Around the ACC: Where does Louisville basketball’s backcourt rank?
By Jacob Lane
No. 15 – Wake Forest
2020 backcourt: Jahcobi Neath (So.), Jonah Antonio (RS senior), Ian Dubose (RS senior), Quadry Adams (Fr.),
Who? Legitimately, there are very few who have ever heard of any of the names mentioned above.
Steve Forbes has an uphill battle to get Wake Forest competitive in year one of his tenure after coming over from East Tennessee State. No team had the roster turnover of Wake Forest, outside of maybe Wichita State, as the Decs saw five players from the 2019-20 roster transfer including Olivier Sarr (Kentucky) and Chaundee Brown (Michigan) and lost starters Brandon Childress and Andrien White to graduation.
Even after multiple players from the 2020 class de-committed from Wake, Forbes was able to keep incoming Quadry Adams and transfer Ian DuBose in the fold, while landing a commitment from grad transfer Jonah Antonio from UNLV. That at least gives him the numbers he’ll need to field a capable team, but with the mix of youth and high major inexperience, the program should be in for a long first season.
Jahcobi Neath is the lone returnee in the backcourt and he could develop into an anchor for Forbes over the next few years, but outside of him, there’s not a ton to ride home about in 2020.
No. 14 – Boston College
2020 backcourt: Makai Ashton-Langford (Rs. So.), Jay Heath (So.), Rich Kelly (Sr.), DeMarr Langford (Fr.), Wynston Tabbs (Jr.)
Jay Heath was a pleasant surprise for Jim Christian last season stepping in as the new leading scorer as a freshman, and in 2020 he’ll be joined by former four-star recruit and Louisville target, Makai Ashton-Langford, who transferred after one season at Providence, as well as graduate transfer Rich Kelly from Quinnipiac and highly-touted four-star guard, DeMarr Langford. Christian will also get back double-digit scorer Wynston Tabbs, who missed the entire 19-20 season with an injury.
There’s potential to develop another two-headed scoring monster with Heath and Langford or Heath and Tabbs like Christian did previously with Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman, but it won’t be this season. With a young group of players and a ton of turnover, it should be another long year in Chestnut Hill and likely the end of the Jim Christian era.
No. 13 – Notre Dame
2020 backcourt: Prentiss Hubb (Jr.), Dane Goodwin (Jr.), Cormac Ryan (RS. Jr.), Robby Carmody (Jr.)
Notre Dame was a team I thought would be a lot better last season than they actually ended up being, and that was with two experienced guards in TJ Gibbs and Rex Pfluger on the roster.
While the frontcourt does return a lot of talent in 2020, it’s unclear whether or not the group will be effective enough to get Notre Dame back to the level we’ve become accustomed to seeing them in the ACC. Prentiss Hubb and Dane Goodwin, two double-digit scorers in 2019, return for their junior seasons while the program adds former four-star recruit and Stanford transfer Cormac Ryan, which should give Brey a good combination of scoring, shooting, and playmaking, but when you look at the rest of the conference, the Irish are still lacking.
Without Gibbs and star big man John Mooney, the guards will have to carry the Irish on a nightly basis and until I see it consistently I’m not sure it’ll happen in 2020.
No. 12 – Pittsburgh
2020 backcourt: Justin Champagnie (So.), Xavier Johnson (Jr.), Au’Diese Toney (Jr.), Gerald Drumgoole (Jr.), Femi Odukale (Fr.)
Pittsburgh easily would have been much higher on this list had they returned rising star Trey McGowens along with backcourt mates Xavier Johnson and Justin Champagnie, but unfortunately, Jeff Capel watched as the sophomore decided to transfer to Nebraska.
He’ll still return a talented core group of guards headlined by the team’s leading scorer, Justin Champagnie, as well as Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Toney, who were instrumental parts of the team last season.
Champagnie is on a shortlist of players who could be break out stars in 2019-20, considering how good he was as a true freshman, and if he’s able to do that the Panthers could be much higher on the list by seasons end.
Outside of the returning trio of guards, Capel will welcome in three-star freshman point guard Femi Odukale and should get more out of junior guard/wing, Gerald Drumgoole. The Panthers have a very unique set of guards with a lot of positive intangibles that will continue to give opponents problems on a game-by-game basis. However, they aren’t quite at the level where they can take the next step into the upper echelon of ACC programs, especially without McGowens.