Louisville to be without star freshman Mikel Brown against USF

Louisville star freshman Mikel Brown Jr.. is out for the Cardinals’ first-round sport against South Florida Because of a again damage, the varsity introduced Wednesday, with blended messaging about its availability for a possible second-round sport.

The college introduced that Brown would “remain out the rest of this week should the Cardinals advance to the Round of 32,” however coach Pat Kelsey wouldn’t touch upon Brown’s standing past him not taking part in in Thursday’s first-round sport, and Brown mentioned it was “possible” he may play over the weekend.

“There’s a possibility,” Brown mentioned. “I don’t know how, I don’t know if it’s completely 100%. Like I said, man, this thing is just taking its slow, precious time and I’m leaning on my medical staff every single day to do any type of treatment, anything to try to get me back healthy.”

When requested what Brown would possibly want to see or really feel so as to go well with up in a possible second-round sport, Brown reiterated that it was “possible.”

“Shoot, it’s like I said, it’s taking its precious time, so I really don’t have a gauge on whether I’ll be able to play on Saturday,” he mentioned. “Obviously, I do pray that I’m able to play on Saturday. But like I said, man, I’ve never been trained to go half-speed in any type of shape or form in anything that I do. And that’s the only speed I can go at right now.”

Brown has missed the final 4 video games together with his again damage, the identical damage that saved him out of eight video games earlier this season. When on the court docket, Brown was one of the dynamic freshman guards in school basketball, averaging 18.2 factors and 4.7 assists. The projected NBA lottery choose has produced some excellent particular person performances since initially getting back from damage, together with a 45-point, nine-rebound sport against NC State by which he made 10 3-pointers. He additionally had 29 factors in back-to-back video games against Baylor and SMU.

Before the December damage, Brown had one of many assertion early-season performances, scoring 29 factors and handing out 5 assists in a win over rival Kentucky.

Louisville opened the season with 9 wins in its first 10 video games earlier than Brown was sidelined for greater than a month. The Cardinals went simply 4-4 without Brown. Once he returned, they rattled off six wins in seven video games earlier than dropping three of Brown’s closing 4 video games. They had a greater understanding of how to play without Brown the second time round, beating Syracuse, Miami and SMU in three straight video games earlier than falling to Miami within the quarterfinals of the ACC match.

Former Kennesaw State switch Adrian Wooley you have began each sport that Brown has been sidelined this season. Wooley is averaging 8.5 factors and 4.0 rebounds on the season, however these numbers rise to 11.0 factors in 14 video games as a starter. He has scored at the least 14 factors in three of his final 5 video games.

Six-seed Louisville opens the NCAA match against 11-seed South Florida on Thursday and would play the winner of Michigan State vs. North Dakota State if it beats the Bulls.