Mikel Brown Jr. Picks Up Where He Left Off in Louisville's Win vs. Virginia Tech

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball had to wait a few extra days to make their return to the court, but those extra days of waiting paid off. On Saturday, the Cardinals welcomed Virginia Tech to the KFC Yum! Center, and were able to secure a somewhat convincing 85-71 win over the Hokies.

A large part of why Louisville emerged victorious was the long-awaited return of Mikel Brown Jr.

After missing the last eight games due to a lower back injury that was aggravated in UofL's game vs. Memphis back, the star true freshman point guard finally made his return to the starting lineup. His presence was felt almost immediately.

Brown sank his first shot attempt of the afternoon, a three-pointer just 51 seconds into the game, and it just escalated from there. The 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard finished with a team-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including a 3-of-6 mark on threes and 3-of-4 performance at the free throw line. He also paced the offense, dishing out a game-high six assists, while securing three rebounds.

"The adrenaline definitely hit me immediately," Brown said in regards to his first shot attempt. "That time off, man, it made me really value the opportunity that I'm in, and opportunity of where I am today. Not a lot of people are in the position that I am. To be able to hit that shot, on that stage, it was definitely an adrenaline rush. It was so great to be back."

He did all that after only getting cleared to return to practice earlier in the week. Not only that, but he also played in 28 minutes - which was right around his season average of 27.2. Despite having not played in six week, Brown was adamant about playing as much as he could - even if he did get a bit exhausted in the process.

“With that kid, nothing surprises me," head coach Kelsey said. "We built him up so that the first couple of days of the week -- we had a long week off – we did practice a little more. On Monday he went a certain amount, Tuesday, this amount and then by the end of the week, he was going full go. He looked great. He played great. You ask me if I was surprised, nothing surprises me with that kid. He is unbelievably talented.

"He just played to exhaustion today, 28 minutes. A couple of times he came over and he had blotches on his face. I said, ‘you need one?’ and he never ever asks to come out of the game and he said ‘Coach, I need one’. So, I got him out before the media timeout. He made some big time plays for us out there and it was great to see him back out there again. I know his teammates were happy to have him back out there too.”

Not only did Brown himself turn in a very good day, his presence lifted the rest of the team around him. Louisville was able to have a lot more success around the rim than they have seen in the last month-plus, going 15-of-23 on layups and 18-of-33 on two-point attempts overall. The Cardinals also didn't force three-point tries and mostly took them within the flow of the offense, eventually going 13-of-33 from deep.

"We always say -- Skip Prosser used to say all the time -- ‘it begins at the beginning.’ It begins at the beginning, and the beginning is the point guard," Kelsey said. "That’s the catalyst, and that’s who Mikel Brown, Jr. is. It’s in his DNA. Really good point guards make people around them better, and that’s what he did tonight. He did a great job, and he guarded and he played really hard.”

Considering Louisville went just 4-4 with Brown sidelined, getting him back is a massive boast for a multitude of reasons. Not only is he an high-level scorer himself, he's an elite playmaker overall, and his presence drastically elevates the Cardinals' ceiling.

Brown is now averaging 16.9 points, 5.2 assists and 3.0 rebounds on the season. His time relegated to the sideline only motivated him to push harder once he did return, and now he could easily get back in the mix for an All-ACC nod now that he is back in action.

“Just be yourself. Those weeks of me sitting on the sidelines, encouraging the guys and seeing a lot of the injuries and so on and so forth and trials and tribulations, it just pushed me to go harder to get back as soon as possible. To be able to be the court tonight with the guys, it just felt amazing and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

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