The University of Louisville basketball program’s offseason can finally come to a close. All 13 of the scholarships have been handed out and all seven of the players who entered the transfer portal have announced their new collegiate destinations. Let’s take a look at how last year’s team compares to next year’s team.
Louisville‘s 2022-2023 roster looked like this:
- Fabio Basili, a consensus three-star prospect, 0.8528 composite score
- Sydney Curry, a consensus three-star player, 0.8628 transfer rating
- El Ellis, a consensus four-star player, 0.9351 transfer rating
- Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, a consensus four-star transfer (five-star out of HS), 0.9200 transfer rating
- Mike James, a consensus four-star player, 0.9691 composite score
- Kamari Lands, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9737 composite score
- Aidan McCool, not rated on major recruiting sites
- Hercy Miller, a three-star prospect via Rivals
- Ashton Myles-Devore, not rated on major recruiting sites
- Emmanuel Okorafor, NBA Academy Africa product, not rated on major recruiting sites
- Zan Payne, not rated on major recruiting sites
- Devin Ree, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9666 composite score
- JJ Traynor, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9431 composite score
- Roosevelt Wheeler, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9703 composite score
- Jae’Lyn Withers, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9393 composite score
Louisville‘s 2023-2024 roster will look like this:
- Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, a consensus four-star transfer (five-star out of HS), 0.9200 transfer rating
- Mike James, a consensus four-star player, 0.9691 composite score
- Hercy Miller, a three-star prospect via Rivals
- Emmanuel Okorafor, NBA Academy Africa product, not rated on major recruiting sites
- JJ Traynor, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9431 composite score
- Trentyn Flowers, a consensus five-star prospect, 0.9914 composite score
- Dennis Evans, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9891 composite score
- Kaleb Glenn, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9696 composite score
- Curtis Williams Jr., a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9672 composite score
- Koron Davis, JUCO product, not rated on major recruiting sites
- Ty-Laur Johnson, a consensus four-star prospect, 0.9672 composite score
- Tre White, a consensus four-star transfer player, 0.9400 transfer rating
- Danilo Jovanovich, a consensus three-star transfer player, 0.8200 transfer rating
- Skyy Clark, a consensus four-star transfer player, 0.9200 transfer rating
Solely based on composite scores, next year’s Louisville basketball team will be drastically more talented and deeper. There were several factors as to why last season was so abysmal, which will be discussed in a later article. But, based on the on-court talent, there wasn’t enough talent on the team at a Power Five Division I level to produce at a high level.
The confirmation of that talent was realized when four of the seven players who entered the transfer portal: Sydney Curry, Fabio Basili, Devin Ree, and Roosevelt Wheeler all committed to schools that were not at the Power Five level. Sydney Curry committed to Grand Canyon University, Fabio Basili just committed to the University of Texas-Arlington, Devin Ree committed to Louisiana Tech, and Roosevelt Wheeler committed to VCU.
Kamari Lands, El Ellis, and Jae’Lyn Withers were the other three transfer players and they committed to Arizona State, Arkansas, and North Carolina, respectively. Now, that the IARP cloud has been lifted, Kenny Payne’s ability to recruit came to the forefront at an extremely high level.
He landed Trentyn Flowers, the No. 1 overall prospect in the state of North Carolina, and Ty-Laur Johnson, the No. 1 overall prospect in the state of New York. He also landed Curtis Williams Jr., the No. 1 overall prospect in the state of Michigan, and Kaleb Glenn, who is the No. 2 overall prospect in the state of Indiana.
The state of Louisville basketball is at a much healthier place than it has been in over a half decade and now that Kenny Payne has all of the pieces to his puzzle in place, it will be exciting to watch Louisville basketball get back to what it used to be.