The 2020-2021 campaign ended with a lifeless thud rather than an emphatic finish to the season. After a 13-7 record and a loss to a bad Duke team in the ACC tournament, the Cards would find themselves at home for a second straight year after the previous tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The story of last season for Louisville was missed opportunities, as a majority of Louisville’s regular season and conference schedule was altered due to cancellations and postponements of key games.
The offseason would prove just as challenging as the regular season as the Cards witnessed a litany of transfers and staff changes. Head coach Chris Mack had to make the tough decision not to renewing the contracts of former longtime assistants and friends Luke Murray and Dino Gaudio. The offensive and defensive philosophy was not working for Louisville after year three, and the coach was at a crossroads. The system was effective in some aspects, but many felt the potential of the players on the roster was not being reached. In addition, the decision not to renew the contract of Dino Gaudio somehow turned into yet another blow to an already scorned program. For the second time in about four years, Louisville Basketball found itself in bed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This time it was for an extortion attempt by former assistant Dino Gaudio. Louisville basketball would not come out of this situation unscathed as the contents of what was being alleged by Gaudio in the extortion attempt would add another piece to the proverbial NCAA puzzle. The overall violations themselves are nothing that would be of major concern for any coach, but for a coach at a place like Louisville, who now has one Level-1 violation and six Level-2 violations, it’s yet another thing that will be “stapled together”–to quote Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra–when the NCAA hands out its ruling which is believed to be sometime after Spring 2022.
On the court however, the Cards are welcoming a lot of new faces. Louisville hit the transfer market this offseason by adding the likes of guards Mason Faulkner, Jarod West, and Noah Locke. The Cards also stacked more depth at the wing position by adding Miami transfer Matt Cross. In addition to the new group of transfers, Louisville added JUCO products Sydney Curry and El Ellis. The 2021 class was capped off by freshman recruits Mike James (who unfortunately is out for the season with a torn achilles) and freshman center Roosevelt Wheeler (who coincidentally is coming off an achilles injury). Finally, Louisville also added a new face to their coaching staff in Ross McMains.
The common complaint coming out of last season for Louisville was the stagnant nature of the offense in the half-court and the defense failing to cause havoc and turn the ball over at that end. Ross McMains was brought in to change that. Starting out his career as an assistant in player development for the Sacramento Kings, McMains brings a ton of international and NBA experience bouncing around from the NZNBL, NBA, and G-League. The offensive philosophy that has been instilled into this year’s Louisville team is a stark contrast to that of last year. The name of the game for Louisville in the 2021-2022 season will be pace and space, borrowing principles and looks that are commonplace at the NBA and international levels. In short, the Cards are expected to play at a fast pace unlike anything Chris Mack has ever done in years prior.
Despite all the new faces that have been added this offseason, Louisville is returning many familiar faces from a season ago. The three main players that many hope will help elevate the Cards to the next level are sophomore forward Jae’lyn Withers, junior wing Samuell Williamson, and 10-year veteran center Malik Williams. Withers, Williamson, and Williams have by far the most experience on the roster dating all the way back to the 2019-2020 pandemic season. Now, they hope to lead the team, along with fellow contributors from last years squad in sophomore forwards Dre Davis and JJ Traynor, to not only make the tournament but also to go deep into late March and early April.
So, as anyone who’s capable of reading a depth chart can see, Louisville has a loaded roster. What will that mean for the Cards though? It’s difficult to tell. In Mack’s first year, they surprisingly made the tournament before losing to Minnesota in an odd 11:45AM game on the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament. The next year, the Cards were squarely in position to make the tournament without any issue, but then COVID happened which meant we would never know how Mack’s best team he’s had at UofL would finish. As mentioned previously, the 2020-21 season would end in a sputter as the Cards were the selection committee’s 69th (nice) best team, the first left out of the big dance. However, this year the expectation for the Cards is that they will make the tournament. Where they will finish is another question.
Let’s start with the ACC. Let’s be honest, the ACC is in a very weird state right now. “Damn, Indiana?” you may ask. No, not Indiana, but rather in a state of transition. If you’ve been living under a rock, it may be a surprise to you to find out that Roy Williams is not coaching North Carolina this year, and that spot has been filled by Hubert Davis who is going to give this whole coaching thing a try (I would say the “the old college try,” but they don’t do that at North Carolina). In addition, if you didn’t know Roy wouldn’t be back for UNC this year, you also probably missed the fact that this will be Coach K’s last year at the helm of Duke before he hands the keys to longtime assistant John Scheyer at the end of the season. So, for the first time in a while, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding who will be at the top of the league when it’s all said and done. Sure, it’s been a while since either of those teams have actually won the league outright as that honor has gone to Virginia and NBA factory Florida State.
So, what does all that mean for Louisville? Well, it means there’s a real opportunity for the Cards to finally get over the hump and win that ever-elusive ACC title. It will be a tough challenge though. Duke is still Duke, as they have what appears to be the number one pick in the draft in freshman power forward Paolo Banchero and a roster of 50 million other former McDonalds All-Americans. Florida State is always the bugaboo for the Cards, as they are for a lot of teams, considering they are the collegiate version of the Milwaukee Bucks, having a collective height of 10,000 feet. Despite those two teams however, the league is wide open. Many are expecting Virginia Tech to be good, but Louisville is their dad, and Virginia is the only other real threat as they will have a bunch of guys you’ve never heard of plus Kihei Clark. Outside of those teams, one could either see Louisville finishing anywhere from 6th place (as many have predicted) or outright winning the league. For me however, I think the Cards finish in third place just behind Florida State and Duke as those two teams present the only real challenge for the Cards in conference play. That’s how convoluted the ACC is this year in my eyes. However, the expectation for Louisville heading into the postseason I think should be Elite 8 in the best-case scenario and Sweet 16 in the worst-case scenario. I just feel that Louisville is too deep to finish around anything below a Sweet 16 exit.