4-Star Center Aidan Igiehon Commits to Louisville After His 'Visit Was Crazy'

The Louisville Cardinals received good news Friday when center Aidan Igiehon verbally committed to play college ball for Chris Mack's program.

Igiehon announced his decision via 247Sports' Evan Daniels: "Coach Mack has been recruiting me since he was at Xavier and I saw what he did with that program. He turned them into a top 10 program in the country, competing in the NCAA Tournament. ... I see what he has been doing with Xavier players, turning them into pros or close to it."

He had teased that a decision was coming earlier in the day:

247Sports rates Igiehon as the No. 44 overall prospect of his class and the top recruit in the state of New York. Before choosing the Cardinals, he was being recruited by the likes of Florida, St. John's, Kentucky, Louisville and Villanova.

Ultimately, it was his visit to Louisville that sold him on the Cardinals, per Daniels:

"It's one thing to be wanted and another thing to be needed and I kind of felt like I was needed when I went on my visit. Coach Mack showed me the roster and the blueprint he had setup. When I went on my official the city embraced me and they kind of like exploded the second I was there.

"My other officials were nice but the Louisville visit was crazy. Fans everywhere going crazy and with the basketball team it's just the beginning. The ability of them to develop players, their staff is well-equipped to develop a player such as myself."

The commitment gives Louisville the No. 2 recruiting class of 2019, per 247Sports. He is already the fifth 4-star recruit in the team's recruiting class.

While many basketball players from the United States grew up hooping, the 6'10", 215-pound big man didn't even pick up a basketball until he was 12 years old. In fact, he moved from Ireland to New York just a couple of years ago to try to develop his game.

Igiehon detailed his journey from living in Ireland to becoming a top recruit to Overtime:

He also revealed to 247Sports' Andrew Slater that he looks up to fellow centers DeAndre Jordan and Anthony Davis, noting he loves the way the former rebounds.

In that same interview, he acknowledged his biggest strengths are his abilities to block shots, clean up the boards and even has a mid-range jumper. Not only that, he runs the floor and helps with spacing.

And of course, he can throw down:

Landing Igiehon is a big boost to Mack's inaugural recruiting class at Louisville. Mack had helped Xavier contend year in and year out, but with Louisville in a transitional period in the post-Rick Pitino era, it was important for the first-year Cardinals coach to start out strong on the recruiting trail.

And that's exactly what he did here.

Igiehon figures to be one of the centerpieces of the Cardinals' recruiting class for 2019. Regardless of how the rest of the class comes together, the commitment could help Mack in the future. It shows that Louisville remains a high-profile school even without Rick Pitino and has the ability to bring in talent to compete with the top schools not just in the ACC, but the entire nation.