Louisville keeps loading up through the portal, and Seth Trimble is the latest name to give Pat Kelsey’s roster a jolt. The North Carolina transfer is headed to the Cardinals as a fifth-year player after receiving that extra season of eligibility through a class-wide injunction granted by US District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Colorado. Trimble also spent a few weeks in the NBA Summer League with the Washington Wizards.
That addition only adds to the sense that Louisville is building one of the deepest transfer-heavy groups in the country for the 2026-27 season. Kelsey has gone almost all-in on newcomers, and Trimble joins a class that also includes Jackson Shelstad from Oregon, Flory Bidunga from Kansas, Alvaro Folgueiras from Iowa and Karter Knox from Arkansas. The Cardinals are also bringing in five-star seven-foot freshman Obinna Ekezie Jr. and former G League Ignite player London Johnson.
The talent level is obvious. The harder part is figuring out how quickly all those pieces come together.
Adrian Wooley is the lone key returner, and he averaged 8.7 points per game last season. That makes Louisville a fascinating team, but also a tricky one to pin down.
There’s no shortage of skill on the roster. What there is less of is continuity, and that matters a lot in college basketball right now.
Trimble should help in a few clear ways. He gives Louisville elite perimeter defense, he can finish at the rim, and he adds another guard who can push the pace in transition for an offense that wants to play fast. On paper, that fits better than some of the pieces Louisville had last year.
Still, the Cardinals are trying to do something that takes time: turn a roster built mostly from the portal into a consistent winner. Last season, Kelsey brought in one of the best transfer classes in the nation, and Louisville opened the year ranked No. 12 in the AP Poll. Three of the team’s top four scorers were newcomers, and the season ended with a 24-11 record and a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Even with that in mind, Duke remains the team to beat in the ACC heading into 2026-27. Jon Scheyer’s group returns three starters - Caleb Foster, Dame Sarr and Patrick Ngngbonga - from a team that won the ACC regular-season and tournament titles, earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Elite Eight.
The Blue Devils also added portal standouts John Blackwell from Wisconsin and Drew Scharnowski from Belmont, while backing that up with one of the country’s top high school classes. Duke has been rolling in league play, too, going 36-2 in ACC games over the last two seasons while winning back-to-back regular-season and tournament championships.
That combination of continuity, experience, length and high-end talent gives Duke a different kind of edge than Louisville has right now. The Cardinals may have more than enough talent to make noise, but the Blue Devils still have the cleaner preseason case - and the stronger roster.
Duke and Louisville will meet once next season at the KFC Yum! Center.
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Montgomery is part of a growing group of top targets for the Blue Devils in that class, as the staff keeps working through several high-end options while building out its 2027 board. Duke currently checks in at No. 8 in 247Sports recruiting rankings for the cycle, and offers like this suggest Scheyer is leaving himself plenty of room to chase more than one premium piece before the picture comes into focus. [Read more 🡒]
Dukes New Offensive Identity Is Starting To Take Shape
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Nate Sheppard is part of that shift, giving Duke a backfield piece it can build around, while Jeremiah Hasley and Nate Kurisky give the Blue Devils a different kind of target structure in the passing game. The early read is that the offense will be defined less by star power and more by how quickly those pieces settle into larger roles, especially as Duke tries to establish a clearer identity heading into the season. [Read more 🡒]