Report: Carlik Jones to Remain in NBA Draft Process, Forgo Extra Season at Louisville
(Photo of Carlik Jones: Scott Utterback - Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
LOUISVILLE, Ky - Louisville men's basketball guard Carlik Jones has chosen to sign with an agent and forgo a possible return to the Cardinals next season, according to a report from the Courier-Journal's Shannon Russell.
Jones declared for the 2021 NBA Draft earlier this month, but left open the possibility of coming back for the 2021-22 season. Despite being a graduate transfer, he had the opportunity to return thanks to a blanker waiver provided to college basketball by the NCAA due to COVID-19.
Coming over from Radford during the previous offseason, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound point guard quickly established himself as one of the best players in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He averaged 16.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, and was named a First Team All-ACC selection.
Jones is the third Cardinal to be named First Team All-ACC, joining Jordan Nwora in 2020 and Donovan Mitchell in 2017. He received the third-highest votes and finished tied for second in the conference player of the year vote.
Prior to joining Louisville, the Cincinnati native was regarded as the top graduate transfer during the 2020 offseason. He averaged 20.0 points, 5.5 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game in his redshirt junior year at Radford, winning Big South Player of the Year.
Including his time at Radford, Jones is 17th nationally among active career scorers with 1,871 points and has 101 career double-figure scoring efforts, including 41 of his last 42 games and 18 of 19 at Louisville.
Jones is the second Cardinal to depart for the NBA over the current offseason, following the footsteps of sophomore guard David Johnson. Out of the three upperclassmen on the roster, only senior forward/center Malik Williams decided on a return to Louisville.
Louisville opened up the 2020-21 season at 9-1 and were ranked as high as the No. 16 team in the nation, but went 4-6 in the second half of the season to finish 13-7 and miss the NCAA Tournament.
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