Louisville Basketball: Khwan Fore will add a backcourt spark to the Cardinals
Louisville basketball bolstered its backcourt for the upcoming season by adding grad transfer Khwan Fore. How does he fit with the 2018-2019 roster?
Louisville added one of the best available graduate transfer over the weekend, former Richmond guard Khwan Fore. Fore previously committed to Tennessee and also considered Auburn, as well as the Vols, after re-opening his recruitment. This was an easy decision for Fore from a playing time perspective since Louisville has significant minutes to offer at both guard positions. Tennessee is loaded with Jordan Bone, Jordan Bowden, and Lamonte Turner in the backcourt and Auburn is in a great position with Jared Harper and Bryce Brown.
Fore averaged 11.0 points and 2.7 assists per game as a junior at Richmond and is known for his ability to finish at the basket and defend at a high level. The six-foot combo guard struggles to shoot the ball (28% from three) but should play a huge role in his lone season with the Cardinals.
Fore is not the only grad-transfer that Louisville added, though. Samford transfer Christen Cunningham has also committed to the program. Cunningham is more of a traditional pass-first point guard and was awarded a medical redshirt last season. He averaged 11.4 points and 6.3 assists per game two seasons ago and will have a major impact as the projected starting lead guard.
While Cunningham will almost assuredly start, Fore will have much stiffer competition at the shooting guard position. Rising sophomore Darius Perry came on strong towards the end of last season and will certainly be in the mix for significant playing time and a starting role. Perry is a former top-100 recruit who averaged 3.9 points per game as a freshman last season. He may be a point guard down the road but will probably be most effective off-ball in the immediate future. Perry will be a factor in the rotation but could lose the starting role to the more experienced Fore.
Junior guard Ryan McMahon is also worth mentioning as he shoots the lights out and is quite capable offensively. Unfortunately, his defensive limitations make him a liability on that end of the floor and restrict him to a situational role. So, Louisville has some solid options in the backcourt as they have multiple players with different skillsets. It will be interesting to see how they are mixed and matched, but the grad-transfers look to have the early leg up in terms of playing time.
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Head coach Chris Mack has done an excellent job rebuilding this roster, which was gutted by NBA decisions, transfers, and exhausted eligibility. Fore and Cunningham have injected talent and experience into this squad and Mack has already lined up a talented replacement in 2019 guard Josh Nickelberry. Nickelberry is the start of what should be a huge 2019 recruiting class for Louisville. The Cardinals are in the mix for multiple highly rated recruits who should help lead Louisville back to the NCAA Tournament and get the program back on track.