Louisville basketball: Putting together the 2020 recruiting wish list

Jaemyn Brakefield

National ranking: 26

Position ranking: 4

Huntington, WV, 6’8″ 210 pounds

If you’re surprised at Jaemyn Brakefield being the number one player on the 2020 recruiting wish list, then you probably don’t have a great pulse on the Louisville fan base and Louisville basketball recruiting (which is okay, and why we’re here).

The Cards and four-star forward Brakefield have had mutual interest for quite some time now after Mack extended him a scholarship during an unofficial visit to Louisville back in October of last year.

https://twitter.com/jakeweingarten/status/1056371608036802561

Brakefield, who had a dominant junior season and earned a five-star ranking from several recruiting services talked about his time visiting Louisville and how things were going with Coach Mack, saying:

"“Chris Mack is probably the coolest coach in college basketball. He has a great personality and I love the way he coaches. I really like watching how he coaches his team and that’s why I like Louisville so much.”"

Since then Louisville waited anxiously to see if Brakefield would reclassify, as many other juniors did around him, which thankfully he did not – leaving the possibility for Brakefield to become a Cardinal.

I am no recruiting expert, but between the connection with soon to be freshman Quinn Slasiznki, who was Brakefield’s teammate and roommate at Huntington Prep, his comments about coach Mack and deciding not to move to the class of 2019, there is plenty of reason for optimism about Brakefield one day wearing the red and black.

His game would be a perfect fit due to his ability to play both out on the wing and inside, similar to soon to be Cardinal Jaelyn Withers. At his size, Brakefield’s three-point shooting makes him a matchup nightmare for most college three’s and even at a slight 210 pounds, he shows great strength when rebounding and getting inside to the paint.

Brakefield is option numero uno for Louisville and to land him, Mack will likely have to go head-to-head with Kentucky coach John Calipari for the first time. That’s a battle that I think Cardinal fans will get a lot of satisfaction out of winning.