Portal Tracker: Louisville transfer James Scott is heading to Ole Miss

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville men's basketball team lost only two scholarship players to the transfer portal after Pat Kelsey's first season. And both are headed to the same destination.

Louisville starting forward James Scott will transfer to Ole Miss for his junior season, according to a report from On3Sports. He'll join Koren Johnson, who played in only three games before a season-ending shoulder surgery, in Oxford, Mississippi, to play for coach Chris Beard.

Scott, who transferred to Louisville from Charleston when Kelsey became the Cardinals' coach, became a fan favorite over the course of his lone season in Louisville, often doing the "dirty work" of setting screens and distrusting the ball as a "hub" in Kelsey's offense.

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He also gained notoriety when he suffered a facial fracture and broken teeth while diving for a loose ball in an 88-78 win over Florida State on Feb. 8. Scott was rushed to a medical facility during the game but called Kelsey from there to assure the coach that he would be ready for the next game.

He returned with a special protective mask crafted by engineers at Louisville Speed School of Engineering.

Despite the injury, Scott played in all 35 games last season and started 31 for Louisville.

He averaged 7.1 points and was second on the team at 6.1 rebounds per contest. He also shot 75.5% from the field, and slammed home 79 dunks — third-most in the history of a program that values the dunk and keeps the stat. Montrezl Harrell is the only Louisville player with more dunks in a season. He missed only 35 shots all season out of 143 attempted. As a freshman at Charleston, he made 76 of 96 shots (79.2%).

Asked about Scott's transfer last week, Kelsey told reporters, "In today’s day and age, you just don’t take things like that personal. He’s a phenomenal young man, from a phenomenal family, and I wish him nothing but the best. ... He knows I love him. He knows I’m there for him."

Kelsey said "everything is on the table" in terms of possible roster additions.

Kelsey brings back three from last year’s rotation — J’Vonne Hadley, Khani Rooths and Kasean Pryor, who was sidelined early with injury but had an important role when healthy. He also brings back two players who spent the whole season in Louisville rehabbing from injuries, center Aly Khalifa and point guard Kobe Rodgers.

To that group, he adds five newcomers. Mikel Brown is a five-star point guard who is among the top-ranked players in his high school class. Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State), Ryan Conwell (Xavier) and Isaac McKneely (Virginia) are experienced transfers who combined to hit 273 threes last season. And 6-foot-11-inch, 250-pound forward Sananda Fru is a versatile big man who has been playing in the German Bundesliga.

"We love, love, love our roster," Kelsey said. "So excited how it came together. We think we have a chance to be special next year."