Louisville Basketball Recruiting: Will Cards Make Top Five for 5 Star Big Man?

One of the premier big men in the 2019 recruiting class, Isaiah Stewart, is narrowing his list of potential schools from 10 to five tonight, and the Louisville basketball program hopes to make the cut.

Chris Mack and his assistant coaches had been in their positions on the Louisville basketball staff for just a little over two months when five star, top 10 prospect, Isaiah Stewart, cut his list of schools down to 10. Their long lasting relationship with the Rochester, NY product helped, but the persistent work and relationship building of coach Luke Murray helped the Cards land in his top 10, only months after offering.

Fast forward to today, August 24th, and the staff are in great position to make the top five for one of, if not the, best big men in the entire country in the class of 2019.

Back in May Stewart narrowed his list to 10 from over 50+ offers, including a who’s who of blue blood programs. The final 10 was Louisville, Georgetown, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Villanova, Michigan State, Duke, Indiana, Texas, and Washington. Those programs then went to work, hoping to make it one more cut for Stewart.

If you don’t know who Isaiah Stewart is, a quick search of YouTube will quickly show you why the top programs in the country are salivating to land his services. At 6’9″ and a solid 245 pounds, Stewart is ready today to contribute at an extremely high level within the collegiate ranks, and will help any team he chooses take a big step forward in 2019-20.

So does Louisville actually have a solid chance of making the list? Yes, of course. Luke Murray has been the head recruiter this summer for Stewart, keeping tabs on the big man’s success through the AAU circuit. Back in May shortly before cutting his list to 10, Stewart raved about his relationship with Coach Murray and Coach Mack, saying it was “great.”

Though the crystal ball for just about every major recruiting site is filled with predictions for Duke and Indiana, that doesn’t mean that Louisville doesn’t have a shot. While it’s “unlikely” at this point, getting to the next stage could change everything for the Cards. If an official visit, or even an unofficial visit were to take place at Louisville, the recruitment of Stewart could be swung in a heartbeat.

While it’s probably more likely that the Cards will be in better shape to land the services of five star big man, and crowd favorite, Aidan Ighiehon, that won’t stop Mack from exhausting everything possible to land Stewart.

The announcement for Isaiah Stewart will come tonight via Twitter, and indications are that Stewart will schedule visits for the fall before omitting sometime this winter. Could the Cards land 5th best player in the country? Tonight will be the first step in finding out.