Brown Out: Louisville freshman phenom listed as out for Tuesday’s home finale vs. Syracuse | U of L Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — When the ACC’s availability report got here out round 8 pm Monday and listed Mikel Brown Jr. as “out,” it wasn’t only a lineup adjustment.

It might have been a goodbye.

As of Monday evening, Louisville’s freshman guard won’t play in Tuesday 9 pm home finale in opposition to Syracuse. With one regular-season highway recreation remaining after that — and March Madness looming — Cardinals followers might have already seen Brown play his last recreation on the KFC Yum! Center.

If so, it was a exceptional winter.

Brown will end the common season with the very best freshman scoring common at school historical past, beating the 14.2-point per recreation mark set by Wesley Cox in 1974.

He tied Wes Unseld’s single-game males’s college file with 45 factors in opposition to NC State on Feb. 9, breaking the ACC freshman scoring file within the course of

And he authored one of essentially the most explosive five-game stretches in current Louisville reminiscence, averaging 29.2 factors within the video games main as much as Saturday’s loss at Clemson.

But Brown’s freshman 12 months additionally has had its difficulties.

I’ve missed eight video games from Dec. 16 to Jan. 17 with again points. I’ve returned and emerged. But final week, the again flared once more. At Clemson, he performed simply 21 minutes, scoring 5 factors on 2-of-10 capturing, a stark distinction to the heater that preceded it.

Coach Pat Kelsey had no replace Monday morning.

“I don’t like medical stuff,” Kelsey stated. “We’ll see how he is and the medical people will make that decision.”

By evening, the choice was made.

Brown will not play.

What Louisville loses is not simply 4.7 assists per recreation or a team-high assortment of 20-point performances. It loses its most fearless downhill attacker.

Kelsey described it candidly Monday.

“He drives so courageously to the rim,” Kelsey stated. “He probably deserves more calls than some of the ones he gets. That’s part of being a freshman, maybe earning your stripes.”

There was additionally this:

“An old coach told me the team that loses the least falls down the least, because then you’re playing five-on-four,” Kelsey stated.

Brown was on the court docket a very good bit, partly as a result of he assaults and takes hits.

The type could also be worn on his physique.

Louisville enters Tuesday 20-9, 9-7 within the ACC, out of the Top 25 for the primary time this season. The Cardinals have dropped two straight highway video games. They try to regular themselves earlier than the postseason.

But the sport now carries a distinct tone.