Noah Waterman of BYU commits to Louisville basketball and Pat Kelsey via transfer portal
Louisville men's basketball head coach Pat Kelsey did not stop at poaching one BYU player through the NCAA transfer portal.
The Cardinals on Saturday morning landed a commitment from Noah Waterman, a 6-foot-11, 220-pound senior forward who spent the past two seasons with the Cougars and new Kentucky coach Mark Pope.
The Field of 68's Jeff Goodman first reported the news. Waterman later confirmed with two Instagram posts; one of which included a photo from his recent visit to U of L.
A Savannah, New York, native, Waterman started all but one of BYU's 34 games last season. He averaged 9.5 points per game on 45.7% shooting (57 for 154 from 3-point range) and 5.4 rebounds across 33 starts (24.1 minutes per).
BYU finished the campaign with a 23-11 (10-8 Big 12) record and reached the NCAA Tournament for just the second time dating back to 2016. As a No. 6 seed, the Cougars were upset by No. 11 Duquesne in the first round.
Waterman was held to three points, two rebounds and a steal across 14 minutes of March Madness.
His best game to date was a 24-point, seven-rebound performance during a win over Arizona State in the Vegas Showdown last November. A month later, he recorded his first collegiate double-double with 20 points and a career-high 14 rebounds during a win over Denver.
U of L will be the fourth stop in Waterman's college career, which began in 2019 at Niagara.
He appeared in seven games as a freshman for the Purple Eagles before suffering a season-ending injury and redshirting. From there, he went to Detroit Mercy and played for former Indiana coach Mike Davis from 2020-22.
Entering his final season of eligibility, Waterman is averaging 7.2 points on 44.5% shooting (40% from 3) and 3.5 rebounds across 76 career appearances (21.8 minutes per) at the Division I level.
With his commitment, Waterman is following BYU teammate Aly Khalifa, a junior center who plans to redshirt during the upcoming campaign to rehab a knee injury. He also took the 12th of 13 scholarships at Kelsey's disposal.
Other transfer portal additions to the 2024-25 roster include:
TerrenceEdwards Jr. (redshirt junior, guard/forward, James Madison)
J'Vonne Hadley (senior, guard, Colorado)
Chucky Hepburn (junior, guard, Wisconsin)
Koren Johnson (sophomore, guard, Washington)
Kasean Pryor (junior, forward, South Florida)
James Scott (freshman, forward, Charleston)
Reyne Smith (junior, guard, Charleston)
Aboubacar Traore (junior, forward, Long Beach State)
Kelsey has also secured commitments from Khani Rooths, a former Michigan signee, and junior guard Kobe Rodgers (Charleston), who plans to redshirt this season while rehabbing an injury.
As of Saturday, all of Louisville's scholarship players from the 2023-24 campaign had entered the portal, which closed May 1.
At the time of publication, 10 had found new homes:
Skyy Clark (UCLA)
Dennis Evans (Grand Canyon)
Kaleb Glenn (Florida Atlantic)
Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (N.C. State)
Mike James (N.C. State)
Ty-Laur Johnson (Wake Forest)
Danilo Jovanovich (Milwaukee)
JJ Traynor (DePaul)
Tre White (Illinois)
Curtis Williams (Georgetown)
Noah Waterman highlights: Watch Louisville basketball transfer portal commit
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: Louisville basketball: Noah Waterman Pat Kelsey via transfer portal