ACC Basketball: Each team’s best acquisition out of 2023 transfer portal

Skyy Clark – 6’3 Guard – Louisville Cardinals

The Skyy Clark Experiment lasted just 13 games and a total of 318 minutes in Champaign before Clark made an exit to the transfer portal and found his way into the ACC ranks with the Louisville Cardinals.

Now, all the odds are stacked against him as he looks to improve a Louisville Cardinals program that went 4-28 in Kenny Payne’s first year as head coach. The Cardinals managed to win just two games in the ACC under Payne and they’ll have nine newcomers including three out of the transfer portal looking to turn things around.

Clark didn’t have a rough outing when he was on the floor for the Fighting Illini when he did suit up. He produced 7.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg and 2.1 apg on 33.3 percent shooting from the floor and 41.1 percent shooting from the field across 24.4 minutes per game.

Despite the small sample size, he managed to produce a better defensive rating (99.7) than an offensive rating (97.9), which at worst, shows he can compete with effort on the defensive end of the floor.

In his best outing as a freshman, he went 8-of-9 from the floor and 3-for-4 from deep to finish with 19 points, four assists and three rebounds back in November, though he followed that up with an 0-for-10 performance against Syracuse four days later. He’ll need to shore up his inconsistencies heading into ACC play if he hopes to stay on the floor.

He’ll need to show that he can take care of the ball going forward though if he hopes to remain on the floor. While he dished out 27 assists across his 13 appearances with Illinois, he turned the ball over at the same rate, finishing with 27 turnovers. He’ll look to right the ship leading the Louisville backcourt in 2023-24.