Suspensions for two of Louisville's key players will leave the Cardinals short-handed for Monday night's showdown with Virginia in Charlottesville.
The school announced that sophomore Deng Adel and senior Mangok Mathiang did not make the trip with the team as punishment for breaking curfew on Saturday night after Louisville's 90-67 win at Boston College.
"After we returned to Louisville, I boarded the team bus and told them how proud I was of them, but the most important thing now is to get their rest as we had an early morning practice and had to travel," Pitino said in a statement. "For some reason, Mangok and Deng chose to break curfew and were out very late. This is an extremely big game for our basketball team and it would be an understatement to say that I am extremely disappointed in both young men. That being said, we will move forward and put forth a great effort with a depleted team."
According to Pitino, Mathiang's punishment includes losing his designation as a team captain. Sophomore Donovan Mitchell now joins Quentin Snider, still sidelined by injury, in that role.
Losing Adel and Mathiang means that Louisville, already lacking starting point guard Quentin Snider and his backup, Tony Hicks, will be down four key contributors against Virginia. Even short-handed, the Cardinals have been pounding opponents in ACC play, winning their last three games by 55, 25 and 23 points, but hadn't notched a top-25 win since beating Duke on Jan. 14.
Louisville could be the best team in the ACC, but no one was rushing to make that declaration until Monday night's test against a reeling Virginia team coming off a loss at Syracuse. Now it looks like the Wahoos will have the edge in a much-needed bounce-back opportunity, while the Cards -- trotting just seven scholarship players into Charlottesville -- join Duke as a top team with a whole lot of "what-ifs" tied to injuries and suspensions.
