Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Louisville Cardinals

The college basketball season is just over two weeks away — time is just flying by. To get you ready for the season, I’m previewing the season in men’s college basketball, team by team. In these previews I will highlight key departures, additions, returners and overall DFS viability for each team. These previews will be heavily focused on DFS and fantasy in general, so keep that in mind when I’m talking about the relevancy of a player or team rotations.

We kick things off with the ACC, a conference that severely underperformed in the pandemic-impacted season last year. While the conference will inevitably have a handful of DFS staples for us to use each slate, it still seems like the ACC lost more talent than it was able to gain. With the transfer rules changing after March Madness ended it ultimately led to what was essentially free agency in CBB. There were coaching changes as well which I will talk about throughout this breakdown because new philosophies will mean new strategies for our DFS builds.

In this one, Louisville.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Louisville Cardinals 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 13-7 (8-5 ACC), seventh in ACC
Postseason: None

Key Departures | Louisville Cardinals

Carlik Jones (left for NBA)
David Johnson (NBA draftee)
Quinn Slazinski (transferred to Iona)
Aidan Igiehon (transferred to Grand Canyon)
Charles Minlend (graduated)
Josh Nickleberry (transferred to LaSalle)

Key Additions | Louisville Cardinals

Jarrod West (transferred from Marshall)
Noah Locke (transferred from Florida)
El Ellis (Juco transfer)
Matt Cross (transferred from Miami)
Roosevelt Wheeler (top 80 recruit)
Mason Faulkner (transferred from WCU)

Returners | Louisville Cardinals

Samuell Williamson (9.6 PPG/8.1 RPG/1.2 APG)
Dre Davis (7.5 PPG/3.2 RPG/1.1 APG)
Jae’Lyn Withers (10 PPG/7.7 RPG/0.9 SPG)
Malik Williams (5 PPG/6 RPG/1 APG)

Louisville Cardinals Outlook for 2021-2022

The Cardinals dealt with some offseason drama between former assistant coach Dino Gaudio and head coach Chris Mack. I’m not going to get into specifics in this breakdown, but Mack will be suspended for the first six games of the season because of it. This team was one of the more viable DFS units in the ACC last year and on paper they look strong once more.

Let’s start with the returners. The NCAA ruled that seniors could play an additional year if they wished because a lot of teams lost games due to COVID-19 in 2020. The term “super senior” was coined for seniors who decided to return, so you will see me reference this a lot in these previews. Malik Williams is one such super senior and the team will be relying on him big time. The caveat here is that he has been dealing with injuries for the past two years and only managed to play in three games in 2020. Reports out of camp are that they’re being extremely cautious with him, and for good reason. Williams could be a double-double guy if healthy, so all eyes will be on his status coming into the season. Jae’Lyn Withers was efficient in his freshman season and had some of the best rebounding efficiency numbers on the team. If Malik Williams is on a minutes restriction starting out, we could see Withers playing big minutes this year and ascending to a very high level. Samuell Williamson was up and down with his production last year but ultimately finished with averages of 10 PPG/8 RPG and could take another step forward as one of the veterans on the squad. Dre Davis is a role player that saw good minutes as a starter last year. That was more to do with injuries and lack of bodies though as opposed to winning the job outright. He is a defensive minded player that probably takes a backseat to the newcomers when it comes to fantasy production.

I’m a huge El Ellis fan and have already drafted him in a couple of my dynasty leagues (yes, those exist in CBB, hit me up if interested, there are openings all the time). At the juco level last year, Ellis put up 18/4/4 while knocking down over 40% of his triples. Obviously, he is making a major jump from juco to the ACC but I think he is up for the challenge. He will be someone I talk about a lot in my slate writeups. With mega-star Carlik Jones gone, Ellis will pick up a lot of that slack while Marshall transfer Jarrod West picks up the rest. West is a hard-nosed player who averaged over 12 PPG and 6 APG in his last season at Marshall. He has a knack for racking up steals and averaged over 2 per game last year. Noah Locke was a bit of a corner stander during his time at Florida, but as a rock-solid 40% career three-point shooter he did it well. He was habitually priced under $5k on DFS sites so it didn’t take much for him to pay that tag off if he got hot early. Chris Mack has excelled in the past with similar players and turned three-point sniper Ryan McMahon into a serious weapon a few years back. We could see Locke be one of the few viable DFS options that relies strictly on his ability to knock down triples. Faulkner put up gaudy numbers at Western Carolina where he played for two seasons after transferring from Northern Kentucky. He averaged 17/5/5 while at WCU and will operate as a creator for others within this offense. He won’t be asked to score 17 a game like he was at WCU but will do enough in other categories to be a solid fantasy option most nights. Matt Cross was a 7 PPG/4 RPG during his lone season at Miami and would only be interesting if Malik Williams misses time again.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

The Cardinals backcourt appears to be crowded at first glance, which would negatively affect their ability to put up big scores but by the time conference play rolls around I think we will see a defined pecking order that we can attack with confidence. A lot is riding on the health of Malik Williams (aka “Young KD,” as we affectionately call him DFS circles). Expect production to jump for Samuell Williamson and Jay’Lyn Withers, as they’ll have fairly high-level creators around them at the guard position. El Ellis is going to be a sneaky play almost immediately and is an early candidate for the #WaltsGuys club.