Wayne Blackshear suffered a concussion during practice on Monday and will not travel with the rest of the team for Louisville's Wednesday night game at Houston.
Head coach Rick Pitino broke the news during his pregame press conference, but added that he doesn't believe Blackshear will be out for an extended period of time.
"I think Wayne's going to be fine, I don't think this is a serious concussion," Pitino said. "We don't want him to travel because that takes a lot out of you. I think he's going to be fine."
Pitino said Blackshear suffered the injury when he was elbowed in the head by freshman Akoy Agau.
Blackshear started at the four position in Saturday night's win over Central Florida, marking the first time this season that he and fellow forward Luke Hancock have been in the starting lineup together. Pitino says he'll likely turn to senior Stephan Van Treese to move into the starting five with Blackshear out, but he hasn't decided for sure yet.
"We need a big game from Stephan Van Treese," Pitino said. "It's his time to evolve. We need some monster games from him where he grabs 12 or 13 rebounds. It's time for him to step up now. He's a veteran basketball player who needs to step up, and he's capable of doing that."
After Wednesday's game against the Cougars, Louisville will have another eight day lay-off before playing at Temple on Feb. 13. Though Pitino characterized the extended lay-offs as "weird" following the Cincinnati game last week, he says with Blackshear out, he's feeling fortunate about the team's second big break in three weeks.
"If there was ever a shining light of having eight days off, it's this.