Louisville Basketball: Chris Mack Pursuing Early Enrollee for 2018-19 Roster
By Jacob Lane
Chris Mack and the Louisville basketball staff continue to be aggressive on the recruiting trail this spring. The Cards recently made the final nine of a top ’19 target.
Chris Mack, Luke Murray, Dino Gaudio and Mike Pegues have been hard at work on the recruiting trail in attempts to land players in both the 2018 and 19 classes.
While there aren’t many players left on the board for 2018, aside from a handful of high school recruits and a few graduate transfers, the Cards seemed to have found a player who could help them right away and in the future.
How is that possible?
Look no further than Kevin McCullar.
Currently listed as a four star in the class of 2019 rankings, Kevin McCullar has recently decided to make a decision that has become more and more popular over the last few seasons. Enroll early.
Though many early enrollees decide to skip their senior seasons all together and join a college program for the fall semester, McCullar is doing things a little differently, something that has become more common place in college football than basketball. McCullar will skip his senior season and enroll for the 2019 spring semester according to Rivals.com Corey Evans.
"“I will be graduating in December and will redshirt in January before playing as a freshman for the 2019-2020 season,” he said. “All of the schools that have offered me have committed to holding a 2018 scholarship for me. I am going to release my final five schools and my official visit dates later here in May.”"
The 6’6 wing out of Wagner High School in San Antonio, Texas released his top nine that included Louisville, which would make sense from everything we’ve heard from Chris Mack. Also included were Houston, Kansas State, Minnesota, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech and Mack’s former school Xavier.
During his staff’s introductory press conference the new Louisville basketball head coach mentioned that the staff would pursue a few graduate transfers, and sit-out transfers, but planned to leave one or two scholarships open. One of those scholarships could be used on McCullar.
McCullar wouldn’t be eligible to play until the 2019-20 as he intends to redshirt after enrolling in the spring of 2019. However, he would count against the scholarship number, meaning if he did commit to the Cards, they would only have two remaining for the 2018-19 season.
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Ranked as the 68th best player in the class of 2019 according to the Rivals.com top 150, McCullar is a big guard who can score in a variety of ways. Standing at 6’6, McCullar has experience running the point guard as well as playing on the wing, which is exactly the type of player the Cards are looking for-for the 2018-19 season.
McCullar isn’t currently playing on the AAU circuit as he is still recovering from a broken tibia that he suffered this past season while playing for Wagner. But during last year’s circuit he played with Yes II Success – the same program that featured another Louisville target Charles Bassey.
He’s got a great feel for the game, both in the half-court and full-court, and also has the length/versitility to guard two or three positions at the next level. McCullar, like many high school juniors, still has a lot of room for development. At 6’6, McCullar is just 180 and will need to add some strength/muscle in order to hang with some of the ACC’s top wings like an RJ Barrett.
McCullar is looking to forge a new path into college basketball, and believes that enrolling early will give him a chance to get a leg up. The Cards currently have three open scholarships for this year, after getting a committment from graduate transfer Christen Cunningham.
McCullar would likely play behind VJ King, and would split time at the guard and forward position, competing with Ryan McMahon for backup minutes.