By Alex Thomas–

It was a busy summer for Rick Pitino as he and the rest of the Cardinal coaching staff hit the recruiting trail hard, securing three top prospects from the class of 2015.

The first to commit was five-star small forward Deng Adel out of Bradenton, Florida. The lanky six-foot-seven, 190 pound forward is ranked 18 overall on Scout.com. Bradenton was highly sought after with offers from UConn and Florida, among other schools.

 

Less than a week later, the Cards grabbed Raymond Spalding, a local product out of Trinity High School. The six-foot-nine power forward shot up the recruiting rankings this summer vaulting into the Scout top 100 where he now sits at 39. Spalding joins Ballard grad Quentin Snyder as the second  local product to commit to the Cards in the past two years.

 

The Cards third commitment was from Donovan Mitchell. The six-foot-three shooting guard was relatively unknown until this summer when he impressed scouts during the July AAU season. He is currently ranked as the 20th best overall prospect according to Scout.com giving the Cards two players in the top 20.

This is shaping up to be one of the top recruiting classes that Pitino has amassed at U of L. This is due in part to the Cardinals’ on-court success in recent years as well as the hiring of assistant coach Kenny Johnson. Johnson was previously an assistant under Tom Crean at Indiana and is known for his recruiting prowess. Johnson replaced Kenny Keats who took the head coaching job at North Carolina Wilmington.

 

With Louisville now having three commits on the board, it appears as if there is only room for one or two more players. Potential targets include highly touted guards Antonio Blakeney and Perry Dozier along with forward Dwayne Bacon.