Mackenzie Mgbako cuts Louisville, down to KU and IU

No, Louisville will not be adding a blue-chip wing just weeks before freshmen arrive on campus for summer workouts. Despite being seen as the runaway favorite at the time Mackenzie Mgbako backed out of his letter of intent to Duke — while having a former Duke assistant on staff, mind you — the Cardinals will not be the landing spot for the top-15 prospect out of New Jersey.

In fact, UofL isn’t even a remaining finalist. Hell, the Cards didn’t even get an official visit.

Instead, the 6-foot-8 standout has cut his list to just two remaining programs in Indiana and Kansas. He’s coming off visits to both programs and will soon decide between the two.

Andrew Slater was the first to report the news.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mackenzie Mgbako’23 @MackenzieMgbako is down to a final 2: Kansas & Indiana pic.twitter.com/TdR0fmjmES

— 𝒜𝓃𝒹𝓇ℯ𝓌 𝒮𝓁𝒶𝓉ℯ𝓇 (@Andrew__Slater) May 9, 2023

Just hours after Louisville fans were defending Mgbako’s honor on social media, accusing On3 of negative bias toward the Cardinals’ signees and targets in its rankings — he recently dropped down to No. 15 overall and lost five-star status — he removed the program from consideration entirely.

Instead, he will choose between the Hoosiers and Jayhawks, leaving the Cardinals with nothing but embarrassing tweets like this to show for it:

Dropped to a 4⭐️ and 15th. I believe that Trentyn Flowers and Skyy Clark were dropped from 5⭐️ to 4⭐️ shortly before or after their commitments. I’d like to welcome other Louisville fans to fill in with some more instances and/or factual evidence of the changes.

— Barstool Louisville (@BarstoolCards) May 9, 2023

You suck @On3sports pic.twitter.com/nPhLyyd9Cj

— Barstool Louisville (@BarstoolCards) May 9, 2023

So can you explain why On3 downrates every Louisville commit? Or even players visiting i.e. Mackenzie Mgbako?

— Barstool Louisville (@BarstoolCards) May 9, 2023

“Or even players visiting i.e. Mackenzie Mgbako.” Isn’t it adorable?

Louisville’s recruiting class in 2023 consists of four-star prospects Trentyn Flowers, Dennis Evans, Kaleb Glenn and Curtis Williams Jr. — all top-150 signees, while adding former Kentucky signee Skyy Clark, former USC wing Tre White and former Miami wing Danilo Jovanovich in the transfer portal.

Who will serve as the primary ball handlers on the team beyond Skyy Clark? Your guess is as good as mine.

An interesting roster setup is one way to describe it for Kenny Payne in year two.