Louisville's Dennis Evans no longer medically cleared to play

Louisville freshman Dennis Evans will not be medically cleared to compete at the university moving forward, team spokesperson Zach Greenwell announced on Thursday evening. Greenwell stated the program will not provide any further information on the situation out of respect for Evans’ privacy.

Evans has not played for the Cardinals since their 73-68 win over Bellarmine on Nov. 29. In the victory, Evans only played five minutes and failed to score or grab a rebound. Evans reportedly suffered a shoulder injury in his limited minutes.

It’s a massive loss for Louisville. Evans played high school basketball at Hillcrest (CA), where he was a four-star prospect. He was the No. 28 overall recruit in the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Despite exiting high school as the No. 3 center in his class, Evans had an underwhelming start to his collegiate career. In seven games, Evans averaged 1.6 points, .9 rebounds and .7 blocks per game. He averaged 9.1 minutes per contest.

In fairness, On3’s Jamie Shaw expect Evans to be plagued by a slow start.

“It might take some time for Dennis Evans, so maybe impactful is the wrong word here,” Shaw wrote before the season. “Possibly intriguing could better fit as he is one of the more intriguing freshmen in the country. While he has a unique ability to protect the rim, he is also quite raw.

“Evans is listed at 7-foot-1, 215 pounds. His rim protection brings something to the table that is very valuable in today’s game, and that is nowhere else on the Cardinals’ roster. The physicality of the ACC game is a question mark for him. So is the processing speed. How quickly will Louisville throw him into the fire and let him play through mistakes?”

Louisville faces other issues

Evidently, Louisville won’t have the time needed this season to mold Evans in the flames. Evans is only one of Louisville basketball’s many concerns. As of this report, the team is 5-9, most recently suffering a 24-point blowout loss to Virginia.

After the game, Louisville head coach Kenny Payne addressed his team’s collapse against the Cavaliers

“I just think we were locked in and we were focused on what we had to do,” Payne said. “Then, as the game went on, they got us to relax a little bit. At times, we switched and sometimes we point switched without coming together, without being locked in, giving them angles to the basket, and rotating, and two guys going to one.”

Louisville will play again on Saturday at noon against Pitt. The game will be broadcast on the CW Network.