Louisville basketball moves closer to landing next big-time star

Louisville basketball moved another step closer to landing a massive pick-up when graduate transfer Carlik Jones narrowed his list on Monday.

In a downtime for sports, things are still heating up for Louisville basketball on the recruiting trail. Though it’s a dead period for Chris Mack and the Cardinals staff in regards to in-person visits, they and teams across the country are pulling out all the stops to stay in communication with prospective recruits.

Though many big-time graduate transfers have come and gone without choosing Louisville, it appears the staff is still going the hardest after just a handful of guys. Among that small group of players is Radford transfer Carlik Jones.

Louisville was the first team to reach out to Jones only hours after he put his name in the transfer portal, and it appears the staff has pushed all of its chips into the center of the table in an effort to land the top graduate transfer on the market.

It appears to be paying off, as Jones has narrowed his list to his current school, Radford, and seven others including Louisville, Gonzaga, and Michigan State.

As we mentioned last week, Mack and Jones have close ties. Mack coached at Xavier, only six miles away from Jones’ high school in Cincinnati, and was clearly very intrigued by Jones opening up his recruitment again.

Louisville already has a solid point guard in David Johnson heading into next season, but it appears more likely than not that prospective two-guard Jay Scubb keeps his name in the NBA draft this summer. If that is the case, the Cardinals will be desperate for another scoring option.

Jones is a true point guard, but he and Johnson could potentially be interchangeable at the two guard spots next season and bring two legitimately dangerous scoring and passing options to an offense that will lack experience.

For a guy that feels like a must-get in order to shore up a solid lineup in 2020-21, it’s a bit more assuring that Carlik Jones has Louisville near the top of his list.