Louisville basketball and Pat Kelsey had a busy offseason, replacing nine players. The Cardinals went out and added six players from the Transfer Portal and three from the 2026 recruiting class, and are now trending as a preseason top-15 team in the nation.
The Cardinals fans haven’t seen a Final Four run since 2013, when the Cards went the distance and won the whole thing, and now they are hoping Kelsey just built a true Final Four contender. For Louisville to reach that goal, the Field of 68 broke down a few things, including their biggest concern surrounding this roster Kelsey built.
Jeff Goodman questions whether Louisville has enough shooting
The Cardinals put together one of the most expensive rosters in college basketball, as they landed two top 20 players from the portal, three top 60 players, and four top 70 players from the Transfer Portal. On top of the portal, Kelsey landed a 5-star and a 4-star in the 2026 recruiting class, making it certainly seem like the Cardinals are all-in this upcoming season.
However, when looking at Louisville’s roster, Jeff Goodman raises his biggest concern with the roster Kelsey built.
“I just think you got to get offense out of that four spot and spacing,” stated Goodman about Louisville’s biggest X-factor. “To me, that is the biggest X-factor. Folgueiras or Ekezie, one of those guys has to really emerge as a floor-spacing four-man who can step out, because if that doesn’t happen, man, do they have enough shooting?”
Goodman makes it clear that his biggest concern about Louisville is the Cardinals' spacing and shooting, and it has been a glaring concern among fans as well. Louisville has been known as a program that lives and dies by the three, but many aren’t sure whether Kelsey added enough scorers and shooters this offseason.
Goodman brings up Alvaro Folgueiras and Obinna Ekezie Jr. at the power forward position, and the hope is the Iowa transfer can find his shot as he did at Robert Morris. The 4-star transfer made a career-high 45 3’s his sophomore season and won the 2025 Horizon League Player of the Year award after averaging 14.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game.
As for Ekezie, the 7-foot-2, 240-pound 5-star freshman can space the floor out, but it isn’t his biggest strength.
The Cardinals did add some under-the-radar shooters, such as Karter Knox and Boyuan Zhang. The 4-star freshman Zhang has the potential to make an immediate impact as a reliable 3-point shooter off the bench for Kelsey.
Zhang averaged 20.2 points per game at Nike EYBL Scholastic League, and On3 Sports went on to call him a “sniper” and a “real shooter,” and that he can knock down shots consistently from 30 feet out.
So, the Cardinals need to prove they can shoot from beyond the arc, but they do have some options. It is a reasonable concern to have from Goodman, but hopefully Folgueiras and Zhang can be the knockdown 3-point shooters Kelsey needs them to be.
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