London Johnson, a former NBA G League guard who signed with Louisville basketball in November, will be available to play for the No. 18 Cardinals against Boston College on Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center.
That’s significant because Johnson intended to redshirt the 2025-26 season; and coach Pat Kelsey on Tuesday said he and his staff had given “no thought” to the idea of playing the 6-foot-3 Georgia native.
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“If we need him, we’ll put him in there,” Kelsey told Seth Davis of Hoops HQ, who will be the analyst on The CW’s broadcast of UofL (11-4, 1-2 ACC) vs. BC (7-8, 0-2) — set for a noon tipoff. “This is a crap shoot. I have no idea if he’s going to be able to give us one minute. He hasn’t played in a competitive game in a long, long time. He didn’t know he was playing until two days ago.”
Freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., meanwhile, is expected to miss his sixth consecutive game due to a lower back injury. And senior guard Ryan Conwell is a game-time decision after injuring his knee in a collision during practice.
Johnson, 21, appeared in 55 games for the now-defunct G League Ignite out of high school — averaging 10.5 points on 43.2% shooting (32.4% from 3-point range), 4.1 assists and two rebounds per appearance. Across 21 games in the G League between stints with the Main Celtics and the Cleveland Charge during the 2024-25 season, he posted 3.1 points per on 40% shooting (34.4% from 3) with 1.7 assists and 1.3 rebounds.
Johnson committed to UofL on Oct. 20 — less than a month after Santa Clara’s Thierry Darlan became the first player to obtain NCAA eligibility after playing in the G League.
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Louisville first offered Johnson in 2021, entering its fourth and final season under former coach Chris Mack. At the time, the guard ranked 46th overall and eighth at his position in the Class of 2022 on the 247Sports Composite.
In addition to the Cards, Johnson also held offers from Alabama, Auburn, Cincinnati, Clemson, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, Ole Miss, Southern California, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Virginia.
This story will be updated.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: London Johnson Louisville basketball update, Boston College-UofL game
