Louisville Men’s Basketball 2024-25 Roster Outlook 1.0

Louisville, Ky. – We may only be about a month into the Pat Kelsey era, but it’s never too early to take a peek into the future and break down the 2024-25 roster for the Louisville men’s basketball program.

So far this offseason, there has been a lot of player movement in both directions, and Kelsey’s first Cardinals team is far from being completely ready. This first roster update will primarily serve as an update of all the moves that have occurred up to this point versus the actual details of the roster.

There will certainly be additional transfer portal action in the coming days and weeks. But for now, let’s take a look at where this team stands currently.

departure and arrival

As mentioned earlier, there have been a lot of moving roster pieces for Louisville since the end of the season. Even after former head coach Kenny Payne was fired on March 13, a day after the Cardinals’ season-ending loss to NC State in the ACC Tournament, the roster immediately began to turn over.

In the two weeks following Payne’s dismissal, more than half the roster entered the portal. Curtis Williams Jr., Caleb Glenn, Dennis Evans, JJ Traynor, Danilo Jovanovic, Sky Clark, and Mike James all opted to transfer shortly after the end of the season. Then after Kelsey’s official appointment on March 28, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Trey White, Emmanuel Okorafor and Ty-Laur Johnson all followed suit.

Additionally, Koron Davis was dismissed midway through the season, and walk-on Zane Payne graduated. Put it all together, and the only returners from the Kenny Payne era are walk-ons Aiden McCollum and Hersey Miller. Additionally, Louisville’s lone commitment in the Class of 2024 – TJ Robinson of Montclair (NJ) Immaculate Conception – withdrew from his verbal pledge a day after Payne’s firing.

To cope with all those departing players, Kelsey and company had to work very hard in the transfer portal. So far, they have done just that and then some, having already secured eight transfers for next season.

Shortly after Kelsey’s appointment, Rene Smith and James Scott announced that they would both follow Kelsey to Charleston. In the days and weeks that followed, James Madison guard/forward Terrence Edwards Jr., Colorado guard Ja’Von Hadley, Washington guard Coren Johnson and Wisconsin guard Chucky Hepburn also chose to commit to Louisville.

BYU center Eli Khalifa is also attending next season, but will be redshirting the 2024–25 season to recover from a knee injury he suffered last season.

Estimated Depth Chart

Given everything we know now about the current state of Louisville’s roster, below is an early look at what the depth chart could look like next year:

All things considered, this is a very good group of players for Kelsey to make up the rest of his roster for the first team. It’s also very clear what his focus has been on Portal this cycle: threes, defense and winning.

Of Louisville’s current crop of transfer commitments, four of them shot 35.0 percent or better on three-point attempts, four had top-500 D-Porpagetu (Bart Torvik’s defensive efficiency metric) ratings, and among them Seven made the NCAA Tournament last season. With their respective schools. There also seems to be an emphasis on landing players who are good at passing the ball, as five of them had an assist rate of 20.0 percent or higher last year.

Currently, in the first year of Pat Kelsey’s tenure at the helm, Louisville’s strengths lie in the backcourt and on the wing. Although this doesn’t seem like a team that will have a primary focal point (partially due to how many players Kelce likes to play), if anyone was going to be, it would be Edwards. He is one of the top players entering the portal (No. 20 per On3), is a three-point scorer and playmaker, and is excellent on defense.

The other players on the wing are very productive and very versatile. Hadley is your standard underrated “glue guy” who can play the two and three very well on both ends. Traore is someone who plays bigger than his height suggests, as he provides both patience and hustle, and can create mismatches on both ends of the floor from the two to the four.

As far as true defenders are concerned, they will also have a big role to play. This is especially the case for Hepburn, as his skills as a facilitator can be the key to unlocking the true potential of the offense, and he is a tone-setter on defense. Johnson, the Pac-12’s sixth-ranked Player of the Year, gives Louisville a good backup option, whether on or off the ball. Smith may see some wideout performance against teams that are susceptible to three-pointers, but he should be a good bench option no matter who the Cards play.

Below in the post is where Louisville still needs to hit the hardest on the portal. The staff really likes Scott’s long-term progress and NBA potential, but he only has one year of college experience. Khalifa, currently the best passing big man in men’s college basketball, also will not play next season. Traore may struggle down the stretch, but the Cardinals need – at a minimum – two more true big men on their roster.

For more in-depth analysis on each player, check out our individual analysis below:

(Photo by Pat Kelsey: Michael Clevenger – Courier Journal / USA)

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