The Louisville basketball team ended their 2014-15 season Sunday in a heart ache. They were a free throw make away from making it to a Final Four and Rick Pitino is ready to reload and try for another run next season. He and his coaching staff will be hard at work on the recruiting trail looking for scorers.
The Cardinals were 130th in the nation this season in scoring with 69.2 points a game. With Montrezl Harrell, Terry Rozier, Wayne Blackshear and Anton Gill leaving Louisville will be losing over 80% of their offense. Pitino knows that his style of defense is affective in the ACC, but he needs points to compete with the likes of Duke, UNC and Notre Dame.
Pitino mentioned his need for scorers in his end of the season presser Monday afternoon, “We have a lot of bodies who can bang, rebound, block shots, but we don’t have a lot of guys who can score, and we’ve got to have scorers. We’ve got to have guys who can shoot the basketball.”
Incoming freshman Donovan Mitchell is physically ready to play right away. He is very athletic and is a very good all-around basketball player. Deng Adel is another incoming freshman who could get playing time next season. He is long and very athletic, although he is not known for being a great shooter.
Guard Ryan McMahon, who has committed but not signed, is known as a scorer. He averaged more than 25 points a game this past season at Cardinal Mooney while shooting 52% from behind the arc. The issue that is evident to probably every Louisville fan is that he is 6’o”, 175 lbs.. Not really what Pitino likes physically, although he could get stronger and gain weight in the summer.
There are some potential 5th-year and JUCO transfers that Louisville could add for experience. They have already contacted Trey Lewis, a 6’2″ guard from Cleveland State. Lewis averaged 16.3 points, 4.4 rebound and 2.9 assists this past season. He scored 24 points in the KFC Yum! Center early in the season which impressed Pitino.
Damion Lee from Drexel is also a possibility. He was one of the top scorers in the nation this past season with 21.4 points a game. The 6’6″ wing would be the experience and talent that Louisville would need to make a good run again.
6’4″ junior college transfer Mychal Mulder was on Louisville’s campus Monday. He averaged 15 points a game for Vincennes University this past season, shooting better than 46% from three.
Regardless of who Pitino is able to add this offseason he will need to develop the raw talent he already has. The 2015-16 season will be an interesting one for Louisville. There will be a lot of new faces but Card fans have seen their coach do miracles with rosters that were considered “rebuilding” projects.
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