Jordan Nwora
After playing nearly the entire game in Louisville’s exhibition, Chris Mack has lightened the load on the ACC Preseason Player of the Year in the early portion of the schedule. Nwora is only playing 26.5 minutes per game, and he’s not going to be out of gas when Louisville needs to rely on him most.
He’s lived up to the hype so far this season, averaging 20.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. He has led the Cardinals in scoring every game, and he’s certainly capable of continuing to do so. Nwora is hitting 53.8 percent of his shots as well as 55.6 percent of his three-point attempts.
He is an incredible free-throw shooter as well, draining 94 percent of his attempts from the stripe. His scoring average ranks as the 13th best amongst all Power 5 players and he’s not even playing as much as some of the players ahead of him.
Nwora has a player efficiency rating (PER) of 35.6. If he keeps it up or gets better, that would rank ninth all-time since 2009. The junior forward has ridiculous stats per 40 minutes as well, averaging 30.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.1 steals.
Nwora still has room to improve on the defensive end, but he does look a lot better on that end of the court compared to last season. He would also benefit from taking care of the ball more, but that’s not too big of a concern at this point of the season. All in all, the hype was deserved. Jordan Nwora is one of the top players in all of college basketball and he’s got a legitimate shot to be the National Player of the Year.