LOUISVILLE – Louisville has decided to activate former NBA G League guard London Johnson, who will be available to play in the Cardinals’ home game on Saturday against Boston College, Hoops HQ has learned. Louisville confirmed the move via a statement that was released at 10 a.m. The game tips off at noon ET on The CW Network.
Johnson, who played for three seasons in the G League, announced in October that he had committed to Louisville. The NCAA declared him eligible after determining that he had not been compensated above “actual and necessary expenses,” per Bylaw 12.2.2.2.1. Because he is 21 years old, Johnson was classified as a junior. (See here for a detailed look at the NCAA’s eligibility rules.)
Johnson arrived on campus in mid-December and has been practicing mostly as a member of the scout team. The plan was for him to redshirt this season, which would have left him with two years of eligibility. If he plays this season, however, next season will be his last in college.
The surprise move was necessitated by an injury to Louisville’s freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., a projected lottery pick who has missed the last five games with a back injury. Louisville lost three of those games, including its last two to Stanford and Duke. Brown will not play against Boston College, according to the injury report Louisville issued Friday night, but Cardinals coach Pat Kelsey has maintained that he expects Brown to be back on the court in the near future.
In the meantime, Kelsey will have the option to insert Johnson into Saturday’s game against the Eagles. “If we need him, we’ll put him in there,” Kelsey told Hoops HQ during an exclusive interview. “This is a crap shoot. I have no idea if he’s going to be able to give us one minute. He hasn’t played in a competitive game in a long, long time. He didn’t know he was playing until two days ago.”
On Thursday, the Cardinals’ other starting guard, 6-foot-4 senior Ryan Conwell, injured his left knee during a collision in practice. The injury is not considered serious, but Conwell sat out practice on Friday and will be a game-time decision. For Kelsey, that further underscored the need to develop depth in his backcourt.
Kelsey and Johnson have discussed this possibility for several days. The decision was finalized on Wednesday. The next day, for the first time since he came to campus, Johnson got reps with the active players for the entire workout.
Kelsey told Hoops HQ that Johnson was immediately receptive to the idea, even though it meant burning his redshirt. “He was like, Coach, it’s funny, I even thought the other day that I think I can help us this year (because of Brown’s injury),” Kelsey recalled. “It’s just funny how fate works.”
Kelsey reiterated that he is “confident” Brown will play again this season, but he is unsure as to the timing. Brown did some light shooting during Friday’s practice but was otherwise inactive. “He wants to be out there so stinking bad, and he’s going to be out there at some point,” Kelsey said. “But we’re just being real cautious with it.”
Johnson’s commitment to Louisville came three weeks after another player with G League experience, Thierry Darlan, signed with Santa Clara. The moves were criticized heavily by several head coaches, most notably Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. “This was sprung on us yesterday where a guy can be in the G League for two or three years, then all of a sudden he’s eligible. Most of our people didn’t know anything about it,” Izzo said the day after Johnson’s announcement. “To me, it’s ridiculous. It’s embarrassing. I love my job, but I don’t respect my profession.”
A third G League veteran, 6-foot-10 forward Abdullah Ahmed, joined BYU in December and has already played two games for the Cougars.
The objections of Izzo and others to this new trend of former pros coming to college got even louder following Baylor’s recent addition of James Nnaji, a Nigerian native who played professionally in Spain. Nnaji was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in 2023 but never signed a contract or played in an NBA game, which kept his college eligibility intact. Nnaji has played two games, but Baylor lost them both.
Kelsey has heard all the objections from his coaching colleagues, but he makes no apologies for bringing Johnson into the program. “I don’t see the difference between this and signing professional players from Europe,” he told Hoops HQ. “My whole thing is, tell me what the rules are and then we’re going to try to put the best team (together) and put our program in the best position possible based on those rules.”
As a four-star recruit at Norcross (Ga.) High School, Johnson narrowed his list of college choices to Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, NC State, USC and Virginia. At the beginning of his senior year, Johnson left school and signed a two-year $1.1 million contract with the NBA G League’s Ignite, a now-defunct program that was created to develop players who wanted to be paid but were too young to be eligible for the NBA Draft. Johnson played two years with the Ignite and was selected in the 2024 G League Draft. The team that picked him, the Maine Celtics, waived Johnson after three games. He was later acquired by the Cleveland Charge and waived soon thereafter. Between those three teams, Johnson played in a total of 76 G League games.
Given the injury to Brown, Louisville fans have been increasingly vocal about their desire to see Johnson on the court. Kelsey, however, cautions that it will likely take some time for Johnson to have a major impact. “I think it’s important that we slow down and sure we’re realistic on what to expect from him right now,” he said. “It’s not because he’s not talented, it’s because this is freaking hard. He hasn’t played a game in forever so he’s not in game shape. There’s got to be an adjustment period for a couple of weeks until he gets more into game shape, gets out there and plays with his teammates, gets a little bit more comfortable. He’s going to go out there and give it the best he can.”
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