Louisville Basketball: Monday Recruiting Update

Two Louisville basketball graduate transfer targets committed elsewhere over the weekend. Where do the Cards stand now?

The last week of recruiting for Louisville basketball has seen a lot of ups and downs, and really more downs than ups. Chris Mack and his staff held visits with several big time graduate transfers, all of whom were eligible to play this season. Each visit giving fans a lot to be optimistic about.

I mean, why wouldn’t a senior transferring up from a smaller Division 1 school want to come play for a program with a new head coach, and more importantly a lot of opportunity?

However, things didn’t go according to plan… At least compared to how Louisville fans and the coaching staff saw them going.

First it was Zach Johnson, a big time scoring guard out of Florida Gulf Coast that visited the Cards earlier in the week, but decided to take his talents to South Beach to play for Miami.

Next up was reports that Joseph Chartouny, a elite passing guard and defender transferring from Fordham, was no longer being pursued by the coaching staff. This news came only hours before the 6’4 graduate transfer announced his commitment to Marquette.

Louisville also had their eyes set on a big-time 2018 recruit Courtney Ramey, who was at one time a Cardinal commit. The recruitment process with Ramey and his family had been very odd over the first few weeks of Chris Mack being on the job at Louisville.

First Ramey’s family mentioned that Louisville hadn’t reached out after Mack was announced as head coach, even though the former Xavier coach had begun touching base with former Louisville commits David Johnson (2019) and New Albany star Romeo Langford.

Then the four star guard announced his top 10, which of course included Louisville. Then just days later in a press conference introducing his complete staff, Mack mentioned a 2018 recruit that they weren’t recruiting anymore, even dropping the name “Courtney Ramey.”

All of this lead to the Louisville basketball staff reaching back out to the Ramey family to start fresh, even scheduling an in-home visit in St. Louis. But just days later the recruitment took another odd turn, when Courtney Ramey’s father took to Twitter to announce that a scheduling conflict with the Iverson Roundball Classic in Philadelphia would cause for the visit to be cancelled.

This raised a lot of eyebrows in Louisville, with many questioning if Ramey’s recruitment could lead to potential drama down the road.

With the dead period now in effect, in-home visits are off the table, that if Ramey and the Louisville basketball staff are going to reconnect and talk through a commitment to the Cards, it would have to be on Louisville’s campus. Will that happen? As of now, no visit has been rescheduled.

It’s certainly worth keeping an eye on, as Ramey and his family have been known to love Louisville. But Evan Daniels of 247 Sports has said numerous times that Oklahoma State, Missouri, and Texas are the favorites to land the 40th ranked player in the country,

So what’s next? Are there other options for the 2018-19 season?

The simple answer is yes. There are a still a handful of 2018 recruits with their recruiting open, and while it is late in the game, that doesn’t mean the Cards can’t make something happen.

Here are some names to watch over the coming weeks.

Graduate Transfer

Mike Cunningham – G – USC Upstate 

Nothing has changed in regards to the recruitment of graduate transfer Mike Cunningham out of South Carolina Upstate. The 6’1 guard who averaged 13 points a game is still scheduled to visit the Cards next week, and he is likely at the top of the list for Chris Mack.

When you think of Mike Cunningham and his talent, think more Tony Hicks than Damion Lee or Trey Lewis. Cunningham is a better overall player than Hicks, and will offer a lot more of an all-around game than the Penn transfer did. But Cunningham will play more of complimentary role than Zach Johnson or Joseph Chartouny would’ve had they committed to the Cards.

Cunningham is a very good shooter, and a decent defender, who should be able to provide some ball handling duties and help out sophomore guard Darius Perry next season.

Sit-out Transfer

MaCio Teague – G – UNC Asheville

There’s probably not a better pure scoring guard out on the transfer market at this time than UNC Asheville transfer MaCio Teague.

While he won’t be elgible to play until 2019-20, that isn’t stopping Chris Mack from pursuing the sophomore guard.

The Cards visited with Teague on Sunday according to CardinalAuthority.com’s Jody Demling, and the coaching staff seems to be making him a priority. Mack will have plenty of competition to land Teague’s services, as Arizona, Oregon, Clemson, and UCLA are all after the former Big South Freshman of the year.

Teague will have two years of eligibility remaining whenever he lands.

Class of 2018

Keonte Kennedy – G 

A new name to add to the list of potential players to fill out the 2018-19 roster is Keonte Kennedy, a three star guard out of Austin, Texas in the class of 2018.

Kennedy received a full-release out of his letter of intent from Xavier over the weekend, the program he had been committed to since October of 2017. Kennedy of course was recruited by Chris Mack and the current Louisville staff (outside of new Xavier Head Coach Travis Steele), which makes him an obvious target for the Cards.

While there is no word yet on if Louisville will pursue the 6’4 180 pound guard, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that news to come over the next couple of days.

Kennedy’s recruitment blew up last summer after a strong showing on the Nike EYBL AAU circuit, receiving offers from Memphis, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas Tech. Kennedy is known to be an excellent shooter from both mid-range, and deep, and would provide much needed depth for the Cards in 2018-19.

Jordan Brown – F

Chris Mack and his staff have thrown their hat into the recruitment process of 5 star big man Jordan Brown late in the recruiting process.

The McDonald’s All-American who hails from Napa, California is widely considered to be a North Carolina lean, while also considering the likes of UCLA, Oregon, and California. There is no way to tell how the recruitment with Brown has gone thus far, as no visit has been scheduled, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Mack lands Brown.

So far the recruiting for Chris Mack and the Louisville basketball staff has not gone according to plan, as two potential targets have landed elsewhere, but there is absolutely zero reasons for Cardinal fans to not be optimistic.

The staff has been hitting the recruiting trail as hard as they possibly can, and their vision will take time to sell to potential prospects. While we would have all liked to have seen a player or two committed to the program by now, there are prospects becoming available every day and that will take place for quite some time.

Next: Projections for Cardinals in the 2018 NFL Draft

Stay tuned to Big Red Louie for all your Cardinal recruiting updates!