The Cards will have a new big man two seasons from now.
Connecticut transfer Steven Enoch will play the final two seasons of his college career at Louisville. The 6’11 big man will sit out the 2017-18 season per NCAA transfer rules before becoming eligible in 2018-19.
Enoch comes to Louisville after a pair of frustrating seasons at UConn. The former top 50 recruit averaged just 6.9 minutes per game as a freshman in 2015-16, and then produced only 3.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game last season. He was also sidelined for four games because of a foot injury last year.
While Enoch’s potential was on full display during his high school career, there were few instances of that potential appearing to be realized during his time with the Huskies. His father says a large reason for that was Kevin Ollie’s system.
"He just didn't feel like he was being developed as we hoped,” Rick Enoch said last month. “At UConn, (coach Ollie) has a more guard-oriented system. Steven has some offensive tools. Even though he has other areas that he needs to work on and get better in as any young guy, he just didn't spend enough time on the floor to really develop, that's pretty much what it comes down to."
According to The Hartford Courant, Enoch actually wanted to leave Connecticut last November, but was convinced to stick out through the second semester of the school year. Even late last season when he was playing limited minutes, Ollie said that Enoch would be "one of the best offensive players, big men, who ever played here."
If such a realization of potential occurs for Enoch, it’ll occur at Louisville.
The biggest upside of the addition for U of L is that Enoch has a wide frame unlike every current Cardinal frontocurt player outside of Jaylen Johnson (who will be gone when Enoch becomes eligible). We saw this year how valuable a player like Kennedy Meeks was for North Carolina, and how badly teams that didn’t have their own big body forward or center struggled to keep him off the offensive glass.
Here’s hoping David Padgett can work his magic with Enoch over the course of the next 18 months or so.
