Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—One Foot Down recaps Notre Dame’s thrilling (for them at least) OT win over Louisville last night.

—Clemson is currently the least team in the field of 68 on ESPN’s Bracketology. While much of the attention tomorrow night will be on the 2013 celebration, the Cards will be hosting a team desperate to avoid a crippling Quad 4 loss.

—The South Florida Sun Sentinel asked each of the area’s top recruits what their reaction was to the new coordinators that Miami just hired. TJ Capers wins.

—Chane Behanan went on Nick Coffey’s show Thursday afternoon to discuss, among other things, why he won’t be attending the U of L celebration this weekend. You can hear that conversation here.

—Jeff Brohm is hoping that he and his staff’s recent “South Florida blitz” pays off again in the future.

—Jeff Greer’s latest U of L hoops newsletter focuses in part on some memories from his first season covering the team, which was the year after the national championship.

* Having an actual conversation with Rick Pitino for the first time in the supply warehouse in the back of a Meijer where the team conducted a toy shopping spree for kids in need. He went into great detail about his Christmas tradition of buying ties for his former assistants in the exact color specifications of wherever they worked — i.e. orange and blue for Billy Donovan at Florida, maroon and white for Herb Sendek at Santa Clara or SLU Blue and White for Travis Ford at Saint Louis. I don’t know why that always stuck with me, but it has.

* Thinking how exhausted Kevin Ware seemed by the time I started conducting interviews around the team that fall.

* Trying so hard to capture the kaleidoscope that is Russ Smith — a brilliant basketball player, a creative mind, a humorist, a philosopher, a sports commentator, a friend, an entertainer, a son. The guy to the day is the most interesting person I’ve been around, and I relished the opportunity to learn what made him tick and write about his joys and his incredibly complex inner-monologues.

* Learning about Terry Rozier’s love of spaghetti and ranch and fear of squirrels — and of the challenges his mom and grandma faced in raising him in Youngstown. Seeing him work his way to the NBA Draft, then being there when he was selected in 2015, was one of the coolest personal stories I’ve ever followed. (I know it’s a 2014-15 story, but his aunt shouting a prayer into the Cleveland night from a huddle of Terry’s family members while his cousins jumped fully clothed into the pool after he was picked by the Celtics will be a memory I hold forever.)

* Asking Luke Hancock at the AAC Tournament if his team’s comebacks ever surprise him and him quipping back, “Are you new?”

—Matt McGavic is taking Clemson over the Cards by five tomorrow night.

—You can get upper level tickets to Saturday’s game for just $13 here.

—The CJ sports staff makes its picks on who will win each of the upcoming 32 regional basketball tournaments.

—Miami tight end Benjamin Blackburn has received a Louisville offer.

—Baseball season is here. Breathe it in.

—GoCards.com previews the opening weekend series against Bucknell.

—Louisville’s Cameron Miller was named the ACC Men’s Track Performer of the Week for the first time in his career, while Synclair Savage earned the ACC Women’s Field Performer of the Week award for the second time this season.

—Louisville lacrosse junior goalkeeper Sara Addeche was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week.

—For the second time this year, DJ Wagner is making headlines for being in the middle of a basketball-related fight. This time it may cost his team a shot at defending its New Jersey state championship.

—The 23rd-ranked Louisville men’s tennis team will take on Indiana today at 5 p.m.

—Cameron Drummond of the LHL wonders how Louisville’s historically dismal season will affect Kenny Payne’s recruiting.

—Alex Kirshner also writes for Slate about the “unprecedented collapse” of Cardinal basketball.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—New Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon joins Jay Gruden as former U of L players who have gone on to land head coaching gigs in the NFL.

—Dana O’Neil takes a guess (Athletic link) at which 20 people will define the future of college hoops.

—Stop messing with our shit, Aggies.

—New U of L president Kim Schatzel introduced herself to the faculty senate earlier this week.

—Federal judges absolutely tore apart the NCAAs business model of amateurism in the Johnson v NCAA hearing earlier this week.

—Cool moment for U of L volleyball.

—Peyton Siva talked with the CJ’s Brooks Holton about this weekend’s celebration and this summer’s TBT squad.

—The promotional calendar for the 2023 Louisville Bats season is here.

—I’m as unhappy as anyone about the current state of Cardinal basketball, but this is a good video.

—Lou City will host the newly-formed Lexington Sporting Club in the second round of the U.S. Open Cup in early April.

—Cardinal Authority highlights five freshmen to watch on this year’s U of L baseball team.

—Have we been playing with an under-inflated basketball this whole season? Should none of the results of this season count? I’m thinking yes.

—Inflate the damn balls, Kenny.

How flat was the basketball at the end of Virginia’s 61-58 road win at Louisville? According to UVa radio announcer John Freeman, the ball measured 2.8 PSI about seven minutes after the game’s conclusion, well below the normal pressure.

NBA basketballs must be inflated to between 7.5 and 8.5 PSI. NCAA rules regulate the balls based on weight, with a maximum weight of 22 ounces.

On the game’s final play, an odd possession where Louisville didn’t attempt to get off a shot at the buzzer, Cardinals forward JJ Traynor gave the ball one dribble and it stayed down on the court, not bouncing up.

Television replays show that UVa guard Kihei Clark grabbed it and ran it over to coach Tony Bennett, squeezing the ball as he showed it to him.

That exchange piqued Freeman’s curiosity, so during a break in his postgame show, Freeman walked over to the scorer’s table to look at the ball. The officials had already left, but Louisville’s courtside game-day staffers were still there.

“The ball was just sitting there,” Freeman said Friday. “(I) asked if I could pick it up and it was super flat. The people at the table were surprised, so they had a gauge that they keep and they put in and it was 2.8 PSI.”

—A Giants site serves up a draft profile on Louisville’s Trevor Reid.

—CBS is the latest to jump on the “Louisville and Kentucky both suck in the same season” bandwagon. Please keep the stories coming. Let’s remind everyone that both teams are some level of bad and that’s all that really matters.

Down year for the sport.

—And finally, beat Bucknell and beat Clemson.