Looking at Last Couple Roster Spots for Louisville Basketball

It is no secret that the Louisville Cardinals will look much different in the 2015-16 season. Personally, I am very excited for it and to see this team of mostly young guys develop and have their own identity. There are still a couple of spots left to fill for the Cards, and I will give a little update on where things stand. About a week and a half ago, Steve posted a list of potential transfers that UofL could bring in. Trey Lewis was first on the list, and of course we know he will be a Cardinal. So this is really the first update we have posted since then.

If you are wondering how UofL has so much room for all of these guys, here is why. In all, there are seven open spots to fill due to the departures of Wayne Blackshear, Terry Rozier, Montrezl Harrell, Chris Jones, Shaqquan Aaron, Anton Gill, and Akoy Agau. Five of those have already been filled by Donovan Mitchell, Deng Adel, Raymond Spalding, Ryan McMahon, and Trey Lewis. So there are two spots left. Who are the biggest names to fill those spots right now?

Damion Lee

Lee is a 6’6 guard that will be a graduate transfer for whatever team he plays for next season. He has spent his career at Drexel to this point. This past season, he led the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in scoring at 21.4 points per game. He also averaged 6.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

He plans to cut his list of schools down to three or four by the end of this week. Today is Friday, so that list could come out at some point today. He will then take his visits to those schools. It seems like this could come down to Louisville and Maryland. Lee is from Baltimore, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is a lock to be a Terrapin.

It sounds like Lee wants to go somewhere that he can play a lot of minutes. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on Maryland’s returning roster, so I will just let you check out this article on them on your own. It’s an early look at next season’s team for Maryland, and it seems like things may be pretty crowded if Lee were to go there.

If he comes to Louisville, that gives the Cards four solid guards with him, Donovan Mitchell, Quentin Snider, and Trey Lewis. But at 6’6, Lee could also probably slide to the small forward spot and Pitino could just call it a three guard lineup. Either way, the experience that he and Lewis would bring could be a great thing for this young Louisville team next season. Look for Louisville to be on his list of schools to visit, and we will just see what happens from there.

Maverick Rowan

Rowan is a 6’7 4-star small forward/shooting guard out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Currently, he is in the class of 2016. Rick Pitino has been wanting Rowan to reclassify to the 2015 class and go ahead and come to UofL. It appears that Maverick and his family are definitely trying to make that happen.

There are still a couple of obstacles from this being able to happen. Rowan needs to complete a couple of classes to be able to graduate early. The problem is, his current high school doesn’t offer those classes. This article from Tuesday says that Rowan’s family is looking for another school that he can transfer to just to take the classes and graduate. So it sounds like the Rowan family is on board with Pitino’s plan and if he can reclassify, I think it will be Louisville for sure.

Derryck Thornton

This one is a new name for Louisville and the class of 2015. That is because Thornton is also a guy in the 2016 class for right now. Rick Pitino just made a visit on Thursday to the 5-star point guard from Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada.

According to Adam Zagoria, Thornton is ’50-50′ on reclassifying to 2015 and if he does, he will likely end up at either Louisville or Duke. If he chooses Louisville, he comes to a team with Quentin Snider and Donovan Mitchell at the guard spots for the next couple of years, and Trey Lewis for this coming season. If Tyus Jones leaves Duke for the NBA, Thornton could possibly go there and start right away. The best chance for the Cards to land Thornton is if he does reclassify to 2015. If he stays in 2016, other schools come into play for him, including the school down the road.

He will visit Louisville April 19-21.