NCAA Basketball: 8 potential landing spots for Illinois transfer Jacob Grandison
By Joey Loose
Kentucky
At Kentucky, the big news of the offseason is the return of Oscar Tshiebwe for another season. Regardless of what else happens, the Wildcats will enter next season with big expectations, even with other turnover on this roster. Kentucky has already added transfers who can shoot from long range, getting CJ Frederick from Iowa and Antonio Reeves, a big-time scorer from Illinois State, but surely one more couldn’t hurt?
Nobody on this Kentucky has quite the volume of success from long range as Grandison, not to mention he’s familiar with the coaching staff, with two former Illinois assistants sitting on John Calipari’s bench. While the role wouldn’t be identical, Grandison would play a similar role with Kentucky as at Illinois, providing an outside option when big man Tshiebwe is covered in the paint, much like he did with Cockburn. Besides, Kentucky could always use another weapon who can put up points.
Louisville
New head coach Kenny Payne has had quite the task trying to rebuild this Louisville program back into a national contender. Success like that won’t necessarily come overnight (even if it did for Tommy Lloyd and Arizona last season), but things are looking up for the Cardinals. They’ve already landed talented big man Brandon Huntley-Hatfield from Tennessee, and will hoping to get more consistency from returning players like El Ellis and Sydney Curry.
When you throw someone like Grandison into that offense, he could be quite the spark plug. There are talented big men on this Cardinals roster, but this team just hasn’t had that dynamic outside scorer in recent years. The Cardinals were in the bottom 100 in Division 1 in 3-point shooting last season. Grandison’s presence will help deflect some of that interior defense and give the Cardinals a real legitimate threat from long range. The fit seems solid, you just have to wonder if Grandison, who’s twice been to the NCAA Tournament, wants to risk being part of a rebuild that might not end in postseason glory.