What Ryan Conwell Brings to Louisville

Make that back-to-back days where the Louisville men's basketball program has landed an impact transfer.

On Tuesday, just one day removed for securing a commitment from former Kennesaw State guard Adrian Wooley, the Cardinals picked up a verbal pledge from former Xavier guard Ryan Conwell.

The 6-foot-4, 195-pound guard was one of the top shooters in the Big East this season. Starting all 34 of the Musketeers' games, Conwell averaged 16.5 points per game, while shooting 45.0 from the field, 41.3 on three-point attempts and 82.8 at the free throw line. He also put up 2.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game, earning Third-Team All-Big East honors.

Conwell's three-point percentage ranked third in the conference, while his free throw percentage was fourth and his field goal percentage 10th. Put it all together, and his 61.8 true shooting percentage was third in the Big East, behind only Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner and St. John's' Zuby Ejiofor.

But beyond his stat lines, what else does Conwell bring to the table for the Cardinals?

While many will be enamored by Conwell's various shooting splits, and for good reason in today's era of basketball, what stood out the most to me on his film was that he plays much more physical that a traditional shooting/scoring guard. He has very good body control on drives to the rim, and rarely ever lets contact knock him off his spot.

Conwell is athletic, but isn't super explosive either going downhill or around screens - but he doesn't have to be given his play style. He's still very much an asset on the pick-and-roll and in various transition sets, he just relies on his ability to play through contact vs. trying to blaze right past it. This bodes really well when playing around the rim and in the paint overall. On two-point tries alone, Conwell shot it at a 51.0 percent clip.

Okay, now we can talk about his three-point shooting prowess - and there's a lot to like here. Conwell has a very quick left-handed release on his jumper, and it's extremely deadly in rhythm. He can hit threes in a variety of ways as well: pulling up, spot up, step back, and catch-and-shoot off of a screen. The latter he's particularly adept at, as he posted an effective field goal percentage of 69 percent on catch-and-shoot jumpers, which was in the 98th percentile.

On top of that, he's a threat from pretty much anywhere on the perimeter. Conwell shot it at 40 percent on three above the right break, 39 percent percent on the left side, and logged 21 made threes from at least 25 feet or deeper.

While not super adept at drawing fouls, posting a free three rate of 34.3 percent, he makes up for it by cashing in when he does make trips to the charity stripe. Put it all together, and you have a player who is one of the more efficient scoring threats in college basketball. Only two power conference players connected on at least 50.0 percent of their two-point tries, made 90 or more threes plus 100 or more free throws: Conwell, and Florida All-American guard Walter Clayton Jr.

Conwell is more than just a prolific scorer, too. While he won't be tasked with being the primary ball handler very often, he is an underrated passer. He's got above average court vision for an off-ball guard, and actually delivers very accurate and consistent entry passes.

On top of that, he rarely ever makes the wrong decision when trying to get his teammates involved, averaging just 1.6 turnovers per game and posting a turnover rate of just 12.8. In fact, he's one of just six power conference players who played at least 80 percent of a team's minutes and had a usage rate of at least 22.0, but had an assist rate of 14.5 or higher plus a turnover rate of 13.0 or lower. Two of them were AP All-Americans in Texas' Tre Johnson and Marquette's Kam Jones.

On paper, Conwell's defensive stats might not jump out, as he averaged 1.3 steals per game and had just six total blocks on the year. But watching film, he did seem to show a propensity to jump passing lanes, especially on out-of-bounds plays. Plus, he has a 3.5 on BartTorvik's alternate defensive efficiency metric "D-PORPAGATU," which is above average. So while he's not Chucky Hepburn, he's still someone who will give good effort on that end of the court.

Overall, this is another fantastic pickup for Louisville. Conwell is an extremely efficient scorer who is a perfect fit for Pat Kelsey's scheme, which follows modern basketball trends and places a massive emphasis on around the rim and threes. Pair him with Mikel Brown Jr. and Wooley, and the Cardinals head into the 2025-26 season with one of the best backcourts in the sport.

More Cardinals Stories

You can follow Louisville Cardinals On SI for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleOnSI
Twitter/X - @LouisvilleOnSI
Instagram - @louisvilleonsi

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter/X and @mattmcgavic.bsky.social on Bluesky