Louisville basketball fans had plenty to track this week, from Ryan Conwell and Mikel Brown Jr. getting drafted in 2026 to Donovan Mitchell cashing in with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Conwell and Brown ended an 11-year drought for Louisville by becoming the first pair of Cardinals taken in the same NBA Draft since 2015. Both are now in the NBA Summer League, and Conwell has already started making noise. Through three games, he is averaging 21.0 points, including a 26-point performance earlier this week.
But the biggest Louisville-related headline belonged to Mitchell, one of the program’s all-time greats, who landed a massive extension with Cleveland.
Mitchell agreed to a four-year, $273 million maximum-salary deal with the Cavaliers. The contract includes a player option for the 2030-31 season and a full trade kicker. His salaries are set at $60.1 million in 2027-28, $65.8 million in 2028-29, $70.6 million in 2029-30, and $75.5 million in 2030-31.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Mitchell could have waited until next summer, when the deal would have been worth $80 million more, but instead signed this summer on the first day he was eligible.
Mitchell’s résumé in Cleveland keeps growing. He has been named All-NBA three times, making the All-NBA First Team in 2025 and the All-NBA Second Team in 2023 and 2026. Over four seasons with the Cavaliers, he has averaged nearly 27 points per game.
He has also been an All-Star in seven straight seasons. This past year, he put up 27.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from three. Mitchell and the Cavaliers reached the Eastern Conference Finals this season, giving him his first Conference Finals appearance in the NBA.
At Louisville, Mitchell played in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and helped lead the Cardinals to the NCAA Tournament in his sophomore year. He was selected No. 17 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft after averaging 15.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.1 steals per game.
In Other News...
Louisville Just Made An Early Move Fans Will Love At Quarterback
Louisville has jumped in early on one of Tennessees more intriguing quarterback prospects, extending a scholarship offer to Kobe Butler-Simmons on July 5. The Germantown High School signal-caller has been drawing interest beyond the Cardinals, with UCLA, UCF and Florida State among the schools in the mix as his recruitment starts to take shape.
Butler-Simmons is still sorting through his options, and the next few months should help clarify where Louisville stands as he lines up visits to Colorado and UCLA. For now, the offer gives the Cardinals a foothold with a quarterback who is expected to take his time before making a college choice next fall. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Added A Rare In-State Lineman This O-Line Race Needed
Evan Wibberleys path through Kentucky football has already been unusual enough to stand out in a state where the three Division I programs do not often share the same roster tree. The redshirt senior offensive lineman began at Western Kentucky, where he earned All-freshman honors, then put together an all-conference season before moving on to Kentucky and now landing at Louisville, giving the Cardinals a veteran in-state addition with real mileage on his rsum.
For Louisville, the appeal is as much about the competition as the pedigree. Wibberley arrives with a chance to push for snaps at center or guard, and he enters a room where every interior spot still has to be earned. However the rotation settles, his presence adds another experienced body to an O-line race that needed more proven options. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Making Early Push For A Guard Cardinals Fans Will Want
Tai Bells recruitment is already starting to look like the kind Louisville fans know well: early, wide-ranging and built around a player who seems to understand what the Cardinals want to be. The highly regarded point guard in the 2028 class has been in touch with assistant coach Ronnie Hamilton since the contact period opened, and he has made it clear Louisville is a program he can see himself fitting into.
Bell has also drawn attention from a long list of other major programs, which is no surprise for a guard with his profile and national appeal. Still, Louisville has positioned itself well by getting in early and making the case that its system suits his game, and the next step will be getting him on campus once the live period wraps up. [Read more 🡒]