In the Cardinals second round matchup with Missouri in the Battle 4 Atlantis on Friday night, Gorgui Dieng absorbed a charge and took a spill to the floor. Instinctively and naturally, he braced his fall by putting his arms down to soften the blow with the hardwood. He ended up leaving the game for a brief period, but returned with his left wrist taped up. The next night, in the championship game against #5 Duke, the injury was deemed severe enough that Dieng had to sit on the bench in street clothes as his team fell in a closely contested battle with the Blue Devils.
Upon returning to Louisville on Sunday, it was determined that Dieng had actually broken his left wrist - the scaphoid bone to be exact. And as of this writing, there is no timetable for his return.
First and foremost you have to feel bad for Dieng. Last year he improved his game to the point that he became nationally recognized. But this was supposed to be his break out year. He has risen to become one of the most formidable centers in the country, causing the opposition to think twice about how they attacked and guarded the paint. Standing at 6 foot 11, he was finally understanding how to play the game and was becoming much more athletic, averaging a full two blocks per game. But now the Cards must move on without him, for a period of time anyway.
It looks as if Coach Pitino is going to go with the combination of Zach Price (6 foot 10 sophomore) and Stephan Van Treese (6 foot 9 junior) to fill in for Dieng. And freshman Montrezl Harrell (6 foot 8) has shown that he can hold his own in the paint at forward. On Saturday night against Duke the two (Price and Van Treese) combined for 12 points, 11 rebounds and one block. Very respectable. And even though the final outcome was a 76-71 loss, the game was encouraging. They went toe-to-toe with the #5 team in the country on a neutral court, without arguably their best defender, without a single practice to adjust, and almost came away with a victory.
Louisville is clearly a different team without Dieng on the court. But the combination of Price, Van Treese and Harrell to go along with Chane Behanan (who leads the team in rebounding with 8.5 per game) is still a strong front court. And that’s without mentioning the excellent back court and engine of this team in Peyton Siva, Wayne Blackshear, Luke Hancock and Russ Smith who is playing ‘russdiculous’ right now. They may not be looked at as the #2 team in the country today, but they will continue to roll out a tough lineup night after night and play stingy defense. But their odds of getting back to the Final Four will be greater if Dieng has a speedy recovery. For his sake and the team’s, Card fans will be hoping for the best, but they know Dieng’s injury won’t result in a lost season. There is too much talent on this roster to think that.
Twitter: @shane_t_mac
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