Louisville guard Adrian Wooley announces return for junior season
In one of Louisville and Pat Kelsey’s more important offseason moves, the Cardinals are retaining a key member of the backcourt.
Sophomore guard Adrian Wooley will return for the 2026-27 season, he announced.
Wooley never officially entered the NCAA Transfer Portal despite speculation.
Transfer Portal: Live updates as Louisville, Pat Kelsey begin reshaping the roster
In his lone season playing under Pat Kelsey, Wooley accumulated 16 starts filling in for an injured Mikel Brown Jr. and averaged 8.7 points and 3.9 rebounds a contest. While a bit overtasked with the team’s ball-handling duties, the sophomore proved to be a reliable performer by the end of the season, finishing the year shooting 35.0 percent from beyond the arc and 45.0 percent from the floor. Wooley received several votes for the ACC 6th Man of the Year award.
Wooley, a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, native, began his career at Kennesaw State, where he was First Team All-CUSA and the 2025 Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
He started 32 of Kennesaw’s 33 games, averaging 18.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.4 steals per game, and transferred to Louisville as one of the best offseason additions in the country last spring.
The 6-foot-4 combo guard started the last seven games of the season for the Cardinals, including Louisville’s Round of 32 loss to Michigan State, in which he scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting. His best game of the season, however, may have come at Miami (FL) when he dished out six assists and zero turnovers and scored 15 points, hitting the game-winning 3-pointer in the final 30 seconds.
The Cardinals are already tasked with replacing eight seniors and have zero committed incoming freshmen out of the 2026 high school class. Four of Wooley’s teammates, Vangelis Zougris, Sananda Fru, Khani Rooths, and Mouhamed Camara, have already announced their plans of transferring.
Thus far, Kelsey has snagged the commitment of three top-40 transfers, such as Flory Bidunga, Jackson Shelstad, and Karter Knox. And now with Wooley set to return, Louisville is having as good an offseason as just about anyone in the country.
Louisville basketball 2026 offseason roster and staff tracker
