Kenny Payne Louisville vs. Wake Forest 1-7-2023 Photo by William Caudill, TheCrunchZone.com

Louisville Basketball Issues Final Remaining Scholarship To 4-Star Ty-Laur Johnson + ROSTER REVIEW

Mark BlankenbakerMay 22, 2023

The Louisville Basketball roster for 2023-24 is complete…. for now. We have to say “for now” in this day and age because until the season gets tipped off in college basketball it’s difficult to project who is actually on any of the over 300 college basketball teams.

But, Louisville it appears is finished this cycle as Memorial Day weekend arrives and the summer semesters are set to begin on May 30th. Kenny Payne added 4-star Point Guard Ty-Laur Johnson from the Bronx, NY on Monday. Johnson was formerly committed to Memphis.

As of May 22nd, Louisville has the #5 incoming class in college basketball. That’s major.

What’s curious about Kenny Payne’s roster construct is that it is contrary to the ‘in’ trend in college basketball where coaches lean heavily on the transfer portal. With 9 incoming players, 3 are from the portal (all of which have one year of college basketball under their belt), 5 HS players (one reclassification), and 1 JUCO.

There has been a lot of change coming off of last year’s 4-28 season. So let’s review who’s actually on the team now (listed by height):

Ty-Laur Johnson 6’0, 160 (Freshman)
Hercy Miller 6’3, 180 (Junior)
Sky Clark 6’3, 200 (Sophomore, Illinois transfer)
Mike James 6’5, 215 (Sophomore)
Tre White 6’6, 190 (Sophomore, USC transfer)
Kaleb Glenn 6’6, 200 (Freshman)
Curtis Williams 6’6, 205 (Freshman)
Koron Davis 6’7, 185 (JUCO, Junior)
JJ Traynor 6’8, 190 (Junior)
Trentyn Flowers 6’8, 210 (Freshman, reclass)
Danilo Jovanovich 6’8, 219 (Sophomore, Miami transfer)
Emmanuel Okorafor 6’9, 220 (Sophomore)
Brandon Huntley-Hatfield 6’10, 250 (Sophomore)
Dennis Evans 7’1, 210 (Freshman)

EXPERIENCE

(Sorted by total minutes played. Stats are from last year)

JJ Traynor: 62 career games, 1161 minutes, 6.9 ppg, 3.8 rebs, 0.6 ast
Brandon Huntley-Hatfield: 59 career games, 1054 minutes, 6.7 ppg, 5.4 rebs, 0.6 ast
Mike James: 32 career games, 993 minutes, 10.1 ppg, 3.3 rebs, 1.1 ast
Tre White: 33 career games, 881 minutes, 9.0 ppg, 5.1 rebs, 1.0 ast
Skyy Clark: 13 career games, 318 minutes, 7.0 ppg, 2.1 ast, 3.7 rebs
Hercy Miller: 33 career games. 262 minutes. 1.8 ppg, 0.4 ast, 0.7 rebs
Emmanuel Okorafor: 5 career games. 74 minutes. 4.4 ppg, 4.2 rebs, 0.4 ast
Danilo Jovanovich: 1 career game. 2 minutes. No Stats

What’s the Lineup?

After a 4-28 season, no one has a clear shot at any starting spot. And it stands to reason that with this many new players the rotations could change a great deal throughout the summer, fall and even deep into the season.

That being said the player that’s probably the easiest to project into the starting lineup is Skyy Clark at point guard. Skyy was committed to DePaul as an 8th grader and then actually signed with Kentucky before requesting his release from the Cats and signing with Brad Underwood at Illinois. Then while in Champaign, Skyy only played in 13 games for Illinois before stepping away for ‘personal reasons….. prioritizing myself and my family’s well-being’. Skyy then committed to Louisville almost immediately following the end of the Cards’ season.

Right or wrong, Skyy has some doubters that don’t have anything with his ability in basketball, but rather his commitment to any team. But….. the talent is there and I personally think he’ll start without much challenge. But Clark might be the only one.

The Experience Line-Up		My Best Guess Line-Up
PG- Skyy Clark		PG- Skyy Clark
SG- Tre White		SG- Tre White
SF- Mike James		SF- Trentyn Flowers
PF- JJ Traynor		PF-Brandon Huntley-Hatfield
C- Brandon Huntley-Hatfield		C- Dennis Evans

Of course, all of this is a wild guess. Mike James is going to press for time in the starting lineup. But at this moment, I don’t think Trentyn Flowers decided to skip his senior year of high school to come off the bench at Louisville.

JJ Traynor? I could see him winning the 4-spot and even playing some 3 for Louisville next year. The Cards have a number of inter-changeable pieces that could play the 2/3 or 3/4 so that part will be intriguing. Kaleb Glenn went to prep school and skipped his senior year at Male HS in order to get ‘college ready’ so he’ll be a player to watch. Curtis Williams comes out of a high-level HS program in Michigan and also has some very loud supporters of his game being ready to contribute early in college. And then of course, how does Koron Davis factor into the equation? Is he a 1-2 or 3 at the high major college level?