Louisville was able to end its three-game slide Monday night against Pittsburgh despite playing without the services of starter Wayne Blackshear and key reserve Kevin Ware. Blackshear suffered a sprained shoulder, the latest in a long line of shoulder injuries for the former McDonald's All-American, while Ware was suspended for undisclosed reasons.

The news on Blackshear is positive, or at least as positive as Cardinal fans could for. The sophomore wing told WHAS-11's Adam Lefkoe after Monday night's game that he expects to play Sunday against Marquette. Rick Pitino wouldn't go quite that far during his postgame news conference, but did say, "Wayne will be back."

The news is decidedly less positive on the Kevin Ware front. During his postgame radio interview with Bob Valvano, Pitino said that Ware, who was not even on the bench Monday night, is "not coming back anytime soon."

The most common response Louisville fans (and fans of Louisville's rivals) have offered up to Pitino's statement is, "oh that means he'll be back on the floor next game." It's understandable, but I don't think this is a Pitino-speak situation. Again, I have no idea what exactly Kevin did to draw the ire of his head coach (I'm pretty sure it wasn't a single act), but I do know that his suspension is very serious.

You hope for the young man that he's able to remedy this situation as quickly as possible, but it certainly sounds like there's a chance that Kevin Ware has put on a Louisville uniform for the last time. For his sake, I hope that isn't the case.