Louisville basketball: Preseason player power rankings

Louisville basketball’s own edition of the “Junkyard Dog” is back for his final season and will look to finish out with another career year.

After transferring back to Louisville after playing his first season at UNC Asheville, Dwayne Sutton has been the heart and soul of each team he’s played on and quickly became an integral part of the Cards success with Chris Mack at the helm. His toughness made the rest of the guys step up to another level and his confidence, in turn, gave his teammates confidence to fight non-stop.

Unfortunately, that didn’t always translate for the rest of the team but regardless of who the opponent was or the individual matchup you knew what you were going to get from Sutton. That’s a guy unafraid to sacrifice his body for the betterment of the team. A guy willing to fight tooth and nail with bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic players for loose balls and rebounds. A guy willing to play any role, big or small, in order to win.

In fact, Sutton’s toughness and character on the floor prompted Chris Mack last season to say, ” “I wish I had a team full of all Dwayne Sutton’s.”

While we’ve come to know Sutton as a rebounding and 50/50 ball machine, last season he developed into a relied upon scorer for Louisville averaging 10 points per game (jumping from 4.3 in 2017-18) including his 17 point, 10 rebound, and 7 assist performance in a win against UNC

Serving as Louisville’s primary “glue guy” 2019-20 will be pivotal for Dwayne Sutton as he’ll be tasked with not only improving his scoring and playmaking ability but providing elite rebounding (on both sides) as well as taking on the task of guarding the opposing team’s best wing.

His toughness and mental fortitude will be huge for a team looking to block out all the hype as well as the exorcise the demons from last season. With more scoring options around, Sutton will be able to get back to focusing on playing lock-down defense and attacking at the highest level possible without worrying about tiring or not being able to keep up on offense.

He’ll also still be looked to for scoring at times. Last year we saw Sutton develop into a consistent three-point shooter, connecting on nearly 35 percent of shots from deep, including multiple clutch baskets.

With Jordan Nwora, Samuell Williamson, Ryan McMahon, Steven Enoch, and even Fresh Kimble able to do more than their part to pitch-in-in the scoring department, my expectation is that often times Sutton will be the “fifth” target on the floor, opening up easy lanes and open shots.

If he’s able to take his “dirty work” to another level this season (he averaged 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 0.2 blocks per game) while scoring as needed, Louisville will be in for a great season.