Louisville basketball fans' dreams came true Sunday afternoon as the Cardinals landed their top two transfer targets in Flory Bidunga and Jackson Shelstad. Louisville hosted the two transfers for a visit over the weekend, and Pat Kelsey worked his portal magic, landing both on Sunday.
Pat Kelsey and Louisville basketball land 2-for-1 commit special fans were waiting for
Bidunga ranked as the consensus No. 1 overall transfer in the portal, and Shelstad ranked as high as No. 16 in the portal and No. 5 among point guards. The Cardinals will now look to stay red-hot in the portal and try to build around Bidunga and Shelstad.
The Cardinals have a lot of targets still available, but on their list, Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell is at the top.
Louisville basketball's new glaring No. 1 target is John Blackwell
On Friday night, Louisville learned they are in a recruiting battle for the 5-star transfer as the Cardinals are one of six teams in his updated list. Louisville is battling UCLA, Illinois, Duke, Alabama, and Arizona for Blackwell, and after landing Bidunga and Shelstad, the Cardinals might be making a strong push for their next No. 1 target.
Right when Blackwell hit the portal, Louisville fans were calling on Chucky Hepburn to reach out to his former Wisconsin teammate. Hepburn, of course, transferred to Louisville after spending three seasons with Wisconsin, and in his final season with the Badgers was Blackwell’s freshman season.
Now, after three years with Wisconsin, Blackwell has entered the portal and is the best shooting guard available. Kelsey lost his top three scorers from a season ago in Mikel Brown Jr., Ryan Conwell, and Isaac McKneely, and now that Louisville has filled their point guard and center positions, Blackwell is the fans' glaring next dream target.
Blackwell ranks as the No. 2 overall transfer in the portal and the No. 1 shooting guard. The Wisconsin transfer is a pure scorer who averaged 19.1 points while shooting 43 percent from the field and 39 percent from downtown last year. He splashed a career high 96 3’s and scored 20 points or more 16 times and scored 30 points or more five times, including his season high 34 points against Washington.
He also added 5.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. Cardinals fans are hoping Kelsey and Hepburn can work together and land not just the No. 1 overall transfer in the portal, but also the top two transfers in the portal, Bidunga and Blackwell.
It won’t be easy, but Louisville is reportedly expected to be one of the top spenders in the Transfer Portal this offseason. So, Cardinals fans are dreaming, and Louisville is hoping to find a way to land Blackwell.
Related: Players in the Transfer portal that the Louisville Cardinals have reached out to
For all the latest news and updates on Louisville basketball's offseason and recruiting, stay tuned.