On Sunday evening, Louisville announced that the reason that star center Gorgui Dieng was held out of the showdown with Duke in the title game of the Battle 4 Atlantis was because the big fella had broken the scaphoid bone in his wrist.
On Monday, Louisville announced the extent of the damage: Dieng will have surgery on Tuesday to insert a screw into his wrist, and he’s expected to be out of action for 4-6 weeks.
The bad news? The injury takes some of the luster off of the Kentucky-Louisville matchup, which is happening on December 29th. If Dieng is actually healthy enough to suit up, there’s not way that he’s going to be back to 100% by then. The good news? That’s really the only game where Louisville will likely be pushed without Dieng. They don’t play UConn or Syracuse until mid-January, and based on the way Memphis looked in Atlantis, the Cardinals may not need Dieng in that one.