Louisville basketball lands Richmond graduate transfer Khwan Fore

A good week for Louisville basketball got even better on Saturday with the surprise commitment of a graduate transfer guard who is eligible to play this coming season.

After landing a Class of 2019 recruit's commitment on Thursday, Louisville snagged a pledge from Khwan Fore, who played the past four years at Richmond.

A point guard who won a 2011 Alabama state championship in high school, Fore is the second graduate transfer to join the Cards this offseason. Louisville also picked up Samford graduate transfer Christen Cunningham in late April.

Fore, who previously committed to play for Tennessee, reopened his recruitment last week. The 6-foot Fore visited Louisville on Thursday and posted a photo on Instagram late Saturday afternoon of him in a Louisville uniform with the caption, "This how I woke up feeling."

He picked Louisville over Auburn.

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The Alabama native averaged 11 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for Richmond last season.

He received a medical redshirt his freshman year with the Spiders after a foot injury, giving him the extra season of eligibility. In his first full season at Richmond, Fore was named to the All-Atlantic 10 Rookie Team after averaging 6.5 points per game.

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Fore's transfer gives new Louisville coach Chris Mack exactly what he wanted: more backcourt depth.

Within days of taking the Louisville job, Mack said his goal was adding at least two players to the roster for his first campaign at the helm. Guards, especially ball-handling guards, were at the top of Mack's wish list.

With Cunningham and Fore in the fold, Louisville can use rising sophomore guard Darius Perry in a variety of ways without the pressing need for him to play point guard and run the Cards' offense.

Rising redshirt junior Ryan McMahon can also play both guard positions and figures to play a key role in the rotation.

Louisville's roster for next season is back up to nine scholarship players after the recent departure of forward Lance Thomas, who announced his transfer to Memphis on Friday.

The Cards could still use help in the frontcourt, where they only have two scholarship players — Malik Williams and Steven Enoch. But the graduate transfers give Mack more options with his smaller lineups.

V.J. King can play both off-guard and small forward, while Jordan Nwora and Dwayne Sutton can be combo forwards in small-ball rotations.

Fore, who had a 1.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio at Richmond, spent the majority of his time with the Spiders as an undersized shooting guard in Chris Mooney's system. He shot 49.9 percent from the field in his career there, though he made just 31.9 percent from 3-point range.

He started 64 games for Richmond and helped the Spiders reach the 2017 National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals.

Now he'll join a roster hoping to return Louisville to the NCAA Tournament after a tumultuous last season that ended in the NIT.

Jeff Greer: 502-582-4044; jgreer@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @jeffgreer_cj. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/jeffg.