Louisville’s pursuit of Reese Alston is starting to feel like one of the more important recruiting storylines in the 2027 class.
Pat Kelsey has made no secret of how aggressively he wants to build around elite guards, and Alston fits right into that vision. Louisville already landed the No. 1 point guard in the 2025 class, Mikel Brown Jr., took a run at 5-star Taylen Kinney in the 2026 cycle, and now Kelsey is going hard after another high-end backcourt target in Alston. The 5-star point guard is one of the premier names in 2027, and Kelsey has reportedly put him at the top of his board for that class.
The latest update on Alston’s recruitment only sharpened the picture. Puma brought a loaded group of high school talent to the Puma NXTPro 16 event in Richmond this past week, and Alston was one of the headliners.
Kelsey was there in person, getting a front-row look at the guard across multiple games. Louisville’s interest was reinforced again when Shaw said the Cardinals are a team to watch.
According to Shaw, the three programs that have continued to show up for Alston’s games and are pushing hardest right now are Louisville, LSU and Wichita State.
What makes this even more interesting for Cardinals fans is the possibility that Alston could reclassify into the 2026 recruiting class. He has an October birthday and was born in 2008, which would make him eligible for the 2027 NBA Draft if he chose that path.
Louisville already has former 5-star recruit and Oregon transfer Jackson Shelstad, along with former NBA G-League point guard London Johnson, so there’s no report that the Cardinals are recruiting Alston with reclassification in mind. Still, if that door opens, it changes the conversation fast.
If Alston stays in 2027, Louisville could be pitching something just as appealing: a future backcourt pairing with former 2027 5-star and former No. 1 overall recruit Obinna Ekezie Jr. Ekezie reclassified to the 2026 class earlier this year, and that leaves open the possibility of a loaded 2027 group for the Cardinals if Alston joins him. That group would also include top 100 recruit and 4-star Louisville native Ferlandes Wright.
For now, the race is very much alive, and Louisville is right in the thick of it. Alston is ranked No. 6 overall and No. 2 among point guards, and his recruitment is heating up in the middle of July.
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Tyler Shoughs path through college football already made him a familiar name in Louisville circles, and his rise to the NFL has only added another layer to that story. The former Cardinals quarterback was drafted by the Saints in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, then went on to start nine games as a rookie and earn PFWA All-Rookie Team honors, a quick reminder of how far his career has come since his stops at Oregon, Texas Tech and Louisville.
So it stood out to see Shough back at Oregons indoor practice facility taking reps, a full-circle moment for a quarterback whose college journey wound through Eugene before it eventually landed him in New Orleans. For Louisville fans, it is another sign of how interconnected Shoughs football path remains, and how his ties to Oregon still seem to matter even after he moved on. [Read more 🡒]
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Browns rise gives Jeff Brohm and Vince Marrow something to hang onto as they try to stabilize the class and keep one of its most important pledges in place. The concern now is less about whether Brown belongs in the conversation with the top receivers in the country and more about how hard Louisville will have to work to keep him from becoming the next name to draw serious attention from elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville WBB Just Sent A Clear Message About This Summers Standard
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There is also a new layer to this roster, with three incoming transfers joining the mix as the Cardinals try to keep their edge while blending fresh pieces into an established culture. For a program that has spent the past season proving it can play deep into March, the real challenge now is less about talent than about whether everyone in the gym can meet the same standard from the start. [Read more 🡒]