Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Happy first day of the ACC tournament. Enjoy all the #TuesdayInCharlotte action responsibly.

Here’s the schedule:

No. 12 Miami vs. No. 13 Wake Forest (Noon — Raycom/ESPN)
No. 10 Georgia Tech vs. No. 15 Notre Dame (Approx. 2:30 —Raycom/ESPN)
No. 11 Boston College vs. No. 14 Pitt (7 p.m./ESPNU)

—So I’m perusing the timeline this morning per usual, when I come across this.

My first instinct, as always, is to scramble for more details and make sure Louisville isn’t involved in any way.

As I’m in the middle of that process, this pops up ...

I’m thinking, understandably, that we’ve got the next big college basketball scandal on our hands, and now I’m hit with the news that Becky from Full House is involved in some way.

As it turns out, the story is only very tangentially related to college basketball and is more about people with too much money being batshit crazy and doing ridiculous things to get their dumb ass kids into schools they don’t deserve to go to.

The details ... well, the details are incredible.

Those are my favorite parts, but feel free to do your own searching if you’re in need of more. I can promise you won’t be disappointed. These people are insane.

—In spite of everything, Forbes calculates that Louisville is still the most valuable program in college basketball.

—Congrats to future Cardinal David Johnson on leading Trinity to its second state title over the weekend, and earning Sweet 16 MVP honors in the process.

Here’s hoping this isn’t the last time David gets to celebrate on that court.

We’ll have Trinity head coach Mike Szabo on the radio show this afternoon to talk about Johnson and how his game should translate to the next level.

—No. 7 Louisville baseball is set for a top 10 showdown with No. 9 Ole Miss today and tomorrow. Here’s a preview.

—I’m always impressed and entertained by these.

—Jeff Greer writes that even in a loss, Louisville displayed a spirit against Virginia that wasn’t present three weeks ago.

But after his team bottomed out amid a 2-6 February slide, Mack sensed a reversal of spirit over the past week and a half, a renewed joie de vivre around the on-campus hoops facility. The Cardinals comfortably beat Notre Dame in their regular-season home finale last Sunday. Then, after a mandated day off on Monday, players showed up on their own for a self-run shootaround on Tuesday, which was supposed to be another day off. It was a move that surprised Mack, who called it a “first for me.” They returned to practice on Wednesday with recharged energy and effort, working with vigor through various physical drills while Mack implored them to play with pace and communicate with zeal. Thursday’s workout was similar.

That’s why Mack, while disappointed in his team’s defeat at John Paul Jones Arena, spoke more to the buoyancy and resiliency of the Cardinals on Saturday than anything else.

“You know, for the longest time we struggled with our confidence — for two or three weeks — and we didn’t play very well,” Mack said. “I noticed a different spirit about our team the last couple weeks. It makes me feel really good. There’s a lot of teams this time of the year, as hard as it is to believe, that really want their season to be over. I don’t have any type of feeling like that in our locker room. Our guys, they fought today and they’re disappointed and they should be because we lost, but we put ourselves in position against one of the best teams in the country to win the game. If we give that type of effort and we have that type of urgency and get a little bit more composed on the offensive end in crunch time, there’s not a team in the country that we can’t be in a three-minute or two-minute war to win that game, whether it’s the ACC tournament or the NCAA Tournament.”

—James “Beetle” Bolden, who was a star at Covington Holmes High School, has announced that he is transferring from West Virginia. Bolden averaged 12.2 ppg this season and is a career 40 percent three-point shooter. Hmm.

—ACC tournament odds from SportsBetting.ag:

ACC

Virginia +125

Duke +150

North Carolina +350

Virginia Tech +1200

Florida St +1600

Louisville +3300

Syracuse +5000

Clemson +5000

NC State +6600

Miami +20000

Notre Dame +20000

Georgia Tech +25000

Boston College +30000

Wake Forest +30000

Pittsburgh +30000

—Luke Murray’s name has already popped up as a top candidate for both the Mercer and Fairfield head coaching jobs. Murray is a 2007 graduate of Fairfield. At this point, I’d say it’s more likely than not that Chris Mack will have to hire a new assistant for the 2019-20 season.

—Well ... at least we have company.

—Jeff Walz is one of 10 Naismith Coach of the Year semifinalists.

—On the men’s side, Chris Mack did not make the cut from 15 to 10.

—Turner Sports and CBS have announced their coverage teams for the NCAA tournament.

Ernie Johnson and Greg Gumbel will again host studio coverage from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City during the first full week of the tournament, joined by Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg and Kenny Smith. Johnson will host studio coverage from Atlanta during the second week of tournament action on Thursday and Friday, while Gumbel will anchor coverage from CBS Studios. Studio coverage originating from Turner Studios in Atlanta, hosted by Casey Stern during the first week, will feature Brendan Haywood, Seth Davis, Candace Parker and college coaches. Wally Szczerbiak will contribute to studio coverage from New York City and Adam Zucker will provide game updates.

Following is the complete list of announcer pairings:

Play-by-Play / Analyst // Reporter

* Regional Weekend Announce Teams

Jim Nantz / Bill Raftery / Grant Hill // Tracy Wolfson*

Brian Anderson / Chris Webber // Allie LaForce*

Ian Eagle / Jim Spanarkel // Jamie Erdahl*

Kevin Harlan / Reggie Miller / Dan Bonner // Dana Jacobson*

Brad Nessler / Steve Lavin / Jim Jackson // Evan Washburn

Spero Dedes / Len Elmore / Steve Smith // Ros Gold-Onwude

Andrew Catalon / Steve Lappas // Lisa Byington

Carter Blackburn / Debbie Antonelli // John Schriffen

The tournament will tip off Tuesday, March 19, and Wednesday, March 20, with the NCAA First Four on truTV. Kevin Harlan will call Tuesday’s games with analysts Reggie Miller and Dan Bonner, alongside reporter Dana Jacobson. Spero Dedes will handle play-by-play on Wednesday with analysts Jackson and Steve Smith and reporter Ros Gold-Onwude. Studio coverage for the First Four will originate from Atlanta with Stern and analysts Haywood, Davis and Parker.

—Pat Forde explains why the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee is facing its toughest job ever this year.

—I can’t believe it’s already been 10 years.

Not sure I could miss that tournament more.

—In this Athletic story (I know, I know) on Kevin Ware (which is good), I believe we get the first explanation from Montrezl Harrell on why he decided not to cooperate with the NCAA.

For Ware and Harrell, and many of those who watched the Cardinals rally around their fallen player and win the title, the NCAA decision does little to change their memory.

“Everyone knows we won. Everyone knows we beat Michigan in the national championship, and that’s always going to be the case,” Ware says. “My teammates could have easily been distracted mentally after something like that (the injury) happened and me having the relationship with all those guys that I did, I knew it affected them so for them to rally like that, I will always respect that.”

Harrell is more animated about it.

“They did all that to come after our coach. That hurt the program and the players. They wanted to go after the coach. That’s why with that investigation and all that stuff, I declined it. They weren’t coming after us. We didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t do none of that. We were playing for each other, nobody came to the school for prostitution, man,” Harrell says. “We went to the school because we had a good group of guys, we fit together well, everybody was playing for each other and we wanted to do something special. We won a national championship. We did that in 2012. Two, three years later, all of sudden it’s about these allegations. Get outta here, man. C’mon, now. “

For Ware, it’s another deviation in a career that’s been anything but normal. “I cherish that,” he says, of the way his teammates came together in 2013. The NCAA decision doesn’t make it mean anything less. “I know those guys really busted their asses for me.”

Peyton Siva is also quoted in the story, but limits his comments to Ware and his abilities as a basketball player.

—Replacing Stefan LeFors with Hunter Cantwell? I love it.

—One seed or two seed, Jeff Walz says he doesn’t care.

—Louisville lacrosse has a double-header at Duquesne today.

—Another one for Don.

—Wofford polished off a perfect 21-0 run in the Southern Conference with a tournament title win last night. Their coach, Mike Young, is a member of the coolest and most unlikely coaching fraternity in basketball. Good stuff here.

—This Virginia fan is not quite ready to say goodbye to Jack Salt.

College sports can still be the best.

—Fran Dunphy’s time as Temple’s head coach is drawing to a close. Here’s a great perspective on what he’s accomplished during his lengthy career.

—Former U of L wide receiver Josh Bellamy has signed a 2-year deal with the New York Jets.

—We’re all excited about Charlotte this week.

—Despite interest from the Miami Dolphins, Teddy Bridgewater is now expected to re-sign with the New Orleans Saints.

—Eric Crawford writes that for the Louisville women, it’s all about rebounding, in more ways than one now.

—I wish this was my fridge.

—Could Tony Bennett vs. Chris Mack become the ACC’s next great coaching rivalry?

—Shoutout to the Bellarmine Knights on winning their third straight GLVC tournament title. They’ll be the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region for the D-II NCAA Tournament.

—Another shoutout to the Northern Kentucky Norse, who reached the Horizon League finals on this shot from standout big man Drew McDonald.

We found out how good that kid is in the NIT last year.

The Norse will face top-seeded Wright State for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament tonight at 7 on ESPN.

—And finally, this deep dive into Chris Mack’s Louisville contract is pretty illuminating. As you might expect, after all that U of L went through with Rick Pitino, Mack’s contract is much, much more detailed.