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Louisville basketball: Fear not, backcourt help is coming in 2019-20

By Stephen Kalayil

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Louisville Basketball is having a better than expected year in the ACC under new coach Chris Mack’s direction, but future of the Cardinal backcourt falls on the freshman 4-star duo of Josh Nickelberry and David Johnson.

After being hired as the new head coach of Louisville basketball, Chris Mack had just seven scholarship plays available for his first year in a new role. Louisville had just two guards on the roster at the time, neither of which had shown in the 2017-18 season that they were quite ready to step into the lead guard role.

It took some time and a few misses but finally Mack settled on the guy he wanted. At the time we knew nothing about him, other than the fact that he was from Kentucky. Here we are 10 months later, Christen Cunningham, the transfer from Samford is currently third in the ACC in assists, averaging 10.2 points a game and has been the gas that fuels the Louisville offense.

Along with Cunningham came, Khwan Fore, who was a high flying grad-transfer out of Richmond, that had originally committed to Tennessee, but ultimately chose Chris Mack and the Cards. It took a while to find his role, but finally he was inserted in the starting lineup mid-season and has been a defensive stalwart ever since.

Unfortunately, both of these players are considered one-year rentals for the 2018-2019 season. Sophomore guard Darius Perry and junior Ryan McMahon look to compete for starter minutes in 2019-2020, but it’ll be hard to keep 1/3 of the super six off the court due to their athleticism, height, physicality and pure talent.

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The 6’2 sophomore Darius Perry has shown flashes of being a serviceable guard in Chris Mack’s system with his ball handling and ability to take it to the rim. But even with these attributes, Perry has shown a propensity to turn the ball over and play erratically.

Junior Ryan McMahon is undeniably one of the best three-point shooters the country, but can be major liability on the defensive end and truly a situational player for the Cards.

Chris Mack’s team’s at Xavier often featured tall, physical guards such as Edmond Sumner, Trevon Bluiett, JP Macura, Paul Scruggs, Semaj Christon, Remy Abell, and Jordan Crawford.  Soon to be freshmen Josh Nickelberry and Louisville local, David Johnson fit the mold for the Chris Mack system.

Nickelberry comes to Louisville from Fayetteville, North Carolina and was the first player to commit to Chris Mack when he took over the program. The 6’4 combo guard led Northwood Temple to a NCISAA 1-A state championship runner-up finish this season.

For his career, he racked up 2904 points in the NCISAA division of high school hoops, which would be good for second all-time in North Carolina’s NCHSAA league, which is the more prevalent division/league.

He averaged over 28 ppg game in his senior campaign and has appeared NCISAA All-State team for the 3rd time.  This puts him the company of household North Carolina names of Coby White and JamesOn Curry.  Josh possesses much-needed athleticism and height that the Cards have hurt the Cards on both ends of the court. Plus he adds a scoring punch from all three levels.

David Johnson hails from Louisville’s Trinity High School and was an original commit to the Pitino staff. The 6’5 combo guard decommitted once Pitino was fired as head coach but recommitted to the Cardinals over finalist Georgia and Xavier.

Johnson is known for his versatility possessing exceptional athleticism and a sharp passing ability. Several times in his career, Johnson has posted near triple-doubles for a Trinity team that is traditionally one of the best in the state.  He was named Louisville’s Seventh region player of the year and is a strong contender for Kentucky Mr. Basketball honors.

Johnson and Nickelberry, are not just the future guards for the Cardinal program, but they are vastly different than the majority of the guards from the Pitino era and even the beginning of the Chris Mack tenure.

Next. Chris Mack built a dominant 2019 recruiting class, who's next up in 2020?. dark

Cardinal fans have been fortunate to watch the play of CC and Khwan Fore but there is still so much more to look forward to  as the help Chris Mack needs is coming.

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