Louisville will likely go through the final seven games of a shortened season without junior center Mangok Mathiang.
According to Steve Jones of the Courier-Journal, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino does not expect Mathiang to return from a foot injury that has kept him out of action since mid-December.
The decision to keep Mathiang for the remainder of the season is made easier by Louisville's self-imposed postseason ban.
"I find that when you bring a player back sometimes, he hurts something else because he's compensating for his injury," Pitino said. "At this stage, we would definitely bring him back if we were going to the (NCAA) tournament. Now it's in the best interest of Mangok not to come back."
The 6-foot-10 big man is averaging 7.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 10 games this season for the Cardinals. In order to obtain a medical redshirt, a player must have incapacitating injury and has to appear in no more than 30 percent of his team's games. Since the Cards are banned from the ACC Tournament, they will end with 31 regular-season games, leaving Mathiang over the 30 percent mark.
(h/t Courier-Journal)
