{"id":652309,"date":"2026-03-11T07:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/652309\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:38:25","slug":"mikel-brown-injury-update-louisville-guard-out-for-acc-tournament-eyes-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/652309\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Brown injury update: Louisville guard out for ACC Tournament, eyes NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Louisville freshman guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/mikel-brown-jr-158520\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mikel Brown<\/a> will miss the entire ACC Tournament as he continues to recover from an ongoing back issue, per a release. The Cardinals hope extra healing time will allow him to compete in the NCAA Tournament starting next week.<\/p>\n<p>The ACC Tournament run will start on Wednesday, when Louisville faces SMU at 2:30 pm ET on ESPN or ESPNU. With a win, the Cardinals would advances to face Miami. From there, they land on the same side of the bracket as Virginia and NC State, both among the possible semifinal matchups.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Pat Kelsey provided a statement on the program\u2019s decision to hold out Brown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMikel wants to play in the ACC Tournament, but we believe it is best to have him continue his path of improvement and have him 100% for the first round of the NCAA Tournament,\u201d Kelsey said. \u201cHe\u2019s close and chomping at the bit to be out there with his teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brown has already missed time during the regular season with this injury. He first missed an eight-game stretch starting in mid-December, then reaggravated it in late February. The five-star phenom missed the final two games of the regular season as well.<\/p>\n<p>This season, Mikel Brown is averaging 18.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 21 appearances. He is shooting 41-percent from the field and 34.4-percent from the 3-point line, helping keep him in the mix as a top 2026 NBA Draft prospect.<\/p>\n<p>More on Louisville basketball<\/p>\n<p>Louisville has put together a strong season in Year Two under Pat Kelsey, finishing the regular season with a 22-9 overall record and an 11-7 mark in ACC play. The Cardinals enter the conference tournament as a 6-seed, but are one of four teams from the conference which currently rank inside the AP Poll Top 25.<\/p>\n<p>Their NCAA Tournament resume is secure, currently projecting as a 6-seed in On3\u2019s latest bracketology update. They have plenty room to make a rise up the board with a strong ACC Tournament showing, in a close race with North Carolina for a 5-seed nod.<\/p>\n<p>However, the difference between a 5-seed and a 6-seed is likely not great enough to risk the health of a star player. This decision reflects the program\u2019s commitment to bringing the healthiest roster possible into March Madness, where the season can extend or end in a moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louisville freshman guard Mikel Brown will miss the entire ACC Tournament as he continues to recover from an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,5411,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-652309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-mikel-brown-jr-25-overtime-elite","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116209405580078942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}