Wednesday afternoon Cardinals news and notes

—The fourth-ranked Louisville baseball team kept rolling with an 11-1 trouncing of Morehead State Tuesday afternoon.

—The U of L women’s basketball team is a 5-seed in the latest Bracketology from ESPN.

—Kenny Payne said Tuesday night that now he has to have some tough conversations with players on his current roster about who “deserves” to be here moving forward.

“I’ve got to sit down with each person, and we got to come up with strategy, with a plan. What they’re looking for and what I’m looking for,” he said in a post-game interview with Learfield’s Jody Demling. “Some of it, to be honest, it’s not gonna be what they want to hear. Some of it may not hear what I want to hear.”

Ever since Payne took the job nearly 12 months ago, he has stressed the importance of his players understanding what it means to play for Louisville. That they not only grasp their history and tradition, but know that it comes with a great amount of personal sacrifice.

Payne says that if there’s a player - or players - that don’t grasp this concept, he has no problem with showing them the door.

“We’ll figure it out, meet with each other, and see who deserves - as I said in the beginning - to be in that jersey,” he said. “Who understands what it means to be in that jersey. Who’s up for the obligation of being in that jersey. If not, I had a year to evaluate it. If you don’t deserve to be in that jersey, as much as I love you, I can’t have you in that jersey.”

—Louisville’s Carson Liggett has been named the Dick Howser Trophy National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

—Kenny Payne’s first offseason will be critical in determining whether or not he gets a second.

—The U of L men’s tennis team is No. 26 in the latest ITA rankings.

—Josh Heird reiterated to Tim Sullivan Tuesday that he remains firmly in Kenny Payne’s corner.

—Male outlasted Trinity in a double OT thriller to claim the 7th region crown Tuesday night.

—If you missed the drama, the Baltimore Raves hit Lamar Jackson with non-exclusive franchise tag on Tuesday.

—Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun writes that Jackson only has himself to blame for not having an agent to navigate this process.

—Will Brinson of CBS writes that the reason all these NFL teams have been so quick to leak that they have no interest in Jackson is painfully obvious.

—Five points to the Bellarmine social squad.

—The transition rule that kept the Knights out of the NCAA tournament a year ago and is keeping Merrimack out of the dance this season remains the dumbest.

—How Dickinson is the team that’s taking Merrimack’s place? Ehh.

—Mike Brey said farewell to Notre Dame and the ACC with a three-point loss to Virginia Tech Tuesday night. He went out slamming the officials.

—Ballard alum Jake Ramsey appears at No. 25 in this video.

—Here’s the BC loss write-up from Brooks Holton of the CJ.

—Huge blow for TCU heading into the postseason as starting center Eddie Lampkin Jr. has stepped away from the team to deal with personal matters.

—Here are BC Interruption’s thoughts on the Eagles’ 80-62 triumph over Louisville.

—CBS’ Gary Parrish wouldn’t blame Louisville for firing Kenny Payne after one season, his partner Matt Norlander disagrees.

—Adding insult to injury for Louisville on Tuesday was that they lost by 18 to a Boston College team that was playing without its best player and with its second best player in foul trouble for most of the game.

—Three-star class of 2023 point guard Jason Rivera-Torres sounds like another name Louisville fans need to be keeping an eye on in the coming weeks.

—The CJ analyzes the 2022-23 U of L men’s basketball team’s place in the pantheon of awful power conference teams.

—Eric Crawford writes about a dismal performance to end a dismal season.

With 12 minutes to play and a chance to extend its season against a Boston College team playing without its best player, the University of Louisville men’s basketball team responded with an emphatic answer in the first round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro Coliseum Tuesday afternoon.

And that answer was, “Hell, no.”

No defense. No connectivity. No grit. No chance.

Boston College, which trailed by three at halftime and led by only one with 12 minutes to play, won 80-62. It outscored Louisville by 21 in the second half.

It wasn’t quite a layup line over the final 12 minutes, but it was close. Boston College had eight of them, and 18 for the game – just one short of the number of made baskets Louisville managed, total.

—Bourbon and Beyond has announced its headliners for 2023.

—Northern Kentucky punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament with a win over Cleveland State in the Horizon League title game last night. The Norse have now won four of the last seven Horizon League tournaments.

—Once again, the reports of college basketball’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

—The U of L lacrosse game that was canceled last Friday because of weather has been rescheduled.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show will talk about the end of the men’s basketball season this afternoon from 3-6 on 1450/96.1 and streaming here.