Fast-improving Louisville basketball team loses key rotation player to season-ending injury
Just as the University of Louisville was regaining a foothold in the national men’s college basketball landscape, the Cardinals have suffered a major setback.
Kasean Pryor, the Cards’ third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder and shot-blocker, suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during the championship game of last week’s Battle 4 Atlantis and will miss the rest of the season.
The 6-foot-10 Pryor, a fifth-year player who transferred from South Florida to Louisville after last season, has started three of Louisville’s seven games.
He averaged 12.0 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots per game for the Cardinals who are 5-2 in their first season under head coach Pat Kelsey.
That’s no small accomplishment considering the Cardinals went 8-24 and 4-28 the past two seasons under former coach Kenny Payne.
Louisville rattled cages during college basketball’s “Feast Week” with back-to-back victories over Indiana (89-61) and West Virginia (79-70 in overtime) in the Bahamas. The Cardinals dropped the Battle 4 Atlantis title game to Oklahoma 69-64 on Friday, the game in which Pryor was injured.
The upside after Pryor’s injury is that Kelsey’s first transfer-laden roster is a deep one. Seven different players have started games for the Cardinals this season, and 10 players average 10 or more minutes per game. Pryor averaged 23 minutes per game.
Louisville will get right back to work this week. The Cardinals host 23rd-ranked Ole Miss at the KFC Yum Center in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Tuesday night. (9 p.m. ACC Network).
On Sunday, the Cardinals open Atlantic Coast Conference play at home against ninth-ranked Duke (6 p.m., ACC Network).
After a Dec. 11 home game against UTEP, the Cards play their first true road game when they visit No. 4 Kentucky on Dec. 14.
Louisville was among teams receiving votes in the new Associated Press Top 25 rankings revealed Monday. In the eyes of voters, the Cardinals are the 35th-best team in the country.
