Charles Minlend Commits to Louisville over Gonzaga, Indiana, More

The Louisville Cardinals reportedly added another piece to their backcourt for the 2020-21 season Sunday.

According to Jeff Goodman of Stadium, San Francisco graduate transfer Charles Minlend chose the ACC program after considering teams such as Gonzaga, Butler, Arizona, BYU, Arkansas, Indiana and Mississippi State.

Goodman suggested the Cardinals "came out of nowhere" since they weren't even in his previous top-seven choices.

It is another success for Louisville when it comes to graduate transfers this offseason, as Carlik Jones came to the Cardinals from Radford. Before Jones and Minlend made their decisions, Lucas Aulbach of the Louisville Courier Journal suggested the program "needed a guard in a big way" with David Johnson and Josh Nickelberry as the only returning options from last season.

That means Minlend should have the opportunity to compete for playing time after impressing as a high-volume scorer for the Dons.

He averaged double-figure scoring totals in each of his three seasons with San Francisco, including the 2019-20 campaign when he posted 14.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists a night while connecting on 41.6 percent of his field-goal attempts and 30.3 percent of his three-pointers.

Minlend scored more than 20 points in five games this season, including when he poured in 22 points in a February loss to Gonzaga and 21 points in a West Coast Conference tournament victory over Pacific.

The 6'4" playmaker can also provide a rebounding boost from the backcourt and is athletic enough to stay with ball-handlers on the other side.

While playing in the ACC will represent a significant step up in level of competition, he will have plenty of opportunities to prove himself as a capable scorer after lighting up the scoreboard a number of times with the Dons.