Tennessee Transfer Brandon Huntley-Hatfield to Visit Louisville

The former Volunteer was recruited by the Cardinals out of high school, and recently included them in his top five.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It seems that it is only a matter of time before the Louisville men's basketball program receives their first commitment since hiring Kenny Payne as the head coach.

Just a few days removed from announcing his top five schools, which included Louisville, former Tennessee forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield is now set for visits to all five schools including the Cardinals, according to CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein.

The 6-foot-10, 246-pound forward will visit Louisville on April 23-24, the same weekend as Thunder Over Louisville. SMU gets first dibs on April 18-20, followed by Auburn on April 21-22, and then Louisville. After that, Huntley-Hatfield will travel to Wake Forest on April 25-27, then cap off his visits with a trip to Arizona State on April 29-May 1.

He will be making a trip to campus just one week removed from former LSU signee Devin Ree's visit to Louisville. Both appear to be priority targets for Payne, who was hired by the University of Mar. 18.

Huntley-Hatfield had a minor role with the Volunteers through the first three months of the 2021-22 season, but with Olivier Nkamhoua suffering a season-ending injury, he was inserted into the starting rotation for the final 13 games of the season.

He averaged 3.9 points and 3.0 rebounds per game on 45.4 percent shooting for the entire season, but some of his better performances came in the postseason. In three SEC Tournament and two NCAA Tournament games, the freshman tallied 6.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game while shooting 50.0 percent.

The Clarksville, Tenn. native was a five-star prospect coming out of high school, and ranked as the No. 26 player in the nation according to the 247Sports Composite. He was formerly the No. 4 player in the Class of 2022, according to ESPN, before reclassifying to 2021.

Huntley-Hatfield was actually offered by former Louisville head coach Chris Mack, and even included the Cardinals in his top eight back in August of 2020. Louisville, Auburn and Wake Forest were the only schools to make both lists.

Louisville has seen a fair amount of roster turnover since the end of their tumultuous 2021-22 season, one that saw them mutually part with Mack in January. The Cardinals have just five confirmed returners for next season in Sydney Curry, El Ellis, Mike James, Jae'Lyn Withers and J.J. Traynor.

They are currently waiting on concrete decisions from Roosevelt Wheeler and '22 verbal commit Kamari Lands. Eight players from last season either entered the transfer portal or graduated.

(Photo of Brandon Huntley-Hatfield: Brianna Paciorka - News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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