Louisville Recruiting: Chris Mack Sets up Visit with Former Cardinal Commit

Chris Mack and his staff have spent the last weekend traveling to visit a handful of potential targets for the Louisville basketball roster. This week they plan to visit with former Louisville commit Courtney Ramey.

Just a little over a week ago in a press conference announcing his  staff, Louisville basketball Head Coach Chris Mack mentioned a former UofL commit by name, initially ending his recruitment for the Cards.

However, fast forward to today and apparently things have changed on both sides.

The exact quote from Chris Mack mentioned both long-time Louisville commits Anfernee Simons, who has now declared for the 2018 NBA Draft, and Courtney Ramey, both of which decommitted after Louisville was named in the 2017 FBI Investigation and Head Coach Rick Pitino was fired.

But the flames never died down with Ramey and UofL. FormerInterim Head Coach David Padgett and his staff kept in contact with Ramey and his father throughout the season in hopes to rebuild the relationship that was there, even making a trip out to Missouri (Ramey’s home state) to pay the big-time guard a visit.

Shortly after Chris Mack was hired itwas reported that Mack reached out to Ramey. That seemed to be confirmed by Courtney Ramey, who listed Louisville in his “final 10” schools. But just a few days later, Chris Mack had this to say,

"“As you look at our team Coach Pitino had Anfernee Simons and Courtney Ramey coming to Louisville.. We aren’t recruiting those guys so I can use their names, they were coming here, and they were going to help on the perimeter. What an opportunity for a 5th year transfer to come in and play in the back court, same thing with the 2019 class.”"

New reports today seem to acknowledge that Louisville is still firmly in the running to land the four-star point guard services for the 2018-19 season.

Recruiting guru Evan Daniels tweed out this afternoon that Head Coach Chris Mack and his staff would be making a visit to the Ramey household this week, along with several other schools.

Shortly after that tweet, CardinalAuthority.com’s Jody Demling confirmed the report.

Louisville is still recruiting several graduate-transfers, sit-out transfers, and several big names in the 2019 class but we haven’t much regarding potential targets in the ’18 class.

Until Ramey’s name was mentioned this morning by several sources, the only other name that we’ve heard the staff looking at in the 2018 class is five-star big man Jordan Brown, who many consider to be a North Carolina lean.

At this point there has been no word from Courtney Ramey or his family regarding the guard’s interest level in the Cards. All we have to go off of is the final 10 that Ramey listed just a little over a week ago.

Ramey would be a huge addition to the roster for the 2018-19 season, instantly becoming Louisville’s second best guard, behind Darius Perry. The 2018 recruit is known for his electric offensive game. He’s a great driver and even better finisher at the rim, and also has a knack for knocking down outside shots. Ramey is also a terrific passer, who with the right coaching, has the potential to turn into a terrific true point guard.

The 6’3 guard out of Webster Groves, Missouri  will receive visits from in-star school Missouri and head coach Cuonzo Martin, as well as from Texas. At this point it seems those two schools may be the favorites to land Ramey’s services.

Don’t count out Louisville however. As mentioned, Ramey was committed to the Louisville basketball program for over six months, and reportedly had a hard time backing off his commitment.

If Mack is able to layout a plan that includes early playing time, and player development, it would not be a shock at all to see Ramey in a Cardinals uniform next season.

Next: Cards in the NBA: 2018 Playoffs are Here

Ramey is currently the 31st ranked player in the 2018 class and the 12th ranked point guard according to Rivals.