Louisville basketball: Future star will have extra year of eligibility

Future Louisville basketball transfer El Ellis received exciting news Thursday.

Louisville basketball‘s future is very up in the air due to unfortunate circumstances around the program.

However, it appears a future Cardinal received some exciting news recently regarding his eligibility.

Commit El Ellis announced on Twitter that, unlike most graduate transfers, he will have 3 years of eligibility instead of the usual two. That is thanks to the NJCAA announcing that basketball players will have an extra season of eligibility regardless of how much they play in 2020-21.

While we still await word on eligibility from the NCAA, this is a huge step forward for the future of Louisville basketball.

As we have documented, Ellis is a major piece of Louisville’s 2021 class.

Right after his commitment, Ellis spoke to Jody Demling about the reason for his commitment.

“Coach Mack said they need a guard and he said if David Johnson is still around that I could come in and we could both play on or off the ball. I think I’m versatile enough to play both (on and off the ball).”

Here’s what we said about Ellis when he committed:

"“(Ellis will) bring a new level of toughness to the Louisville program at the guard spot, and with that will come a fearless to attack downhill and try and get to the rim at all costs. Ellis is developing into an elite scorer, while also becoming more of a playmaker, who is able to get his shot just about whenever he wants to. He’s got a great first step that allows him to get past defenders and from there he’s just as lethal pulling up as he is once he gets to the cup.In his freshman season at TCC, Ellis averaged 14.3 ppg, 4.7 apg, while shooting 48 percent from the field and an incredible 40 percent from deep. Mack has prioritized a few things during the 2021 recruiting cycle but none of them bigger than scoring and Ellis is the real deal.”"

Now, when the Louisville coaching staff is hitting the recruiting trail, they will do so knowing that a players in the next two classes will not have to make as much of an immediate impact if Ellis remains in place through his senior season.

This is a development that could shake things up for Louisville basketball over the next couple of classes.