Louisville basketball: What to expect with David Johnson sidelined

The Louisville basketball program announced that freshman David Johnson will miss four to six months with a shoulder injury suffered in practice. How will that change things for Chris Mack?

Louisville basketball is in full-on preparation mode as they march toward the 2019-2020 season, one where they are expected to be a legitimate contender for not only the ACC Championship but the National Championship.

In his second season, Chris Mack has the Cards way ahead of schedule with seven upperclassmen returning for the 2019-2020 season and will be bolstered by the 11th best class in 2019 and an experienced graduate transfer in Fresh Kimble.

One of the biggest setbacks a team can go through preparing for a season and deep run into March is injuries, and that’s exactly what Chris Mack and his team will have to fight through now.

In a release from the Louisville basketball program, it was announced that freshman guard David Johnson suffered a shoulder injury that will keep him out at least four to six months in 2019.

In the statement Chris Mack said about the injury:

"“This is tough news on David for sure. I feel badly for DJ because of his excitement level to start his college career. He was having an excellent summer to date and we will miss him over the next few months. Knowing David’s work ethic, he will put in the time to get back as quickly as possible and be ready to impact our team this season. “"

As a four-star recruiting out of Trinity in Louisville, David Johnson was expected to have a major impact right away for Louisville, primarily playing as the team’s backup point guard.

How will Chris Mack and his staff handle the injury?

Well for starters, the good news is this team is not built like what the 2018-19 team. What I mean by that, is though this injury hurts, the roster is deep enough to withstand tribulations.

Last season if Christen Cunningham, Ryan McMahon, Darius Perry, or really any of the team had gone down to major injury, it would have been a big set back on the program that hampered their ability to pick up some of the big wins they had.

This season, with Perry, McMahon, and Kimble all expected to see major minutes, and the versatility and scoring prowess of freshman Josh Nickelberry, who is dealing with an injury of his own, the Cards should be able to move forward without any major consequences.

While we don’t have much of an idea of how the lineup will look at this point, we do know is that Darius Perry is going to have to step up in a major way. It seems that Fresh Kimble will be the team’s starting point guard, bringing leadership, scoring, defense, and overall control to the offense, while Perry will be slotted in at the two or serve as the sixth man.

Johnson, who averaged 16.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and four assists as a senior at Trinity, was expected to play the backup point guard role but Perry was always going to be the team’s second primary ball-handler – assuming he made the jump that Mack expected of him after last season.

Perry had an extremely up and down year as a sophomore struggling to adjust to the coaching style of Chris Mack, the expectations of a sophomore year leap, and the new scheme defensively.

When he did get in, he often struggled with bad shot selection and turnovers, causing Chris Mack to eventually take him out of the rotation altogether. By the end of the season, however, Perry deserved credit for working his tail off and ended up playing a major role for Louisville down the stretch. Now, his primary responsibility will be to help Louisville cover up the loss of David Johnson through the first half of the season.

Chris Mack spoke on Perry earlier this offseason saying:

"“I give him a lot of credit. A lot of guys nowadays put their name in the transfer portal and it’s the coaches fault. I’m sure there were some hard days for Darius to think should I do that or not. I was proud of how he stuck it out in the last ten games and became a guy that we had trust of putting him in because I didn’t in the middle and beginning of the season and he re-earned that.”"

Four to six months would keep Johnson out of all summer workouts, fall practices, and into at least the back half of non-conference play. For a freshman that is tough, as Johnson would have benefited from some of the early games against programs like Michigan, Texas Tech, and Kentucky, while picking up more consistent minutes in matchups against lowly mid-major programs, providing valuable experience.

Once healthy, you can expect Mack to bring Johnson on slowly, especially with the team moving into conference play. The silver lining for Johnson is that the injury suffered is to his non-shooting shoulder, which will allow him to continue to work on form, ball handling, and other necessary drills as he recovers.

With Johnson out, freshman Josh Nickelberry will likely see more minutes, which could be a blessing for Louisville as he is able to not only develop into a scorer at the college level but continue to grow as a playmaker and contributor. He is still dealing with a broken hand, an injury he suffered earlier this summer, but assuming he’s able to come back with no issues there will be a lot of time spent with him on improving his playmaking.

We know that Ryan McMahon will provide scoring and can handle the ball in some scenarios, but once again, most of the backup duties will require work from Darius Perry.

In the end, I expect the Cards to be just fine. Losing Johnson will hurt in the short-term as his development will now require a new timeline, but with Kimble, Perry, and McMahon providing experience, and Josh Nickelberry able to play more minutes, the Cards could grow stronger from a tough setback.