A strong returning group
A bevy of collegiate-hoops analysts and prognosticators, in providing their projections for 2019-20, view the Cardinals as one of the best units in the sport. Now, in all fairness, a single game has yet to occur, but when the majority of experts are aligned in their thinking, it’s difficult to ignore.
Roughly a dozen media outlets that I perused deem Louisville as a pre-season top-10 crew, with about half of these early rankings placing the Cardinals in the top five across the entire college-basketball landscape. As far as bracketology goes, Louisville is widely regarded as either a No. 1 or a No. 2 seed in these mock fields of 68.
Why so bullish on the Cardinals? It’s fairly simple. Louisville, in 2019-20, has six of its seven leading scorers from the previous stanza back in the fold, headlined by junior forward Jordan Nwora.
Nwora electing to return to the Cardinals, rather than test the NBA Draft waters, is monumental for Mack & Co. Recently named by the 2019-20 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook as a first-team All-America selection, Nwora collected the ACC’s Most Improved Player award a term ago, when he averaged 17.0 points per contest, as well as 7.7 rebounds, and also received inclusion on the league’s third squad.
Expect a monster 2019-20 for Nwora, but it’s not only him that has Louisville prepped for a deep March run. Among the other quite-talented returnees are redshirt senior center Steven Enoch, redshirt senior guard Ryan McMahon, redshirt senior forward Dwayne Sutton and junior forward/center Malik Williams.