Louisville basketball offseason changes: A summary

I’ll just go ahead and get this out of the way early. Most of you will already know all of the information in this post. But with so many different changes this offseason for the Louisville men’s basketball team, I wanted to recap what has happened and do it all in one place. There has been no press conference about any of these moves, so it’s kind of just a refresher post that hopefully serves some sort of purpose or keeps these things fresh in your mind. With that said, let’s get started.

Coaching Changes

-The contracts of Luke Murray and Dino Gaudio were not renewed. Murray has recently landed a spot on the staff at UConn.

-Kahil Fennell was promoted to one of the open Assistant Coach positions. He served as the Director of Basketball Operations for the past three seasons. This appeared to be a very popular move amongst the current players on the team.

-Filling the vacated Director of Operations role will be Taylor Barnette, who had been the Director of Player Development last season. He has been a member of the program for the last three seasons, with his first two being a program assistant. This included things like scout work and film breakdown of upcoming opponents.

-This leaves one open Assistant Coach position on the staff. We will see what Coach Mack decides to do there.

-Although not a coach, he deserves to be mentioned…Fred Hina retired after 20 years as the Head Athletic Trainer for the team.

Moving On

-David Johnson and Carlik Jones will chase their dreams of becoming NBA players. Charles Minlend opted against coming back after an injury-plagued season. I don’t think he will transfer somewhere else, but probably try to go ahead and play professionally. We will see.

Coming Back

-Malik Williams decided to return to the Cards, which was a nice little surprise to have.

Transferring Out

-Aidan Igiehon transferred to Grand Canyon in the Western Athletic Conference. Aidan scored 26 points and grabbed 25 rebounds in 18 games in his two seasons at Louisville.

-Josh Nickelberry transferred to LaSalle. He chose them over Fordham and North Carolina-Wilmington. He played in 24 games in two seasons at Louisville and scored 37 points.

-Quinn Slazinski will also be transferring. At the time of writing this, he has not announced where he will be headed. He averaged 6.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game as a Sophomore this past season for the Cards.

Transferring In

-Matt Cross just played his freshman season at Miami and will be joining the Cards. He is a 6’7, 225-pound forward known for his outside shooting. He played in 14 games for the Hurricanes and connected on 20/50 three-point goals (40%). His season high for points was 16, which he got twice, and once of those was against Louisville. He was 4/6 from three in that game.

-Jarrod West will be playing his final season with UofL after coming in from Marshall University. He is a 5’11 guard who averaged 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 2.5 steals per game last season. He holds the school record at Marshall with 254 career steals.

-Noah Locke comes to Louisville from the University of Florida, where he was also known for his outside shooting. He is 6’3 and started in 79 of the 92 games he played for the Gators. In 25 games this past season, he averaged 10.6 points per game and shot 40.4% from three. He made 217 three pointers in his three seasons in Gainesville.

Other Newcomers

-El Ellis – 6’3, 175 lb. 4-star combo guard from Tallahassee Community College. Named a Junior College All-American in each of the last two seasons. Also named Panhandle Conference Player of the Year.

-Mike James – 6’6, 195 lb. 4-star small forward from Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Florida.

-Roosevelt Wheeler – 6’10, 220 lb. 4-star center from John Marshall High School in Richmond, Virginia.

Final Note

I expected this to be a shorter post. Kind of impossible with all of these changes that have happened with the program. In addition to all of this info, the Cards still have two scholarships available for the upcoming season if they choose to use them. It will be a much different roster for the Cards next season, that’s for sure! Here’s to hoping that a somewhat normal off-season happens and they can build some team chemistry and not just be thrown together at the last minute.

Hopefully this got you caught up to speed if you needed it. If you didn’t need it, you probably haven’t gotten this far anyway, but I still appreciate you reading any of it.

Take care and Go Cards!