Rick Pitino announced at his pre-Depaul Day press conference that leading scorer Preston Knowles would definitely miss Saturday's game against the Blue Demons because of a hamstring injury and that he would be replaced in the starting lineup by either freshman walk-on Tim Henderson or sophomore Mike Marra.
Pitino had originally stated that freshman Russ Smith would likely get the nod at the two, but said today that the Siva/Smith backcourt combo had not been working well in practice.
If Henderson goes off it'll be the biggest DePaul Day miracle since Quentin Bailey dominated Quentin Richardson.
More notes:
--Pitino expects Knowles to be back for Wednesday's game at Notre Dame.
--Gorgui Dieng is still out with a concussion and will not play tomorrow.
--Rakeem Buckles is ahead of schedule and will likely be available to play next Saturday against Syracuse.
So first he's behind schedule, now he's ahead of schedule, does that = on schedule?
--With the exception of Jared Swopshire, Pitino said that Feb. 12 game against Syracuse should be the first time all season when the team has been completely healthy.
Kyle Kuric then walked up to the podium and the microphone punctured his lung.
--U of L will honor the 1986 national championship team next Saturday against Syracuse and the team will wear retro jerseys. Really wish we'd do this tomorrow so we can focus on the jerseys and not the actual game.
--Louisville has opened as a 20-point favorite over DePaul. The modest line was reportedly a mistake on the behalf of the fine people of Las Vegas, who mistakenly believed that U of L "being down three players" meant the Cards would be playing the entire game 2-on-5.
--Pitino ended his press conference by saying that he wouldn't be coaching the Notre Dame game because of "personal stuff." This was a joke made because of the fact that we always get hammered in South Bend.
Probably a joke.