Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

Sep 23, 2022 - 6:38 PM

—Spread check: Louisville by 14.5.

—The Daily Stampede, SB Nation’s South Florida site, is out with its big preview of tomorrow afternoon’s game.

—The 25th-ranked U of L men’s soccer team will host No. 8 Pitt this evening at 8. If you can’t make it out to Lynn Stadium, you’ll be able to catch the match live on the ACC Network.

—A new Card Chronicle podcast episode dropped this morning.

—Nice to see Donovan ingratiating himself with the Cleveland faithful already.

—Scott Davenport is the guest on the latest episode of Jordan Sperber’s “Solving Basketball” podcast.

—If Scott Satterfield is going to save his job and if Louisville football is going to build any momentum as a program, it feels like this upcoming three-game stretch is a do or die one.

—Milt Wagner says Cardinal hoops fans should prepare to be surprised by Kenny Payne’s debut season.

—It’s Trinity-St. X night and shenanigans are afoot.

—Three numbers show why U of L’s offense has been among the nation’s worst through three games.

—”Try less harder” is apparently the philosophy that Dino Babers has used to lead Syracuse to a 3-0 start.

—Louisville Report looks at the points of emphasis for tomorrow afternoon’s game against USF.

—Statey Leaks?

—The second-ranked Louisville volleyball team kicks off ACC play tonight against Miami and then heads to Florida State on Sunday for a match that will be carried nationally on ESPN. Here’s a preview of the weekend ahead.

—It was a rough Thursday night for the Louisville women’s soccer team, which was handed a 5-1 loss by No. 7 Florida State.

—Jeff Greer’s latest newsletter discusses how Curtis Williams’ commitment continues to hint at Kenny Payne’s desired style of play.

In an ideal world, when a team can start lineups with serious length and shooting, as would be the case with the aforementioned players, it changes the space orientation on the floor. And the quest to maximize space on offense and minimize it on defense is a never-ending one, an ever-evolving chase at every level of basketball.

On offense, you become a unique challenge, forcing opponents with smaller backcourts or slower frontcourts to figure out how to mix and match with combo forwards playing against traditional big guys and smaller 2-guards alike. And in the case of Lands, Ree and Williams, Louisville will have three big wings with high releases that are tough to defend. On top of that, especially with Lands and Williams as well as Glenn, you get the added plus of adding some offensive rebounding chops across multiple positions instead of just your power forward and center.

On defense, you shrink space with length and athleticism. You have taller players who can cover good ground. That opens the possibility for more turnover creation and altered or blocked shots, or just simply allows for more disruptive defending. And if Louisville wants to play aggressive fullcourt defense and “up and down,” as Wagner said, the personnel needs to fit the style.

Now, all of this is hypothetical because Louisville has yet to play a game. And, quite frankly, this season — even with Wagner saying U of L will surprise people — is going to be an experiment in building the tactical foundation under Payne. There will be failures along the way. The Cards will have laborious evenings. But building the muscle memory and the familiarity with a style takes time and repetition, and when perfected, a team with the right personnel can take off.

All that is why the 2023 recruiting class is so important to Louisville in its pursuit for the right people to match the plan. Williams is another step in that direction.

—Bill Connelly previews (Insider) the college football weekend ahead for ESPN.

—The fourth-ranked Louisville field hockey team will host Indiana at 6 p.m. today for the 11th annual Battle of the Border game.

—Whenever you’re ready to call it a playing career, Ted ...

—After three games, Louisville’s 30 penalties are tied for fifth-most in the country with 1/3 being flags for false start. The CJ’s Alexis Cubit looks at how the Cardinals are addressing the issue.

—Former Cardinal great Anna Stevenson has been named to the USA Volleyball World Championship roster.

—The U of L softball team will open its fall season against Bellarmine.

—Friday Irrelevance, double helping:

—The latest episode of the Cardinal Sports Zone podcast is out.

—The NCAA has set new rules for graduate transfer players entering the portal.

—He shouldn’t have had to apologize for anything other than this being a D+ rivalry joke at best.

—Louisville will have plenty of prospects on campus when they take on USF tomorrow, with a large majority of them coming from the state of Kentucky.

—Cardinal Authority looks at Louisville vs. USF by the numbers.

—College football news is taking Louisville to beat South Florida by two touchdowns.

Why Louisville Will Win

There’s not really a USF passing game to worry about.

Bohanon is a transfer from Baylor who knows what he’s doing, but he has yet to throw a touchdown pass, the third down conversions aren’t there, and there’s no consistency whatsoever.

On the other side, Louisville’s offense was almost perfectly balanced in the loss to Florida State, there shouldn’t be any problem moving the chains against a defense that’s allowing teams to hit 50% of their third down conversions, and as long as the turnovers stop, everything should be okay.

The three turnovers in Syracuse were bad, the three against Florida State were a killer, and

What’s Going To Happen

Can USF force enough takeaways to pull this off?

It’s going to run for more than 200 yards on the Cardinals, but the defense won’t be able to come up with enough key stops to pull off the upset.

This is a DESPERATE Louisville team. Let’s put it this way – it had better win this, or the season is probably over. The defense has to play up to the moment.

Louisville vs USF Prediction, Line

Louisville 38, USF 24

—Matt McGavic likes the Cards over the Bulls by even more.

—Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times looks at the rise and fall of Florida State football through the lens of its games against Louisville.

—Louisville is a heavy favorite for tomorrow’s game, but the Cards rushing defense will have to be much better against a dangerous USF ground game.

—Luke never lies.

—Louisville’s staff spent a portion of Thursday visiting with class of 2024 five-star Trentyn Flowers and his family.

—Emoni Bates has been failed by everyone around him, writes Ricky O’Donnell.

—The LEO has five things to do in Louisville this weekend.

—I know we all want to see a better product on the field, but this is very cool.

—Louisville baseball has the No. 6 recruiting class in America according to Perfect Game USA. Eighteen of the top 20 classes in America hail from the ACC or the SEC.

—Barrett Sallee of CBS breaks down the weekend ahead in college football.

—The Mike Rutherford Show will wrap up the week this afternoon from 3-6 on 1450AM/96.1 FM. You can stream the show here.

—And finally, beat South Florida.