Louisville Basketball: 2022-2023 Schedule Is Released

The beginning of the 2022-2023 basketball season is right around the corner. Senior guard El Ellis and company are hungry to take the court and be a part of the inaugural group of players to lead the charge for newly installed Head Coach Kenny Payne.

The hiring of Kenny Payne brought life to the program again and gave Cardinal Nation a sigh of relief in knowing that the program is in good hands. The air around the Cardinal basketball program is one of hope and levity. Yet one of passion and hunger.

This group of players blends a mixture of experience and novitiates. The roster as currently constructed boasts:

One Graduate Student 

• Zan Payne #23

Two Seniors

• El Ellis #3
• Sydney Curry #21

Three Juniors

• Aidan McCool #33
• Ashton Myles-Devore #30
• JJ Traynor #12

A Redshirt Junior

• Jae-Lyn Withers #24

Three Sophomores

• Roosevelt Wheeler #4
• Hercy Miller #15
• Brandon Huntley-Hatfield #5

Three Freshman

• Devin Ree #0
• Fabio Basili #11
• Kamari Lands #22

A Redshirt Freshman

• Mike James #1

None of these guys are under 6 feet tall and seven of them are 6-foot-8 or taller. The Cardinals will not have any trouble in the height department and Coach Kenny Payne sees this as an advantage defensively.

"“The one thing that I come back to is the defensive end of the floor. We should be a very good defensive team,” he said. “We have length, we have athleticism, we have versatile guys that can guard one through four, two through five and one through five. That should be the staple of how we try to win games.”"

This is reminiscent of when Rick Pitino would run such an effective full-court press that the other team struggled with getting the ball up to the half-court line. The excitement is buzzing around the city of Louisville for the basketball season and Coach Payne is setting the expectations high to start off the year, which is getting Cardinal Nation excited.

Get your calendars ready. We are in for a fun ride.