The Louisville Cardinals had 4 signees participate in the Kentucky Derby Festival Classic basketball game held at Freedom Hall on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 4,812. This was many fans first and last chance to see them before they put on a Cardinal uniform. You can’t judge what type of player they will be in college by their performance in this game. You can, however, judge their personality and character.
Darius Perry made the best impression on most fans. He was always playing hard, he was very comfortable with the media and very friendly to all the fans that approached him. He was visibly upset when his team lost. He scored 22 points and had 2 rebound.
Lance Thomas was very friendly as well. He played pretty hard but it seemed as though these all-star games are not his thing. I think he will be a great role player under the guidance of Rick Pitino. I liked his effort and attitude. He scored 5 points with 5 rebounds.
Jordan Nwora didn’t get to practice with his team or participate in the future stars event on Friday because he was playing in the Jordan Brand game in Chicago. The fact that he even came to play in this game with his future teammates says a lot about his loyalty. He played decent and I like his rebounding even though he is known as a shooter. He scored 7 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in the KDF Classic and had 19 points and 7 rebounds in the Jordan Brand game the night prior. He will be a great player at Louisville and look for him to get minutes as a freshman.
Malik Williams stayed out on the floor during warm ups longer than anybody. He was working on his shot. He seems to shoot the ball well for a big man. During the game he just seemed to be going through the motions and seemed to be disconnected to his team. He didn’t look much like the guy I watched on all those high school films. He scored 3 points and had 4 rebound but that was all in the first half. He had 0 stats in the second half. I don’t put too much stock into his performance on 1 all-star game and will defer to the scouts ranking him as a top 20 player.
Here are some photos of our guys during the KDF Classic ….
