Thursday afternoon News and notes from the Cardinal

— Spread check (football): Louisville by 3.5.

— It will be a top-five showdown with huge ACC title implications in Dallas tonight when the third-ranked Louisville volleyball team takes on No. 5 SMU at 8 p.m. on ESPNU. Here’s a preview.

—Jeff Brohm has the potential to finish what Bobby Petrino started at Louisville. The Cards will face their former coach Saturday night in Chapel Hill.

—I couldn’t be happier to learn that Nick Coffey is joining the Big X family starting next Wednesday for a new show that will air from 6am to 9am every morning. This should be a great new morning option for Cardinal fans.

—Pat Kelsey’s team has only played two games, but three early trends bode well for the Cards in 2026-27.

—It’s game day for the Louisville women’s basketball team, as they take on Ball State on the road. Here’s a preview.

—CJ Moore’s latest college hoops rankings for The Athletic put Louisville at 13th.

—SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell has Obinna Ekezie ranked 13th overall in his latest 2027 NBA Mock Draft.

Ekezie reclassified to leave high school a year early and join a loaded Louisville team, where he has so far backed up Flory Bidunga (another possible 2027 first-round pick). Unlike other early college entrants like Duke’s Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, UCLA’s Nikola Kusturica and Texas’ Marcus Spears Jr., Ekezie is actually draft eligible this year, and he could well become a first-round pick on raw talent alone. The 7’1 big man has a rare combination of size and shooting that will allow play at all levels. He looks like a formidable rim protector with a 7’5 wingspan, he hits the glass hard like a rebounder and he dunks all inside on offense. Better yet, he’s ready and willing to shoot from three, hitting multiple triples throughout Louisville’s exhibition run. He’s a wild card in a weak draft class, and he might be worth taking a chance on a lottery pick.

—Eric Crawford writes about the impending showdown between Jeff Brohm and Bill Belichick/Bobby Petrino.

— Louisville QB commit Dre’Mail Carothers of Owensboro Catholic was named 2A District 2 Player of the Year.

—Louisville basketball is No. 12 in the latest ESPN power rankings.

— A 24-team College Football Playoff will officially take place next season. The main details of this major change are presented in the graphics below:

—Louisville is the 4th best city in America for Thanksgiving.

— As has generally been the case over the years in the Louisville-Memphis State rivalry, the Cards look like the big brother of the two.

—Some former players express appreciation for Jeff Brohm after coach’s 100th career win.

—Just Cards frames the cats here.

—Trinity Shamrock’s defense has not allowed a single point to an in-state opponent this season. They will look to continue that trend against arch-rival St. X in the second round of the playoffs on Friday.

— Memphis State should provide a much bigger challenge to Louisville on Sunday than it did a year ago. Still, Memphis beat Commercial Appeal writer Jason Munz as the Cards did in a close game.

—The rest of this week in Cardinal athletics:

— The New York Times has a story this week on Louisville baseball commit Jackson Burke, who has completed over 80% of his passes and thrown 60 touchdowns against ZERO interceptions so far this season for Christian Academy.

— Michigan handled Marquette with relative ease last night, and Golden Eagles fans got their first glimpse of Sananda Fru facing an imposing frontcourt (22 minutes, 3 points, 2 rebounds, 4 fouls).

— Only 5,000 people attended a game between Syracuse and Indiana earlier this week. Just 7 to 10 years ago, this phrase would have been unthinkable. Today, it’s evidence of one of the biggest problems facing college sports.

—Five feature films are currently filming in Louisville.

—Donovan Mitchell had a little shout out to Louisville in his Tonight Show interview with Jimmy Fallon.

— Good stuff here from Chris Hatfield on Louisville’s demolition of Morehead State and the game-defining 33-0 run.

—A look at Louisville vs. North Carolina by the numbers.

—The North Carolina SI site highlights three U of L players who should be of concern to the Tar Heels.

—Larry O confirming that he didn’t feel sorry for Darius Washington at all is exactly what I was hoping to get out of this clip.

You can watch the full episode here.

—UNC fans are keeping an eye on three storylines heading into Saturday night’s game against Louisville.

—With Lawyne McCoy out, an opportunity presented itself for TreyShun Hurry. He opened the door in a major way.

—This Ringer story that the founder of Nets Daily is also an 81-year-old investigative journalist is crazy.

Windrem, aka “Net Income,” is the largest and most prolific Brooklyn Nets blogger on the Internet. But he’s not an ordinary patient. He is a patient who has been with NetsQuotidien for almost 22 years, because before much of the Web 2.0 sports media landscape existed – before FreeDarko, TrueHoopOr Deadspin. And he has a different background than anyone else who writes about the NBA. In 40 years at NBC News, Windrem covered national security, nuclear weapons, terrorism and the CIA. He co-wrote a book on nuclear non-proliferation. He arranged talks with heads of state. He used the pseudonym Net Income because, when he first started posting, he wasn’t sure what his employer would think of it.

“He was like, ‘Yeah, I was in Iran, I had to go interview Ahmadinejad (then-President Mahmoud),'” said NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, founder of NetsQuotidien in 2004, said. “Well, okay. And then you come back and you talk about Chris Douglas-Roberts and Terrence Williams.”

Windrem is now 81 years old and chairs a team of 10 editors and contributors to NetsQuotidien. In 1962, he watched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then a high school sophomore known as Lew Alcindor, dominate a game, and he later shook the 15-year-old’s enormous hand. In 1965, he became sports editor of The Setonianthe Seton Hall student newspaper, and the following year he was promoted to editor-in-chief. He did color commentary for Seton Hall basketball games and also co-hosted the postgame show. He was a Knicks fan in the 70s, but obviously that didn’t hold up.

—The University of Los Angeles has offered a scholarship to Class of 2029 tight end Max Hopkins of Indiana.

—David Kenyon of Bleacher Report predicts that Louisville will beat UNC by a touchdown on Saturday.

—Tyran Stokes’ key to playing with a chip on his shoulder and lighting up Kentucky: Acting like he plays for Louisville.

—Two Louisville men’s soccer players earned All-ACC honors.

—Some postgame notes on the University of Los Angeles women’s basketball team’s throttling of Lindenwood.

— Before the latest conference realignment takes place, could Louisville use James Madison as a guide on how to prepare?

—If you’re heading to Chapel Hill this weekend to support the Cards, here’s a tailgate option:

—The U of L women’s soccer program has signed seven players from the Class of 2027.

— While Louisville still hopes it can make its way to the ACC championship game, North Carolina is aiming for bowl eligibility.

—Perhaps the most spectacular victory in Lou City history.

And now the boys in purple are just two wins away from a third USL championship. They will face Charleston for the Eastern Conference title Saturday night at 6 p.m.

—Louisville Volleyball announced its 2027 signing class.

—ESPN places the Cardinals at No. 6 in its women’s college basketball power rankings.

—Latest card strip video:

—Zion Rose absolutely belongs in the Arizona Fall League.

— He’s been gone for eight years now (and 20 years before that), but Bobby Petrino’s fingerprints are still all over the Louisville football program.

— There’s a key Cardinal weakness that UNC must exploit Saturday if it wants to knock off U of L.

—Swaggy Coop continues to kill Cats, but in a different uniform.

— The College Sports Protection Act is not on the House agenda next week, during its first week back.

—Florida State’s football nightmare doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.

— College football’s obsession with young coaches is causing the sport to neglect some of its best minds.

— By the way, they lost again on Saturday.

—Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology update has Louisville as a 3 seed.

—Chapelboro.com features Louisville.

—And finally, beat SMU.