Louisville Loses Wayne Blackshear to Season-Ending Shoulder Injury

UPDATE 11/2/11: Blackshear had successful surgery and should be back sooner than expected.

All was well for Rick Pitino and Louisville last week when freshman guard Wayne Blackshear was cleared to play this season by the NCAA.

However, now it looks like Blackshear won’t be playing after all.

The eligibility questions aren’t what will keep him out this time around, but a torn labrum that the freshman suffered in practice. The injury will require surgery and it doesn’t sound like there’s much of a chance that Blackshear suits up for the Cardinals this year.

This is a tough blow for Pitino and company, as Blackshear was certainly going to be a major contributor on a team that’s in a lot of people’s preseason Top 10.

Pitino has still built up some nice depth on this roster though, so they aren’t going to completely collapse and have a losing season or anything like that. But it was really going to be intriguing to watch Blackshear alongside some of the other impressive talents on this team.

But again, Louisville will still be a good team without him. But a Top 10 team? That remains to be seen.

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