3-star Forward Andrew Carr commits to Louisville basketball…

The last time Louisville basketball hosted Clemson at the KFC Yum! Center, headlined by the 10-year reunion of its 2013 national championship team, the Cardinals delivered a moment of unbridled joy that amounted to nothing more than false hope during the otherwise bleak Kenny Payne era.

Six hundred ninety days later, the result was the same at Second and Main: U of L took down the Tigers, 74-64, to improve to 9-0 against them on its home court. But Tuesday night was not a nostalgia-fueled fever dream.

It was a clear-eyed toast to the future under Pat Kelsey, who’s now one victory from tying Payne’s two-year total.

The buzz is intoxicating. Make it a double.

Why not? There’s snow everywhere, and the Cards (11-5, 4-1 ACC) are hot as hell — winners of five in a row for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign.

It’s oozing out of his locker room; and it’s safe to say he’s got a bona fide contender on his hands after Louisville handed Clemson (12-4, 4-1) its first loss of conference play and will leapfrog it in the NET.

Everyone was waiting in the locker room, water bottles at the ready, for J’Vonne Hadley, after the St. Paul, Minnesota, native went for a career-high 32 points — the most scored by a player in an ACC game this season — 10 rebounds and four assists in 36 minutes. The quiet clapping blew their cover, he said.

“I turned the corner and got soaked,” Hadley told reporters afterward. “That’s just love from the teammates.”