By Russ Brown
NKyTribune correspondent
LOUISVILLE — Heading into his final two games for the University of Louisville basketball team last week, senior Damion Lee wistfully looked into the future in an aside to sports information director Kenny Klein.
“I wish I had another year. Can we work on that?,” Lee asked.
He was joking, of course, but point well-taken. No wonder Lee would like to be a part of the Cardinals’ 2017 roster, given the promise that holds.
It would surely be almost impossible to find anyone who — to use a favorite term of coach — isn’t bullish on the Cards’ prospects next season, given their surprising success this year and their wealth of returning talent and experience.
Even with a team consisting of 11 freshmen and sophomore, and just two seniors — Lee and Trey Lewis — UofL was in the thick of the ACC championship race through the final weekend before finishing fourth, three spots ahead of its preseason prognostication. And had the Cards not been shackled by the school’s self-imposted postseason ban, they probably would have earned a No. 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In this year of parity and no dominating team, UofL was also being mentioned as a potential Final Four team — had it been eligible.
UofL will certainly miss the skills, experience and leadership of Lee and Lewis, the two leading scorers who accounted for 36.3 percent of the team’s points while taking 35 percent of its shots. But the future looks undeniably bright. . .unless the NCAA adds another ban after its investigation into the sex scandal concludes, which is considered unlikely.
After the ban was announced on Feb. 5, the primary focus of the returning players was to not only challenge for the ACC title, but to improve as much as possible with an eye on next season.
“We have a lot of guys coming back next year, a lot of guys who are going to do big things,” freshman guard Donovan Mitchell says.
While the Cards were unranked in the 2016 preseason polls, they will probably be a top 10 pick next year after finishing No. 14 in the final regular season poll with a 23-8 record.
“We’ll be a highly-ranked team because of our performance this year and returning players,” Pitino says. “And the good thing is, the players we have returning, expecially in the frontcourt, are just scratching their potenial. We have some really talented freshmen who are going to get better.”
He was referring to Mitchell, a 6-3 guard with sensational athleticism; 6-7 forward Deng Adel; 6-10 forward Ray Spalding; and 7-0 center Matz Stockman.
The “elder statesmen” on next year’s club will be junior 6-10 junior Chinanu Onuaku, assuming he doesn’t turn pro; 6-10 senior Mangok Mathiang; 7-0 junior Anas Mahmoud, 6-9 junior forward Jaylen Johnson; and 6-2 junior point guard Quentin Snider.
“This team is definitely going to be amazing next year with all the talent that’s coming back,” Lee says. “I could go down the list. Quentin’s going to be amazing. I feel he’s really, really underestimated. A lot of people don’t focus on him, but if you watch how Q plays he controls the game from a complete point guard standpoint, he’s great.
“With Deng, Ray and Donovan all coming back and getting better. . .the last two weeks of the season Matz was dominant in practice. Nanu is getting better. I really feel they can make a lot of noise.”
Lee expects Onuaku to be a dominant force next season, as he was at times this year, finishing with averages of 9.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks while posting 11 double-doubles, all but one of them against ACC competition.
“I’ve said this time and time again — when Nanu gets it going the kid’s going to be amazing,” Lee says. “I’m just glad I was fortunate to play around him, learn and pick from his basketball mind. He’s only 19, but the kid’s 30 in the basketball world because his mind is so experienced.”
To that current group, UofL will add McDonald’s All-American V.J. King, a 6-foot-6 small forward who averaged 25 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists for Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Va., this season; Frankie Hughes, a 6-3 guard from Garland Heights, Ohio; and graduate transfer Tony Hicks, a 6-2 combo guard from Penn. UofL will also have Ryan McMahon, a 3-point shooting specialst who redshirted this season.
“We’ve got a lot of talented guys coming back on this team, which was a very special team,” Lewis says. “That’s the great thing about it, we’re so young. I think they listened, definitely learned a lot and theyíre going to bring that back next year. I think they’re going to be really good. I think we have a great class coming in. When I met the guys, theyíre good guys, just like us. I think they’re going to jell with this team.”
Among the offseason priorities, Pitino wants to see improved defense from everyone. He also says that Mahmoud and Spalding both need to gain weight and strength, while Mitchell needs to slim down to about 195 from his current 210 to improve his quickness and stamina.
“Donovan is the weight of a middle linebacker,” Pitino says. “Now, he’s not heavy; he has very little body fat. He’s just not quick enough defensively.”
As for defense, Pitino has very little good to say about any of the individual players and says he is looking for significant progress. He says that contrary to rankings that showed UofL was one of the most efficient teams in the country on defense, “We were a bad defensive team.”
Aside from talent and depth, a blue chip attitude should be a strength of next year’s team, just as it was this season, thanks in large part to the leadership of Lee and Lewis, who will have a lasting effect on the 2017 club.
While dealing with their exclusion from postseason touranments, the Cards took some minor consolation from homecourt wins over top-25 teams North Carolina — the eventual ACC champ — and Duke, reflecting on what might have been had they been eligible for the Big Dance instead of being relegated to wallflower status.
“It’s good to know when we’re watching those teams on TV that we can beat them,” Mitchell said. “It’s a sucky situation, but one we have to live with.”
And there is always next year, which has more meaning than usual for the Cards.
PITINIO WON’T WATCH TOURNEY
Pitino says that lingering disappointment from being barred from the NCAA Tournament with a team he felt had Final Four potential will prevent him from watching the tourney.
“We thought we could get to the Final Four,” he said. “Now look, there’s 20 teams that think they’re going to get there this year. I cried like a baby because none of us are going to get the experience of fighting for that. You know, my favorite time in the pros was March Madness. I just missed it so darn much. I’m going to get the brackets, do one show and I’m not turning it on. I’m not going to watch, I’m just going to hope for the best and some of my friends maybe have a chance to win it.”
There could be quite a few of those. As many as five former Pitino assistants are likely to make the NCAA field — Mick Cronin (Cincinnati), Kevin Willard (Seton Hall), Marvin Menzies (New Mexico State), Tubby Smith (Texas Tech) and Kevin Keats (UNC-Wilmington). Keats’ team has already punched his ticket by virtue of the Seahawks winning the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament in just his second season as coach.
Pitino mentions Kansas and Villanova as leading national championship contenders because of their experienced and skilled backcourts and experience and talent elsewhere and designates the Wildcats of coach Jay Wright as his sentimental favorite.
“I have a little bit of a soft spot for Jay Wright because he’s never won it,” Pitino says. “He’s a great guy, a great friend to so many coaches and it would be great to see him win a national championship.”
POWELL ON ESPN AGAIN
More interviews with Katina Powell and her attorney, Larry Wilder, will be telecast at 10 a.m. Sunday on ESPN2 during its “Outside the Lines” show.
Powell, whose book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules,” detailed alleged sex parties for UofL players and recruits, and Wilder were interviewed in Louisville Monday by ESPN reporter John Barr.
Barr told WDRB in Louisville that the show has “some fresh information,” but wouldn’t say what it entailed. Wilder told the station that, “Mr. Barr had questions about new information developed as well as discussed how her life had been affected by developments that have taken place since they intially interviewed her five months ago.”
Powell was also interviewed Monday for the second time by NCAA investigators.