program stands for.”

—Louisville football has added North Carolina wide receiver Christian Henry to its roster for 2021.

—The key for Dana Evans on Sunday was letting the game come to her.

—Louisvillians shared their memories of and their appreciation for Howard Schnellenberger over the weekend.

Legend.

—The Louisville Cardinal covers Jeff Walz’s Cards heading back to the Elite Eight.

—Name to keep an eye on for Louisville’s assistant coaching search: Kenya Hunter. Hunter, who was Archie Miller’s co-associate head coach at Indiana, reportedly interviewed with Chris Mack over the weekend.

—Bob Kravitz of The Athletic writes that Indiana is taking a considerable risk in hiring Mike Woodson.

Are you telling me that Indiana University just spent $10 million to buy out Archie Miller so it could hire a guy whose best line in his résumé is that he played basketball — and tremendously so, I should add — for the Hoosiers?

This feels a little bit — a lot actually — like a hire looking to replicate what Michigan got when it hired Juwan Howard in the spring of 2019, except Howard is 15 years younger. Both men have an NBA background, both are links to the program’s glorious past. It has worked with Howard, clearly; the Wolverines are a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday they advanced to the Elite Eight with a rout of Florida State. But when reports surfaced that IU was talking to Calbert Cheaney and Keith Smart, I started getting a feeling: athletic director Scott Dolson, a manager on the title-winning 1987 team, was going to keep it in the family.

But here’s the deal: As much as a lot of people wanted to keep it in the family, is Woodson the guy they wanted to rally around — and for six years, no less? While Woodson is a respected former player and coach in the NBA, he has never worked at the college level! I mean, call Dane Fife. Call Michael Lewis. How about Scott Drew, somebody who grew up in Indiana and has built a hoops powerhouse through 18 years at Baylor? One might think that as a candidate for the IU basketball job, collegiate experience might be viewed as a requirement.

Look, Howard didn’t have the college experience either. I know that. He surrounded himself with good coaches/recruiters — Phil Martelli is a pro’s pro — and he has gotten the job done. The idea, I guess, is that Thad Matta, a terrific former long-time head coach at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State, will be the one to help Woodson navigate the labyrinth of college basketball. And at IU, it’s not just about recruiting and coaching; it’s also about being a spokesman, a personality for the university, a frontman. Is Woodson that person? I can’t say one way or the other.

—Gary Parrish writes that only time will tell if IU bringing in Woodson was the right move or simply yet another case of a large sum of money being poorly spent.

—Ricky O’Donnell ranks the eight teams remaining in the men’s tournament.

—Homefield magic is real, folks.

—Louisville City FC has been selected to participate in an abbreviated version of the 2021 U.S. Open Cup.

—The Louisville men’s soccer team fell on the road to No. 6 Wake Forest on penalty kicks.

—Star U of L swimmer Nick Albiero has etched his name into the Louisville record books. Albiero claimed a national title at the NCAA Championships over the weekend.

—Jordan Nwora certainly made the most of his first NBA start.

—The CJ previews tomorrow’s regional final between the Cardinals and the Cardinal.

—Addicted to Quack reacts to Oregon’s Sunday loss.

—The 15th-ranked Louisville lacrosse team dropped a pair to No. 5 Boston College, the first coming in overtime.

—I’m very bummed that we’ll never get a chance to see a 100% Charles Minlend suit up for the Cardinals. So is Charles himself.

Class kid. Wishing nothing but the best for him moving forward.

—The Louisville baseball team split its weekend series with Notre Dame. The Cards rolled on Friday, lost on walk-off home run on Saturday, and then were forced to practice on Sunday after the Irish canceled the game because it was too windy or something.

—ESPN re-seeds the women’s Elite Eight and has Louisville at No. 5.

What they’re saying in San Antonio: Evans was really good, and Louisville needs that again to try to knock off the No. 1 overall seed in Stanford. But coach Jeff Walz also liked everything about how his defense played in shutting down Oregon. It will be tougher against a Stanford team that has so many offensive threats it’s hard to keep track of them all.

“It’s got to start with ball pressure,” Walz said. “Olivia Cochran and Liz Dixon, you know, aren’t going to get a ton of credit or a bunch of praise because everybody likes to look at what people do offensively.

“But what those two did battling [Sunday] was pretty amazing because they had their hands full. I thought they were absolutely outstanding and did a great job of making things as difficult as they could for the Oregon post players.”

Staying on the boards with Stanford also will be crucial, and Walz points out that two of his 5-foot-7 guards rebound a lot bigger than their size would suggest.

“Mykasa Robinson and Hailey Van Lith led us in rebounding with seven each,” he said. “That’s just the grit that those two have. Those two are as tough of competitors as I’ve had come through this program in a long time. That’s just embracing physicality. Both of them are willing to do that.’’ — Voepel

—Here’s what Jeff Walz had to say after Sunday’s win.

—The U of L men’s tennis team downed Florida State over the weekend.

—Kansas is courting former U of L signee Bobby Pettiford.

—If name, image, likeness rules were in play right now, Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith could be bringing in close to a million dollars.

Her star is only going to shine brighter in the years to come.

—The Louisville women’s basketball team hasn’t seen much of the sun during its time in Texas.

—Louisville swimming earned its first-ever men’s NCAA Championship relay title on Friday by touching the wall 1st in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:22.11, simultaneously setting a new pool record.

—And finally, the CJ looks at how a former Cardinal All-American helped Dana Evans escape from her March slump.