Louisville basketball is taking on the Miami Hurricanes this afternoon in the Cardinals' final regular-season basketball game before the ACC Tournament tips off on Tuesday, March 10. Louisville’s seed isn’t official just yet, but if the Cards win, they would clinch the No. 6 seed; if they lose and North Carolina State wins, they could fall to the No. 7 seed or maybe even the No. 8 seed.
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Entering this game, Louisville fans have been anxiously awaiting to see if their star point guard Mikel Brown Jr. was going to be available for this marquee game. And last night, Louisville got a gut-wrenching blow once the injury report came out, as the Cardinals fans learned the 5-star freshman is going to be out and will miss his tenth game of the season with his back injury.
Louisville star Mikel Brown Jr. is out at No. 22 Miami tomorrow as he continues to deal with a back injury. He missed the Syracuse game earlier this week, and he missed eight games earlier this year. He’s averaging 18.2 ppg and 4.7 assists. pic.twitter.com/EFzBLS0ITz
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 7, 2026
Mikel Brown Jr. ruled out for Louisville-Miami
Brown reinjured his back against North Carolina in a physical game on the road against the Tar Heels. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard  was seen hitting the deck a few times with some hard falls, and ever since that game, he has been dealing with the same back pain that forced him to miss eight games in the middle of the season.
In those eight games, Louisville went just 4-4, including three losses to three ranked teams in Tennessee, Duke, and Virginia. Now, the Cards will have to go on the road and try to earn their first win over a ranked team, and their first Quad 1A win. In Louisville’s nine games without Brown, they are 0-3 against ranked teams, and on the season, they are 0-6 against current ranked teams.
Louisville has struggled mightily when Brown is sidelined, losing by an average of 13.7 points in those three games. Brown’s back injury forced him to be limited against Clemson, where he was seen clearly in pain and on the bike for long periods of time, and then caused him to miss last week's game against Syracuse.
With the ACC Tournament next week and the NCAA Tournament the week after, the Cards want to make sure their 5-star freshman is 100 percent healthy for the postseason, so to see him sit this afternoon isn’t what a lot of fans were hoping for but will give him some extra days of rest to get ready for Louisville’s first postseason game on Wednesday, March 11.
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