Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check (basketball): Louisville by 9.

—Spread check (football): Louisville by 20.

—The Louisville men’s soccer team scored a major, major victory last night over top seed (and No. 2 in the country) Notre Dame in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.

The Cards raced out to a 3-0 lead before the Fighting Irish charged back to tie the score late in the second half. U of L then netted the game-winner with just over a minute left on the clock.

Might be the game of the year in U of L athletics so far.

The Cards will play at fourth-seeded Clemson in the semifinals on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The ACC Network will have the television coverage.

—Ashton Gillotte makes Pro Football Focus’ defensive team of the week.

—The Louisville field hockey team is headed to Evanston to compete in the NCAA tournament for a fifth consecutive season. The Cardinals will face Iowa in the first round on Friday at 3:30 p.m. The winner will then move on to likely face host and No. 2 overall seed Northwestern on Sunday at 2 p.m.

The Cardinals defeated Northwestern 1-0 in the regular season, but they dropped a 2-1 decision to Iowa back on Oct. 15.

The full bracket for the tournament is here.

—Here’s the moment the team found out it was dancing:

—The Louisville volleyball team bounced back from a Friday loss to No. 10 Georgia Tech with a 4-set win over Clemson on Sunday.

—The week ahead in Cardinal athletics:

Monday, November 6

#17/15 Women’s Basketball at Cincinnati - 6 p.m. ET
Men’s Basketball vs UMBC - 7 p.m. ET (KFC Yum! Center)

Wednesday, November 8

Men’s Soccer at Clemson - 8 p.m. (ACC Tournament Semifinal)

Thursday, November 9

#13 Football vs Virginia - 7:30 p.m. ET (L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium)

Friday, November 10

Cross Country at NCAA Southeast Regional
Field Hockey vs Iowa - 3:30 p.m. ET (NCAA Tournament 1st Round)
#3 Volleyball vs Duke - 7 p.m. ET (L&N Federal Credit Union Arena)
Men’s Basketball vs Chattanooga - 7 p.m. ET (KFC Yum! Center)

Sunday, November 12

Rowing at Rivanna Romp
#3 Volleyball vs North Carolina - 1 p.m. ET (L&N Federal Credit Union Arena)
#17/15 Women’s Basketball vs DePaul - 4 p.m. ET (KFC Yum! Center)

—Improved defense and rebounding are the focus for the 15th-ranked Louisville women’s basketball team, which opens its season tonight against Cincinnati.

—Sounds like it’s already been a good day for Jeff Walz’s program.

—U of L’ s early preview of Thursday’s game against Virginia is here.

—Gobbler Country says Virginia Tech’s performance at Louisville over the weekend was embarrassing.

—Never gets old.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic has some final thoughts and observations from the demolition of the Hokies.

—Big Red Louie likes the Cards over UMBC by eight tonight.

—247 Sports has Louisville facing Michigan in the Orange Bowl.

That helps explain this.

F’ing Stallions is out of control, man.

—Brett McMurphy’s latest bowl projections also have the Cards in the Orange Bowl, but facing Ohio State.

—Elite class of 2025 QB Husan Longstreet talks about what he likes most about each of his eight finalists, including Louisville.

Louisville- “My older brother Kevin plays there and I’ve had a few really good visits. I was there for the Notre Dame game and loved the atmosphere. The crowd was unreal and I really like the direction the program is going. I like the offense too. It’s an NFL style offense and I think I would fit in really well there.”

—If the 12-team playoff existed this season, Bud Elliott projects that Louisville would play at Ohio State in the first round.

—Eseosa Imafidon and Elif Istanbulluoglu’s journeys to the U.S. and Louisville women’s basketball were different. But both are adjusting to changes.

—It just feels pretty awesome to see our name on this list.

—The CJ previews the college basketball season ahead for the local scene.

—Coleman Crawley previews the ACC men’s basketball season in audio form. He has the Cards ranked 14th out of 15 teams.

—Here’s a look at how former Cards in the NFL fared yesterday.

—Good news for the rest of the season ...

—Here’s the AP preview of tonight’s hoops season opener against UMBC.

—It appears as though JoJo Stone plans on enrolling early at U of L.

—Fighting Gobbler has three major concerns after VT’s lopsided loss at Louisville.

—It is pretty obvious how tight the running back room is.

Very cool.

—Your eyes don’t deceive you, Jack Plummer is perfectly adequate.

—Jeff Brohm says he and the coaching staff have been “coaching better” since a poor collective performance at Pitt.

—They simply do not ever learn.

—Louisville is No. 2 in every ACC power ranking existence on this Monday.

—Jawhar Jordan has been invited to play in this year’s East-West Shrine Bowl.

—This video got me.

I know we’re all sort of at rock bottom when it comes to hoops, but they need to win tonight.

—Sacred Heart Academy hoops superstar Zakiyah Johnson has Louisville on her final list of 12 schools.

—Per FPI, Louisville now has a 89.8% chance to make the ACC championship game.

—Totally agree, Plies.

—Louisville climbed four spots to No. 11 in the AP poll yesterday. Will the Cards make a similar leap in the CFP rankings tomorrow?

—The Tech Sideline podcast is very sad about Saturday’s game.

—Eric Crawford says that for Kenny Payne and his Cardinals, tonight’s season-opener carries with it a postseason level of urgency.

On Sunday morning, Payne said he understood the trauma response to the KWC loss, and the criticism that came with it.

“A lot of it I haven’t heard,” he said. “I know that people are upset that we lost the game. As they should be, I’m going to say this again — I love our fans. I’m good with the criticism. You know, some of it is warranted. You cannot step on that floor and not bring it. I’m not running from that.”

Maybe he should. I don’t know. The statement that drew the most criticism after Louisville’s exhibition loss was one in which he said, “We can’t beat teams with talent. We’re never going to be the most talented team.”

He later amplified that statement in a postgame interview with Bob Valvano, and referred to it again on Sunday morning.

“I made a statement and I mean this with all my heart,” Payne said. “We’re not beating teams with talent. Does that mean we’re not talented? No. There is no coach in the world that says, ‘I want to beat you with my talent.’ Coaches want to beat you with their work ethic, their toughness, their attention to detail. That’s what I’m saying.”

As for his team, Payne said the practices since the loss to KWC have been “hard,” and that he recognizes the outsized importance of Monday’s opener, “for the confidence of the guys. I think it’s important for the morale of the guys that we go out and play with great energy.”

“I think they understood the importance of the reality of it,” Payne said. “And that is, you can beat anybody, but anybody can beat you. There’s a lot of quote-unquote Division II schools, or small schools or whatever you want to call them, that has fifth- or sixth-year players that know how to play and they’ve been doing this a while and they’re not afraid of you. And you’ve got to go out and impose your will and play desperate. If you think because you’re at Louisville you’re automatically better, that’s not the case. So, I think they learned that one, they can never relax, two, how important the details are. And then, you know, playing with confidence and energy and playing together, what that looks like, and what that means to winning.”

—Michael McCammon of Cardinal Authority previews Louisville-UMBC.

—Alexis Cubit of the CJ has three takeaways from Louisville’s 34-3 triumph over VT.

—Underrated aspect of this football season: Louisville has absolutely dominated the coin toss.

—And finally, beat UMBC and beat Cincinnati.