Louisville Cardinals - B+
Louisville was looking to revive their program after combining for 12 wins over the last 2 seasons. After the hiring of Pat Kelsey and a good offseason the Louisville fans finally had some hope. Kelsey in his first year did not disappoint going 27-8 and making the ACC Championship game for the first time in program history. Sadly they would fall in the first round of the NCAA Tournament as an 8-seed to the Creighton Bluejays 75-89.
While it looked like they were going to lose a lot, outside of their graduates they retained their players pretty well, only losing 2 rotational players to the portal, those 2 being James Scott and Koren Johnson, both to Ole Miss. The commits they got in definitely will make you feel better about the loses, as they currently have the number 1 transfer class in the ACC bringing in 3 commits including Isaac McKneely, a 6-4 Guard from Virginia, Ryan Conwell, a 6-4 Guard from Xavier, and Adrian Wooley, a 6-5 Guard from Kennesaw St. The main concern for Louisville as of now is their front court, which Kelsey did a great job addressing through high school and foreign recruiting.
The Cardinals are bringing in the 13th ranked class in the country according to 247 Sports, They a bringing in a 5-star in Mikel Brown Jr, a 6-3 Guard from Florida, but the big pieces fit wise that they are bringing in include 3 big men from out of the country. Those players include Sananda Fru, a 6-11 Forward from Germany, Mouhamed Camara, a 6-7 Forward from South Africa, and Vangelis Zougris, a 6-8 Forward from Greece.
Overall a very successful offseason for the Pat Kelsey and the Cardinals as they are looking to continue to build on the season they had last year and get the program back to were it was a decade or 2 ago.