Seemingly at the last second, the Louisville Cardinals swooped in to land Charles Minlend, a transfer guard from San Francisco.
While averaging 14.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game for a strong San Francisco squad this season, Minlend was named second team All-West Coast Conference. The 6-foot-4 guard appeared in 98 games during his three seasons with the Dons (80 starts); Minlend scored career 1,271 points.
Prior to his commitment, Minlend also considered Gonzaga, Arizona, Indiana, Butler, BYU, Arkansas and Mississippi State. (The addition of Gonzaga to that list is very interesting, too. Mark Few’s program is nice alcove for transfer, on an almost annual basis. Minlend played seven career games against the Bulldogs.)
San Francisco transfer Charles Minlend just verbally committed to to Louisville, he tells @247Sports. Averaged 14.4 PPG this past season.
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) April 13, 2020
Minlend is a high-usage player — with a career usage rate of 26.1 percent. However, he avoids turnovers (13 percent turnover rate this season) and gets to the line a ton. As a junior, Minlend averaged 6.3 FTA per 40 minutes. According to KenPom, Minlend drew 5.1 fouls per 40 minutes this season.
Perimeter shooting has never been Minlend’s strong suit; he’s a career 31.4 percent 3-point shooters (48.3 eFG%). Minlend posted an effective shooting rate of just 48.4 percent on spot-up no-dribble jumpers this season, per Synergy Sports. He’s not afraid to let in fly, either; playing for a program that embraced analytics and the long ball, 41 percent of Minlend’s career field goal attempts are of the 3-point variety.
Despite his limitations as a shooter, Minlend’s a good athlete who can put pressure on the basket (58 FG% at the rim). And next season, Minlend will play alongside two A-1 creators: David Johnson and Carlik Jones, who transferred from in Radford last week. He will receive open catch-and-shoot looks, which could unlock some shooting potential, though the indicators (64.8 FT%) aren’t necessarily positive.
More importantly: Minlend will get to play against bent defenses, ones that are forced into rotations off a live dribble from Johnson or Jones. That will open up gaps for Minlend to exploit and get to the rim.
Minlend also brings experience to a program that’s set to part ways with several fifth-year seniors, like Steven Enoch, Dwayne Sutton and Ryan McMahon. Next season will be Minlend’s fifth season out of high school; he redshirted during the 2017-18 season.
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