Louisville basketball: 3 starting lineup options for 2020-2021 season
Worst-case scenario
- Point Guard: David Johnson
- Shooting Guard: Jay Scrubb
- Small Forward: Samuell Williamson
- Power Forward: Jae’Lyn Withers
- Center: Malik Williams
When looking at the possible starting lineup options, there is obviously the opportunity to essentially build a doomsday device and put it into action. We could see Williamson or Williams suddenly decide to transfer and have other key players ruled ineligible. But in the interest of keeping things realistic, the worst-case scenario for Louisville isn’t necessarily horrible on paper.
No matter what, it does appear that the Cardinals will have the luxury of relying on both Williamson and Williams at forward and center, respectively. That’s the good news. And by all accounts, Louisville basketball might be about to unleash a diamond in the rough with Scrubb as there’s a reason he was the top-rated JUCO transfer in college basketball.
At the same time, it’s also entirely possible that Jones doesn’t have the impact many hope we will. In the ACC last season alone, we saw two small-school transfers at North Carolina — Christian Keeling and Justin Pierce — struggle mightily with the jump in competition. If that happens with Jones, they’ll turn to David Johnson, who is not a bad option but doesn’t have the upside Jones seemingly does.
When you pair that with Withers, who was redshirted this past season and isn’t even a top-100 recruit, taking over a starting role, that does somewhat lower the ceiling for the Cardinals. But even in the worst-case scenario, Mack has done a good enough job with the recruiting pipeline and transfer market to ensure that Louisville will remain a top-tier team in the ACC.
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