Knee Injury Could Sideline Padgett For The Entire Season

Unfortunate Basketball News Out Of Da Ville: A knee injury to David Padgett could sideline the University of Louisville 6'10 seinor center for the entire 2007-2008 season, and possibly the rest of his career. Padgett, who averaged 9.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game while blocking 50 shots on his way to All-Big East honors as a junior a season ago, sustained a broken right knee cap in the No.6-ranked Cardinals' 84-53 victory over Jacksonville State on Sunday, just the team's second game of the season.

"We're all devastated for David," U of L Coach Rick Pitino told reporters. "This young man has worked so hard to come back from injuries in the past. Because of his leadership ability, his intelligence and fortitude, there are a lot of roads that lead to prosperity for him, and not just in basketball. He has an extremely bright future.

The Reno, Nevada native, who orginally signed to play basketball at the University of Kansas, has been Louisville's primary starting center over much of the past three seasons. But knee injuries have plagued Padgett since the start of his Cardinals career.

Tonight, Friday, the Cardinals square off against Brigham Young University in the next round of the Las Vegas Invitational.

Brian Bennet, the U of L beat reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal, had an interesting column on the implications of Padgett's loss and the effects his abscence will have on the rest of the Cardinals' season.

This is what Louisville forward Terrence Williams had to say about the loss of Padgett, my favorite quote from the article.

"After David got hurt, a lot of critics put us down and said we don't have enough talent now," the junior forward said. "But I feel we were overtalented. If you take him away, that just equals us out with the rest of the country."