Louisville basketball has one scholarship remaining for 2020.
One of the biggest topics of discussion this offseason has been about the use of the three remaining scholarships that were left ahead of Louisville basketball’s 2020-21 season.
We found out how two of those scholarships would be used back in April when two of the nation’s top graduate transfers, Carlik Jones and Charles Minlend Jr. chose to play their final year of eligibility for the Cardinals and Chris Mack – leaving just one remaining.
Mack spoke to local media back in April and asked about how that scholarship may be used and said that while the coaching staff would look at every single option available to them and decide if it made sense and was the right fit they wouldn’t give out the scholarship just to have another “warm body.”
Two months have gone by since Louisville missed out on big men Mattias Markusson and Matt Haarms and there’s been no reports or mentions of Mack and company pursuing any new players. With that in mind, I asked Coach about how and if he even planned to use that scholarship and if it would be for this upcoming season or with next year (2021-22) in mind.
"“The last thing we want to do is put a body in that scholarship. so unless they are really going to help our team whether it’s this year or in the future, I don’t want to say we’re gonna hold on to it but we aren’t just gonna give it out to give it out, to have a full complement of scholarships. I’d be lying if I said this is the year we’re gonna get, this is who we’re going to get, we’re going to continue to stay open. You never know in college basketball, kids enter the transfer portal all the time. If we feel like we can add somebody who can help our team this year, we’re gonna do that. If we feel like at some point, whether that’s right at the start of school or the first semester, then we would do that.”"
Mack would go on to say that over “the last few months” they’ve yet to find a player who is “Cardinal quality” which shows that they are holding fast to their existing strategy. While that may be the case, that isn’t going to stop me from taking a look at what the coaching staff could do should they decide to look either to this season or further ahead. Note, none of these players listed have been linked to Louisville, this is nothing more than evaluating fit and projection.
With that being said, here are three payers (guard, forward, big man) who could be good fit for Louisville basketball’s final scholarship.