By Dalton Ray–

Coming into the season, the 2014 college basketball recruiting class for the Louisville Cardinals included six signees. This ranked them fourth on ESPN, seventh on Rivals.com and eighth on Scout.com. The class is made up of guards Quentin Snider and Shaqquan Aaron, forward Jaylen Johnson and centers Chinanu Onuaku, Anas Mahmoud and Matz Stockman. With Louisville potentially losing their top-four players to graduation and the NBA Draft, the 2014 class will have a large void to fill in the future.

To really get a grasp on how much Louisville will be losing with Chris Jones and Wayne Blackshear graduating and the possible departure of future first round NBA draft picks Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier, you have to look at the numbers.

The core four players have 1,380 of the 1,725 points this season, including hitting 115 of the 137 three pointers and have grabbed 555 of the 946 rebounds. That’s not all though, the group is credited with 149 of the 210 steals and dished out 204 of the 281 assists. As of Feb. 12 percentage wise Louisville will have to replace 80percent of their scoring, 58 percent of their rebounding, 71 percent of their steals, and 72 percent of their assists.

Louisville’s overall highest ranked recruiting class has a large task in front of them if they want to meet the fan base’s high expectations. Experience is the key for younger players, but under Head Coach Rick Pitino minutes are hard to come. Due to the attention to detail Pitino requires on the defensive end, only a select few of freshmen have been able to average more than 19 minutes a game in their first season. To put it in perspective, recent Cardinals like Peyton Siva, Gorgui Dieng and Russ Smith only averaged eleven, fifteen and five minutes a game their freshmen seasons. Of the six freshmen on this year’s squad only one, Onuaku, is averaging double-digit minutes.

While Pitino isn’t giving a lot of minutes to his freshmen class just yet, he is constantly raving about their potential and what they will be able to do.  After the Cardinals home victory over Pittsburg, Pitino commented on his young players.

“(Quentin) is a very confident offensive player. The reason why he isn’t playing better is because I don’t play him more and that’s due to what Jones and Rozier bring on the defensive end. I really liked what Chinanu did tonight, even though his stats may not show it he’s really improving. You can just see the potential in Anas, how long and agile he is. He’s going to be a really good player for us,” said Pitino

Onuaku is averaging the most minutes of all the freshmen, coming in at seventeen a game with Mahmoud, Snider and Aaron averaging nine. Stockman and Johnson are only averaging five minutes a game, but for Johnson playing behind an All-American in Harrell is the reason for that. Stockman is battling for minutes between the other two freshmen centers and with sophomore Mangok Mathiang. For the big men, their biggest improvement since coming to U of L is their post game. They attribute it to playing against intense players like Harrell and Mathiang everyday in practice.

“I’ve made a big adjustment to the college game, my post game has come along and I’m working hard. I want to improve every day, every season, come together as a group and get wins,” Stockman said.

Mahmoud added on.

“Playing against these guys, it just gives me more motivation and more energy Mangok and Trez have given me a lot of advice from their experience and they always push me to get stronger and play harder. My low-post game has really came a long way. Before I came here I was playing small forward and coach told me I would have to develop a bigger and better post game.”

For Johnson playing behind a standout player in Harrell isn’t his only reason for motivation to improve.

“My mom is a big reason why I’m here. She was a five-star player and gave her career to raise me and she taught me everything she knew.” His mother Janetta holds a season-single record for blocks and is fourth all time with 130 for Wisconsin during her long year with the Badgers. 

Just because he and the other freshmen aren’t getting much time hasn’t altered Johnson’s confidence.

“We’re going to be a great group, I think we can be one of the best that has come through. We all have the will and heart to win, we all love the game of basketball and we’re going to play our hearts out. We want to go to the next level.”

Outside of sophomores Mathiang or Anton Gill, one of the two next players off the bench this season have been either Aaron or Snider. Both played well in extended minutes against Pitt and Aaron played a career-high 24 minutes. After senior Blackshear went out, Aaron was called in to replace him. Having out until mid-December, Aaron is starting to adjust to the game.

“Just getting back into the flow of the game is big for me I missed some games, so as the schedule goes on I get more and more into it. I’m starting to just have fun and not really stressing as much. I think this (Pittsburgh) game really showed what the freshmen can do in the future. Q came in and hit some shots, Anas and Nanu were playing big and I just kept playing hard,” Aaron said.

Ballard High School product Quentin Snider has gotten important minutes in big moments despite succumbing to the starting backcourt. Snider has logged fourteen or more minutes seven times this year. In those games, he has totaled 26 points, 13 assists and 16 rebounds.

“It’s a blessing playing against two guys like Terry and Chris, their handle and quickness is so hard to guard and that’s what is making me better,” Snider said. “Always playing hard is one of the biggest adjustments for the college game for me. In high school ,you might be able to get off with taking a break, but here you have to go hard every play, especially on defense. Coach tells me I have the offensive skills my defense just needs to improve.”

This class adds a dimension that Louisville has seemed to lack over the past few seasons: Size. Snider is a 6-foot-2 point guard, the tallest in more than fives years. Aaron can play both shooting guard and small forward and at 6-foot-7, he has great height at either position. Power forward Johnson is athletic and 6-foot-9 and Onuaku at 6-foot-10 holds down the center spot. The team’s tallest two are Mahmoud and Stockman, measuring at 7-foot. They are capable of playing the forward or center. The team hasn’t had a 7-footer since the 2006-2007 season and hasn’t had two in over fifteen years. With each member of the freshman class having such a high ceiling, the future could be awfully bright for the Cardinals.

Photo by Austin Lassell / The Louisville Cardinal