CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WDRB) — When Louisville guard Reyne Smith stepped off the bus at the Spectrum Center on Thursday with no walking boot, it sparked some hope that the senior sharpshooter might be ready to return from an ankle injury that had sidelined him the past two games.
No such luck. Smith remained in street clothes for pregame warm-ups and did not play in Louisville’s 75-73 win over Stanford in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
After the game, Pat Kelsey had no insight on Smith’s timetable for a return, though he did acknowledge that it is a high ankle sprain — which takes longer to heal than other types.
“It’s literally day-to-day,” he said of Smith’s status. “Obviously, he wants to be out there so bad. He’s as tough of a kid as I’ve ever coached. The type of ankle sprain that he has, kind of the high ankle sprain type, they’re no fun. He’s getting treatment, basically, around the clock, and then each day we see how he progresses. Got the word mid-afternoon that he probably couldn’t go tonight, but I don’t know. You’ve got to ask the medical people. But we don’t know. We’ll see.”
Since contracting the flu before the injury, Smith has been 8-22 over four games, including just a six-minute stint against Cal. Louisville has won those games but it has averaged just eight made three-pointers per game in that overall six-game stretch while giving up 8.7 threes per game.
On the conference season as a whole, Louisville averaged 10 threes per game while giving up 7.6.
Smith ranks third nationally in three-pointers made per game with 3.53.
Louisville could use him against Clemson, not just for his shooting ability but as another body to provide depth in a tournament setting. During Louisville’s 74-64 win over Clemson in January, Smith went just 1-7 from the field and scored just three points in 29 minutes — one of his lowest offensive outputs of the season.
Kelsey reacts to Coach of the Year chatter
Kelsey was named ACC Coach of the Year on Monday, and the Duke men’s basketball X account had thoughts. While its a bit unusual for a program’s official account to lobby for a coach after the fact, it did rekindle an old debate over whether coaches who outperform expectations are more deserving than those who exceed even high expectations.
