Mikel Brown Jr. Out, Louisville Moves On

0:00On March 11, Louisville Cardinals guard Micheal Brown Jr. has been ruled out for the entire ACC tournament due to a back injury. Just named to the all ACC-13, the freshman was hurt late in the regular season, but the team hopes he'll return healthy for the NCAA, tournament starting in under two weeks. He first got injured on February 28 against Clemson and sat out the Cardinals' final two regular season games. Louisville still won both, crushing Syracuse at home and grabbing a close three-point victory on the road over number 22 Miami. Now sitting six in the conference standings, Louisville faces the SMU Mustangs on Wednesday at 2.30pm Eastern Time. SMU advanced after beating Syracuse in the first round, and the winner moves on to take on number three seed Miami the next day. Brown leaves a huge gap in the lineup, ranking second on the team with 18.2 points per game and leading with 4.7 assists. As 6'5 and 190 pounds, he's drawn plenty of NBA scout attention as a potential lottery

1:02pick. Without him in the ACC action, Louisville pushes forward, banking on that quick recovery to gear up for March Madness and give fans a shot at seeing. Clems shine on the bigger stage.