So the college basketball season is over and it’s never to early to look towards next season. The Cardinals have a very good recruiting class coming in next season and maybe one of Coach Pitino’s best hauls since becoming the Louisville head man. It is considered #4 by ESPN, #9 by 247Sports, #8 by Scout, #7 by Rivals and he has done a very good job at addressing all the needs in this next group. He’s got a great back-court duo with Shaqquan Aaron, and Quentin Snider. Aaron has tremendous playmaking and scoring ability at 6-8. He could end up the biggest star of the group. Snider is also a great scorer and has a lot of ability. He will be one of those long term impact players that Louisville fans have grown accustomed to.
This group will also feature some great long term impact players in the front-court with Jaylen Johnson and Chinanu Onuaku. These guys fit Coach Pitino’s system ideally. Onuaku has rapidly improved and is very skilled for a big man. Once he drops some weight, he will make a big impact. Johnson brings a lot of intangibles to the team, and is a great baseline player. Then we have the twin towers with 7-foot-2 Matz Stockman and 7-foot-1 Anas Osama Mahmoud. These guys are a bit of a mystery to most people on the left side of the Atlantic, but apparently, they are loaded with potential. You can’t teach size and these guys have that.
We have a solid group of guys coming back next year as well. In the back-court we will have Chris Jones, Terry Rozier and Anton Gill getting most of the minutes. Jones improved drastically towards the end of this season and once he became more accustomed to coach Pitino’s system was a different player. That will only get better as he has another summer to adapt. Terry Rozier will be a star in his sophomore season. This guy is gonna make some noise in college basketball and the ACC. Anton Gill will be another major contributor on the offensive end of the floor, but will have to get the defense down. Returning is also the next Tim Henderson spark plug off the bench in David Levitch. He is gonna hit some big shots before he is done, and is a great kid to cheer for.
With the news of Co-Captain Montrezl Harrell returning it adds even more depth in the Louisville front-court and I don’t need to tell you what kind of impact he will make next season. He makes the Cardinals a legitimate contender for another National Title run. Not that they wouldn’t have been anyway but Montrezl guarantees it. Having this much depth in the front-court will also give the young guys more time to develop and get comfortable with the college game. The Cards will also have Wayne Blackshear, Mango Mathiang and Akoy Agau returning. Wayne is a real big question mark at this point in my opinion. Will he finally breakout and be the 5* All-American we have expected since he arrived? Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m behind him 100%, and being a team captain next season may help his confidence also. Mango is the most promising of this group and his upside and potential is off the charts. If he adds the weight this summer he’s going to have a huge year, and be a beast in the middle of that Pitino defense with his shot blocking ability. I have confidence that Akoy will get some solid minutes next year also. He is a skilled guy. He just needs to keep his attitude positive.
Some of the different sports sites and talking heads have already came out with their early top 25 rankings:
-Dan Hanner RealGM.com/Louisville #14
-Jon Rothstein CBS Sports/Louisville #11
-CBS Sports.com./Louisville #21
-NBC Sports.com/Louisville Unranked
-Bleacher Report/ Louisville #21
I look for these rankings to be adjusted with the news of Harrell’s return. My guess is that Louisville will be firmly in the top 10 of every pre-season ranking. We could possibly crack the top 5 in some of them also.
This season has shown us all that it’s really hard to predict how a season will turn out, but I know I’m looking forward to it. It will be fun to see how all the new guys mold with the returning guys and how the returning guys step up to fill the shoes of those that left the program in such great shape. See you in 2014-15 Cardinal Fans..