JANUARY 5•STAR-TELEGRAM.COM
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John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, VA
Louisville Center Dennis Evans No Longer Medically Cleared to PlayThe true freshman has missed the last six games due to a shoulder injury.
Louisville Center Dennis Evans No Longer Medically Cleared to PlayThe true freshman has missed the last six games due to a shoulder injury.
JANUARY 5•NEWSOBSERVER.COM
Dennis Evans - No longer medically clearedEvans (shoulder) will not be medically cleared to play for Louisville moving forward, C.L. Brown of The Raleigh News & Observer reports.
ImpactEvans had been out since Nov. 29 due to a shoulder injury that coach Kenny Payne recently called day-to-day. It's unclear what happened but Evans will no longer be able to play basketball for Louisville. The team will still honor his scholarship if he wants to continue his studies at the school, but if he wants to play college basketball again it will have to be with a different program. Evans is now the third member of the team's 2023 recruiting class who will no longer be playing for the team. Evans has incredible length and there is probably a team out there who will take a chance on the 7-1 big man.
JANUARY 4•ROTOWIRE
Isaac McKneely - Picks up scoringMcKneely had 18 points (7-11 FG, 4-7 3Pt), two rebounds and two assists across 19 minutes during Wednesday's 77-53 win over Louisville.
ImpactMcKneely went a bit quiet in the scoring department after back-to-back 22-point games to start the month of December, but Wednesday's showing against an atrocious Louisville defense allowed him to snap a streak of four consecutive games in single digits. That doesn't necessarily mean a major turnaround is forthcoming, especially with Virginia set to hit the road for upcoming ACC matchups at NC State (Dec. 6) and Wake Forest (Dec. 13).
JANUARY 4•ROTOWIRE
Curtis Williams - Role growingWilliams totaled 14 points (5-12 FG, 4-10 3Pt) over 26 minutes during Wednesday's 77-53 loss to Virginia.
ImpactWilliams' production has been hit-or-miss this season, but he did score a team-high Wednesday, building off another 16-point performance two games ago. The freshman has just as good of a chance as any other option to expand his role in Louisville's highly-inconsistent rotation.
JANUARY 4•ROTOWIRE
Danilo Jovanovich - Makes first startJovanovich totaled four points (2-5 FG, 0-2 3Pt), four rebounds, two assists and one steal across 25 minutes during Wednesday's 77-53 loss to Virginia.
ImpactThe Louisville rotation has been largely unpredictable this season as the team looks to find its footing, and Jovanovich's usage has been the perfect example of that. He didn't see the court entirely in five of the team's last nine games, but the sophomore win was moved into the starting lineup for the recent contest. Considering the end result was a 24-point blowout loss, it's unclear whether or not this pattern might continue into Saturday's matchup against Pittsburgh.
JANUARY 4•ROTOWIRE
JJ Traynor - DNP at VirginiaTraynor (shoulder) did not play during Louisville's 77-53 loss Wednesday at Virginia.
ImpactEven though Louisville's team lost so big that Traynor could have played some bench minutes, it did not let him go Wednesday. He will have three days to recover further before hosting Pittsburgh on Saturday, during what is expected to be the Cardinals' first conference home game of 2024.
JANUARY 3•ROTOWIRE
