Where is Louisville's Mikel Brown Jr. in 2026 NBA Draft projections?

Mikel Brown Jr. produced several memorable moments during his freshman season with Louisville basketball . Twenty-nine points in the Cardinals' first win over archrival Kentucky since 2020 .

Forty-five points, tying the program's single-game record, in a Feb. 9 rout of N. C.

State . But the reaction to Brown declaring for the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday made this clear: The 6-foot-5 point guard's time in the 502 will be remembered just as much for the games he didn't play due to a back injury. Fourteen absences in total — including the final six — during Year 2 of the Pat Kelsey era.

"It just shows that you've got to value time," Brown told The Courier Journal after watching Louisville's loss to Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament from the bench. "Time flies; things happen. Things change; things go the way you didn't want (them) to go.