Louisville basketball: Updating who the Cardinals are looking at in the transfer portal

Churchill Abass – 6’9 – C – Class of 2023

Churchill Abass is a name Cardinal fans have continued to hear about for around two months now.

Ever since the Cards landed Emanuel Okorafor, there have been rumors of a second NBA Africa player joining the roster, and that rumored player turned out to be the late-rising big man in the class of ’23.

After a very strong Basketball Without Borders camp, Abass began to receive buzz from recruiting experts, with a few including Louisville as an interested party. He’s now ranked as a four-star big man and the 76th-best player in the class, according to On3.

But since February, the Abass news has died down a bit. He has yet to take an official visit to Louisville, but he has visited Oxford.

This visit was before the Rebels hired Chris Beard as their head coach, so I’m unsure if Abass or Ole Miss still have an interest in one another. According to Rivals, Ole Miss is also the only school to offer Abass a scholarship.

The highlights are impressive for this kid. He’s incredibly strong for his age, extremely aggressive around the basket, and impressively athletic for his size.

I have watched three full games of his, and I came away a little less impressed than the highlights made me feel. He made a few of those splash plays in the three games I watched, but he’s much more raw than I expected.

He has very few post moves and has almost no range outside of ten feet from the basket. You can tell he is relatively new to the game and still learning how to play it. He also lacked that insane hustle that we saw from Okorafor last season.

All in all, I think he’d be a great prospect to add, but people should temper their immediate expectations. He could be an incredible college player. He reminds me of Oscar Tshiebwe with a lower motor but a little more athleticism.

After a few years in a college system, I think he could be incredible. It will be interesting to see if the current staff wants to add him or a more experienced post player this offseason.