Report: Top-Ten '23 Prospect Mackenzie Mgbako to Visit Louisville

The forward recently requested a release from his National Letter of Intent with Duke.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After weeks of speculation, the Louisville men's basketball program will indeed get a visit from one of the top prospects in the Class of 2023.

The Cardinals are one of four schools that will be getting a visit from Gladstone (N.J.) Roselle Catholic forward MacKenzie Mgbako, according to Forbes Sports' Adam Zagoria. St. John's, Kansas and Indiana will also be getting visits, with the visit to the Red Storm taking place this weekend. The visits to the Cardinals, Jayhawks and Hoosiers do not have concrete dates yet.

Mgbako had previously been signed with Duke, but asked out of his National Letter of Intent earlier this month when it was announced that Kyle Filipowski would return to the Blue Devils. Almost immediately, Louisville was linked to Mgbako as a potential destination.

This is mainly due to his ties with former Duke and current Cardinals assistant coach Nolan Smith, who helped recruit Mgbako to the Blue Devils before joining Kenny Payne's staff at Louisville last offseason.

Mgbako's AAU team, the N.J. Scholars, also has a Louisville tie. Former Cardinals legend Pervis Ellison serves as the team's program director, and is also very close friends with head coach Kenny Payne, stemming from their time as UofL teammates in the late 1980's.

The 6-foot-8, 210-pound stretch forward is a consensus five star prospect amongst the four major recruiting services, and was recently tabbed as a McDonald's All-American. He ranks as high as the No. 8 prospect in the class according to Rivals, and sports a 247Sports Composite rating of 0.9974.

Should Mgbako commit to Louisville, he would be the Cardinals' second-highest rated prospect of the modern recruiting era. Samardo Samuels is No. 1 with a 0.9987 rating in the Class of 2008.

As you can imagine, the Mgbako has been extremely productive in almost every basketball setting that he takes part in. He recently poured in a game-high 22 points and eight rebounds at the Nike Hoop Summit All-Star Game this past weekend, and averaged 16.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game with the N.J. Scholars last summer during the Nike EYBL. During his senior season at Roselle Catholic, Mgbako averaged 17.3 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 blocks in 15 tracked games.

The Cardinals went just 4-28 in their first year Payne, and roster management has been in full swing since the end of the season. Louisville has seen seven players enter the transfer portal, including leading scorer El Ellis. Only Mike James, J.J. Traynor, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Emmanuel Okorafor are returning.

Conversely, Payne and his staff have been hard at work attempting to bring in fresh talent for next season. So far this offseason, Louisville has landed five-star 2023 center Dennis Evans, former Illinois guard Skyy Clark and five-star 2023 reclass wing Trentyn Flowers. They are also set to welcome top-70 wings Kaleb Glenn and Curtis Williams Jr., plus JUCO guard Koron Davis as part of their 2023 signing class.

(Photo of Mackenzie Mgbako: Maria Lysaker - USA TODAY Sports)

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