With Donovan Mitchell, Louisville had a chance at winning a national title. Without him, the Cardinals are still a candidate to cut down the nets, but now much less of one.
I was of the belief that Mitchell would have been an unequivocal top-10 player in college basketball next season, a dynamic guard who could have helped Louisville vie for an ACC title, challenge for a Final Four and flirt with a national championship. Now, the team will have arrange some pieces because Mitchell will never play a game in a Cardinals uniform again. On Friday night he announced, via Instagram, his intention to stay in the 2017 NBA Draft.
It's the right call for him, even if it stings a bit for U of L fans.
This is no huge surprise, either. Mitchell should absolutely be a first-round pick, and might wind up going between 18-23 if his upside and athleticism totally wow over a general manager looking for a sparkplug of a shooting guard. Louisville fans had some hope Mitchell would return for his junior season, but the reality is that his stock is just at the right level to make it worth the jump.
Will he be a good NBA player? Totally to be determined. I'm not all in on his long-term prospects, but he's definitely a lot of fun. I know he was a sure thing in 2017-18 at the college level. Alas, we won't get to see it.
So how big of a hit does Louisville take in the rankings? A few spots, if that. This is still an irrefutable top-10 team.
Here at CBS Sports, we expected Mitchell to leave. With that in mind, we slotted the Cardinals fifth heading into next season. The last player to make a decision is Deng Adel, a junior-to-be who would go a long way in helping make up for production that's lost with Mitchell gone— in addition to Mangok Mathiang and Jaylen Johnson. Losing Adel would very much change things. He should be back, but we haven't heard word on that yet.
