Probabilities for each Louisville basketball player’s return next season

Samuell Williamson

Wing – Sophomore

Probability of return: 90 percent

Here’s where things become a little more interesting for Louisville in terms of projecting what the 2020-21 roster may look like. I think it’s beyond obvious to the average basketball fan who watched Louisville games that Samuell Williamson won’t and shouldn’t be on the radar for the 2002 NBA Draft.

Although he entered Louisville as the first McDonald’s All-American since VJ King and became one of the most talked-about players in the 2019 class, his transition to college basketball didn’t take as quickly as many of us thought it might. Williamson’s body was a work in progress, we all knew that, but it was his trouble with keeping up with the packline defense that mostly kept him from reaching the next level.

We saw the potential right away as the season opener against Miami looked like the coming-out party for Williamson. From there he took a bit of a dip, and while he was always a productive player, his ability to carve out the offensive role we thought he might, only materialized in spurts.

The stats show Williamson could be REALLY good with more minutes, but due to better players in Nwora and Sutton in front of him, the freshman phenom’s development became more of a long-term project.

With those guys gone the key to the car now goes to Williamson and the next season for the Cards will greatly depend upon how much more he can elevate his game. I was hopeful the ACC Tournament and the big dance would be where we first saw the breakthrough performance from Williamson, similar to what Louisville got from Montrezl Harrell during their 2013 run, but unfortunately, we’ll now have to wait to see that.

Declaring for the draft and going through the feedback process should be in play for Williamson, but with the Coronavirus delaying and canceling important events where breakthroughs can happen and players can get draft momentum, expect to see the blossoming of the next Cardinal star. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that the 2020 NBA Draft is expected to be one of the weakest in recent years, and with everything happening over the last two weeks the status of many things could the draft process even harder to predict.

However, with all of that being said. It’s only a matter of time before the potential of Williamson is realized. Not to mention playing in-tandem with Jay Scubb, Louisville’s play on the wing has E L I T E potential.