Louisville Guard Reyne Smith Unavailable for ACC Tournament Championship vs. Duke

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When the Louisville men's basketball program takes the floor against Duke tonight in the ACC Tournament Championship, they'll have to do so, once again, without one of their top players.

Sharpshooting guard Reyne Smith is out for tonight's matchup vs. the Blue Devils, the program announced prior to tip-off. He is set to miss his fourth straight game after suffering a right ankle injury in their penultimate game of the regular season against Cal back on Mar. 5.

However, unlike the past three games, Smith was an active participant in pre-game shoot around prior to the game against Duke, indicating that a return to action is very close and that it is not a long term prognosis. A true game-time decision, Smith came to the conclusion that he was not 100 percent to go against the Blue Devils.

Smith was forced to check out of the game against the Golden Bears at the 12:36 mark of the first half. He then spent the remainder of the period in the tunnels of the KFC Yum! Center attempting to work through the injury.

While he was ruled "questionable" to return at halftime, Smith did not warm up with the rest of the team prior to start of the second half. As it turns out, athletic trainer Katie Creznic had told head coach Kelsey that Smith "couldn't come back in the game." He finished with zero points on 0-for-2 shooting, and has been "day-to-day" ever since.

Not only is he Louisville's third-leading scorer at 13.4 points per game, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound guard is one of the top three-point shooters in all of college basketball. His 106 makes from deep is 10th in the nation, his 3.53 made threes per game is third, while his 277 attempts is 11th and has also broken the Louisville single-season record. His 38.3 percent shooting percentage on threes is second in the ACC.

The Ulverstone, Australia native spent the first three years of his collegiate career at Charleston with Kelsey. In 102 career games and 89 starts with the Cougars, he totaled 1,212 points, 294 made threes, 192 rebounds, 149 assists and 68 steals. This included an All-CAA Second Team nod last season, when he averaged 12.8 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.

Tip-off between Louisville and Duke is set for 8:30 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Reyne Smith: Sam Upshaw Jr. -Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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