Louisville Basketball: Carlik Jones getting preseason All-American love is a big deal

Louisville Basketball’s Carlik Jones is getting the preseason recognition he deserves.

With the 2020-21 college basketball season set to begin on November 25th, Louisville Basketball is preparing to prove that they are still one of the top teams in the country despite key departures from their roster.

One reason why Louisville will continue to be one of the top teams in the ACC is because of Carlik Jones, a graduate transfer from Radford.

Chris Mack and the Louisville staff were able to pick up Jones via the transfer pool this offseason and he was recently named one of two captains of ‘Team 107’ with senior Malik Williams. This pickup for Louisville was one of the key transfers of the offseason and has gotten the attention of national columnists and college basketball analysts.

Now, Jeff Goodman, a Basketball Analyst for Stadium, released his ‘2020-21 College Basketball Preseason Awards Wednesday afternoon and has Carlik Jones named a preseason Third Team All-American.

Goodman had this to say about Jones and his potential impact with Louisville this upcoming season:

"“I normally wouldn’t go with a transfer who is jumping up a level, but Jones will likely be Chris Mack’s top player and is a veteran that was the Player of the Year in the Big South last season.”"

Carlik Jones had his best season of his career last season with Radford where he started in 31 games averaging 20.0 points, 5.1 boards, 5.5 assists and shot 48.8 percent and 40.9 from beyond the arc. In three seasons with Radford, Jones averaged 15.7 points, rebounds, and 4.7 dimes while shooting 45.8 percent and 32.6 percent from three.

Louisville Basketball will look a lot different this season as the team lost four of its top five scorers from a season ago and 76 percent of its total scoring output from the 2019-20 season.Jones and David Johnson will carry a lot of the load in the backcourt and fans should expect to see Jones carry on a lot of the scoring load for this young Louisville Basketball team.

The last two weeks at practice, Jones earned back-to-back “gold jerseys” for being the best player in practice over the course of both weeks.

There are no indications yet of when Louisville will start their season and no first opponent named yet, but Louisville is set to host their own multi-team event at the KFC Yum! Center. Western Kentucky, Duquesne, Winthrop, UNC-Greensboro, Southern Illinois and Prairie View A&M are all reported participants for the “Louisville Bubble” so it is expected the Cards will take on at least three of these teams in the Yum! Center near the start of the season.