Louisville basketball hosting elite seven footer on official visit

Chris Mack and the Louisville basketball staff have turned their attention to the class of 2021 and already have an elite recruit set to visit.

The narrative on Chris Mack’s ability to recruit for Louisville basketball is one that has been widely debated over the last four to six months, even after bringing in a top 15 class the year prior.

There were plenty of challenges for Mack and company during the 2020 recruiting cycle (which is still ongoing and is bound to pick up after the conclusion of the season) that resulted in losing out on top targets. But even with all of that, the Cards were still able to land three impact players who should develop into big pieces for Mack both short-term and long-term.

Now with the majority of the work done in ’20, the Cards staff have turned their full attention to the class of 2021’s crop of talent

One of the names at the top of the list for Louisville without question is five-star big(!!!) man, Efton Reid. The Cards have been on Reid for quite some time now, finally extending him a scholarship earlier this month in hopes of getting things heated up after a monster campaign on the AAU circuit and a big junior season.

That seems to be the direction things are headed as it was reported on Friday by Jake Weingarten that the 7’0, 245-pound big man had set an extremely important official visit to Louisville to watch the Cards take on Virginia Tech.

It’s not very often that juniors schedule official visits (although it does happen) as most recruits wait until their senior seasons when they have a clearer picture of their options at hand. That’s why Mack getting Reid on campus so quickly is a great indicator of not only the interest Louisville has in him, but the interest he has in return.

The fit on the court could not be more perfect when it comes to Reid and the style of play Chris Mack likes to use. As we’ve seen in the past, Mack loves big men who are able to do a variety of things but mostly dominate the interior with both scoring the basketball and cleaning the glass.

His big men traditionally have been bigger “paint-cloggers” who are highly skilled players who know how to use size to their advantage, especially when it comes to scoring with their back to the basket. Guys like Kaiser Gates, Matt Stainbrook, and Jalen Reynolds all come to mind as players who were success as the five-man for Chris Mack at Xavier.

247 Sports Recruiting Expert, Jerry Meyer, wrote about Reid:

"Has NBA center size. Game is skill based and not athletically based. Has good footwork and touch in post. Can stretch defense to three-point line. Comfortable with the ball as a passer. Has good hands and rebounds his area. Not a big shot blocker. Positional defender inside. Needs to improve quickness to defend on perimeter."

The center position is one that will be of the highest importance for Chris Mack in the class of 2021 with Steven Enoch exhausting his eligibility and Malik Williams only entering his final year in 2020-21, leaving only Aidan Igiehon for the future.

Reid is a game-changer with his size and scoring ability who could take what Mack has done with the bigs at Louisville to the next level for years to come. There will be tough competition for the nation’s 18th best player in the class of 2021 (according to 247 Sports), as Virginia, Miami, Georgetown, Iowa State, North Carolina State, and Kentucky all have a significant interest in the developing big.

We’ve seen Mack’s ability to build relationships with elite-level talent, but can he close? Getting Reid on campus quickly makes me think there could be a very strong possibility of him wearing red and black.