CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WDRB) -- When Louisville guard Reyne Smith stepped off the bus at the Spectrum Center on Thursday with no walking boot, it sparked some hope that the senior sharpshooter might be ready to return from an ankle injury that had sidelined him the past two games.

No such luck. Smith remained in street clothes for pregame warm-ups and did not play in Louisville's 75-73 win over Stanford in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

After the game, Pat Kelsey had no insight on Smith's timetable for a return, though he did acknowledge that it is a high ankle sprain — which takes longer to heal than other types.

"It's literally day-to-day," he said of Smith's status. "Obviously, he wants to be out there so bad. He's as tough of a kid as I've ever coached. The type of ankle sprain that he has, kind of the high ankle sprain type, they're no fun. He's getting treatment, basically, around the clock, and then each day we see how he progresses. Got the word mid-afternoon that he probably couldn't go tonight, but I don't know. You've got to ask the medical people. But we don't know. We'll see."

Since contracting the flu before the injury, Smith has been 8-22 over four games, including just a six-minute stint against Cal. Louisville has won those games but it has averaged just eight made three-pointers per game in that overall six-game stretch while giving up 8.7 threes per game.

On the conference season as a whole, Louisville averaged 10 threes per game while giving up 7.6.

Smith ranks third nationally in three-pointers made per game with 3.53.

Louisville could use him against Clemson, not just for his shooting ability but as another body to provide depth in a tournament setting. During Louisville's 74-64 win over Clemson in January, Smith went just 1-7 from the field and scored just three points in 29 minutes — one of his lowest offensive outputs of the season.

Kelsey reacts to Coach of the Year chatter

Kelsey was named ACC Coach of the Year on Monday, and the Duke men's basketball X account had thoughts. While its a bit unusual for a program's official account to lobby for a coach after the fact, it did rekindle an old debate over whether coaches who outperform expectations are more deserving than those who exceed even high expectations.

That's certainly a matter up for debate at Duke, where championship coaches have a history of being passed over for others who exceeded expectations, but didn't always win the league.

Duke produced a graphic of Blue Devils' coach Jon Scheyer's season accomplishments, led with this statement: "Haven't seen a coach snubbed for ACC COTY like this since Coach K didn't win it once over his final 22 seasons, which included 3 national titles, 10 ACC Tourney titles, 5 ACC RS titles and 11 30-win seasons."

Asked about it after Thursday's buzzer-beating win over Stanford, Kelsey responded with a light touch.

"Obviously, there's a bunch of coaches in this league, several that could have very easily won that award," Kelsey said. "My mom did send me the one little graphic that, I think it was Duke sent out, but I read all the stuff that they had on there, and I was like, holy crap, that's pretty impressive, maybe he should have won it. I don't know. Those don't matter. All that matters is fighting with this team to try to win a championship."

With its win over Stanford Thursday night, Louisville now has improved 18 wins over last season, all with a roster of players and staff of coaches who were competing elsewhere last season.

Clemson set for rematch

No. 11-ranked and third-seeded Clemson fought back for a 57-54 win over SMU in the ACC Tournament nightcap on Thursday to set up a rematch against Louisville Friday at 9:30 p.m..

The Tigers lost guard Dillon Hunter to a finger injury in the win and coach Brad Brownell wasn't optimistic he would play Friday. Hunter had been starting and averaging 5.6 points per game.

"I don't think it's good," Brownell said. "Obviously, it's a little of an emotional letdown for your team when we're playing so hard to get to this time of year."

Brownell said his team has been feeling the pressure of expectations and described it as "playing with a piano on our backs" at times after Thursday's win. Clemson certainly will be aware of Louisville guard J'Vonne Hadley, who scored a career-high 32 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in Louisville's win earlier this season. But Brownell said his team can't afford to make Hadley its focus.

"I don't know that you can just focus on one player," he said. "That's why Louisville is really good. They've got several guys that can have big nights. He wasn't even the all-conference guy. He's a great player, but we've got to guard as a team, develop a plan to try to make it hard for them. And then offensively, we've got to relax and just play better. We've got to relax, enjoy this moment a little bit more, and not play so stressed and trust in our offense a little bit better."

Stanford's Smith praises Hepburn, Edwards

Terrence Edwards and Chucky Hepburn had 16 points each to lead Louisville in its regular-season win over Stanford, then combined for 45 points and the buzzer-beating game winner to beat the Cardinal in Thursday's tournament game.

Stanford coach Kyle Smith said he came away from the week with great respect for the guards.

"We call it six-tool players," Smith said. "They can dribble, pass, drive, shoot, defend, rebound. Did they rebound (tonight)? Not really. Five and a half. They're really well-rounded players, three-level scorers. They can really shoot it, and they can really bounce it. They can pass it. I think they both will be playing long after Louisville."

Waterman emerging

As Louisville has needed more depth and offensive contributions in the absence of Smith, senior Noah Waterman has stepped up at the end of the season. Much of the year has been a struggle for him. He played through a thumb fracture that required surgery before finally sitting out four games to recover.

But over his past three games he has averaged 8.7 points while shooting 45 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. He had 12 points and nine rebounds in Louisville's tournament win over Stanford.

One of Louisville's highest-rated analytic lineups on the season — with a plus-minus of plus 58 and high overall marks for offensive and defensive efficiency – includes Waterman, with Hepburn, Hadley, Edwards and James Scott.

"We talk about Noah tonight, how he really stepped up," Kelsey said. "He's had a tough year, tons of injuries, broken thumb, four pins in this thing. Then he gets behind a bunch of guys in the rotation and his minutes are really, really limited. Then when we needed him the most, he really, really stepped up."

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