Louisville basketball should have a lot to look forward to this season as the Cardinals will actually be eligible for the postseason and should have a team that can get them there. They lose guys like Damion Lee, Trey Lewis and Chinanu Onuaku, but do return some pretty good players and are bringing in 6'7" small forward V.J. King.
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During a press conference to preview next season, coach Rick Pitino compared this team to another one of his from 20 years ago when he was at Kentucky. That particular team won a national title so keep that in mind when reading this next tweet:
Rick Pitino says this #Louisville team's length and athleticism will allow it to play in same style as his 1996 #Kentucky champions.
— Tim Sullivan (@TimSullivan714) May 31, 2016
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Just so you have an idea of what team looked like, here is the roster lineup:
That team featured four guys who were drafted into the NBA and Nazr Mohammed who went undrafted, but is still playing in the league and has won a title with the San Antonio Spurs (2005). He also ended up winning another college title in 1998. Let's compare that to this roster from last season:
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Lewis, Lee and Onuaku are gone, but the addition of a long forward like King should help. There should be some strong guard play from Louisville like there was on that 1996 team and with Anas Mahmoud and Mangok Mathiang healthy, this team should be hard to score on in the paint. The real question will be which one of Pitino's guards can step up and the all-conference guard he needs to compete in the postseason.
