Louisville basketball: 3 reasons why Chris Mack struggled on 2020 recruiting trail

It was a tough go for Chris Mack during his second time around the recruiting trail for Louisville basketball in 2020. We breakdown why that was the case.

The 2020 recruiting class was set to be a homerun haul for Louisville basketball after their success in the ’19 class adding the “Super Six.” Or so we thought.

The momentum was rolling for Chris Mack and everything looked headed toward another big class as the Cards very early set their eyes on several elite level players. The staff worked on getting in with them early before the other big-name programs to be able to lean. The staff did just that with players like Caleb Love, Numari Burnett, Jaemyn Brakefield, Hunter Dickinson, DJ Steward, Jay Scrubb, and a plethora of others much to the pleasure of Card Nation.

While others waited eagerly for Chris Mack to bring in a class that could rival the one being put together by Coach Calipari, I advised those here on the site and our writers to be careful as several factors were going to play a role in how things shook out.

Things never looked brighter for Louisville in the class of 2020 than they did for their annual event, Louisville Live. Entering year two of the event, the Louisville basketball staff planned to use that once again as their way of sealing things up with their top recruits in front of a massive audience smack dab in the middle of downtown Louisville.

Love, Steward, Dickinson, Brakefield, Gethro Muscadin, JJ Traynor, Khristian Lander, and a ton of other elite-level prospects were supposed to be in attendance, and while a few of those players attended most of them unfortunately either had a change of heart or committed elsewhere.

Louisville fans watched as Love and Steward were snatched up by the likes of Duke & North Carolina, Dickinson cut the Cards from his list, while the only big man target, Muscadin opted for Kansas (despite being in Louisville at ASPIRE Academy).

The heartbreak was just beginning.

Mack did secure commitments from elite JUCO star and local product Jay Scrubb, who could develop into the next star for the Cards if he makes it to campus, D’Andre Davis, a Nebraska decommit, as well as the son of Jason Osborne and one of the nation’s highest risers, JJ Traynor.

Things weren’t over.

Jaemyn Brakefield would commit to Duke after looking like a Louisville lean for nearly a year. New targets Jalen Terry and Deivon Smith, committed to Oregon and Mississippi State respectively, While most recently, 2021 star and heavy Louisville favorite Khristian Lander opted for Indiana over the Cards.

To say things haven’t been pretty would be an understatement, but I think if you take a look at the bigger picture you’ll see there were always reasons why things could go south for the Cards. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, I always felt like it was going to be an uphill battle to land five-star players.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at why I believe Chris Mack struggled on the 2020 recruiting trail.