Pat Kelsey went all-in on the Transfer Portal to build his 2026-27 roster, but even after assembling an elite portal class, he has Louisville on the cusp of landing one of the top high school talents in the country.Â
2027 5-star Obinna Ekezie Jr., a seven-foot center from Orlando, Florida, recently named the Cardinals in his top-five, with recruiting experts naming Louisville as a slight favorite over Arkansas to land his commitment. However, on Thursday, Louisville got even better news as 247Sports recruiting expert Travis Branham placed a crystal ball prediction on Kelsey and his staff to land the reclassification candidate.Â
Ekezie is currently the No. 4 overall player in the 2027 class, but the overwhelming expectation is that he will reclassify into the 2026 class and play college basketball next season. So, after dropping out of the race for Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 high school player in the country and a Louisville native, Kelsey may land his five-star recruit after all.Â
Travis Branham places crystal ball prediction for Louisville to land Obinna Ekezie Jr.
Pat Kelsey was tasked with rebuilding his entire roster after leading the Cardinals to their first NCAA Tournament win in nine years this season. With serious NIL backing, he has delivered Flory Bidunga, Jackson Shelstad, Karter Knox, De’Shayne Montgomery, Alvaro Folgueiras, and 7-foot-5 center Gabe Dynes.Â
Between Bidunga, Folgueiras, and Dynes, Louisville already has a formidable front-court rotation, but with Ekezie, it could be one of the most dominant in the country.Â
Bidunga was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year last season and was one of the top transfers on the market when he left Kansas. Folgueiras is a lethal floor-spacer who hit one of the biggest shots of the NCAA Tournament to help Iowa down Florida in the second round. Dynes played sparingly for USC, just 11 minutes per game, but his sheer size is an asset in a supersized college basketball landscape.Â
Last season, and for much of his coaching career, Kelsey has ridden the waves of three-point variance. Louisville’s 52.9 percent three-point attempt rate was the fourth-highest in the country, and the highest in the ACC. That level of three-point shooting introduces a level of entropy that the best teams in the country have worked to rid themselves of with massive front courts constructed to maximize their easy baskets at the rim, limit their opponents, and build a possessions edge by controlling the boards.
Florida and Michigan, the last two national champions, are two clear examples of this philosophy. While Kelsey is something of a late adopter and likely will never shy away from a high volume of three-point attempts, he spent big to build a roster befitting of the times, and Ekezie would be the final piece.
Add us as a preferred source on Google