To say that the Louisville Cardinals had a disappointing season last year would be an understatement. A storied college basketball program, the Cardinals finished a dismal 4-28 overall and 2-18 in ACC Conference play. It was a trying season for first-year head coach Kenny Payne. But reinforcements are on the way. Louisville has managed to pull in a strong recruiting class for this upcoming season with a mix of incoming high school players and players from the transfer portal. One of those players set to make an immediate impact for Louisville this season is junior college transfer Koron Davis.

Koron Davis' commitment to Louisville happened rather quickly. He committed to the program just ten days after the coaching staff gave him an offer. Aside from the staff's recruitment and how Davis feels like he can fit in Payne's system, choosing Louisville as the next place to to continue his basketball journey was a easy one of the Indiana native.

“That's home, that's back home,” Davis told ClutchPoints. “That's where I'm from, I'm from the Midwest. So that's basically back home.”

To this point, it's been a long journey away from home for Davis. After starring at Bowman Academy in Gary, Indiana in high school, he made the decision to attend Paris Junior College in Texas. As a freshman he, put up 15.7 points per game and 6.6 rebounds. Following one season at PJC, Davis made the move out West to California to play at LA Southwest College, another JuCo. It may not have been the traditional path to Division 1 basketball, but Davis doesn't regret the path he chose.

“It's been a blessing. I feel like I had been overlooked and just basically had to take a longer route,” Davis said. “But now I'm basically where I wanted to be and where I dreamed of playing. It's tough but now I got to get to work. I just want to win, that's all I want to do. Get noticed basically, I feel like I've been overlooked. This is the time now, the lights are on now.”

Playing at LA Southwest was where Davis began to flourish. As a lead guard, he began to rise up on the junior college ranks. In 18 games last season, Davis averaged 23.8 points per game, 6.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists. He shot 48.1 percent from the field, 33.o percent from the three-point line and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line. His scoring was good enough to finish in the top three of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA).

Junior college wasn't always in Davis' plans, though. Like many high school basketball players, he imagined that he would be playing D1 much earlier in his journey. It doesn't always work that way though. Navigating the world of high school basketball and ultimately progressing to the NCAA can often feel like a sprint when in actuality it's more of a marathon. Despite taking the road less traveled, Davis is still going to accomplish his goal of playing at a storied college basketball program.

“Junior college, that's just the beginning. That's just the start of this all,” Davis said, “Don't be down on yourself about going to junior college. That's how I was feeling at first but that's just a start. It's not where you're going to end up. That's just getting you more looks, basically.”

One of Louisville's most glaring needs following last season and the exodus of several players into the transfer portal was a primary playmaker and ball-handler. Someone capable of being the point guard and quarterbacking the team. That's an area that Davis figures to help out with right away. He flourished as a primary ball-handler at LA Southwest and it's a skill that should be able to translate to the NCAA level.

But aside from just his ball-handling and playmaking, Davis is looking to contribute in any areas that the Cardinals were lacking in last season.

“I feel like I can bring my scoring ability and playing defense,” Davis said. “I've got length so I can bring rebounding and stuff like that. I'm trying to do the stuff that people aren't doing, basically.”

In addition to Koron Davis, Louisville has managed to bring in one of the better recruiting classes in the nation. That's a major accomplishment for a program that suffered through last season and it's a testament to the culture Payne is hoping to build. The Cardinals have a total of five incoming high school players and three transfer portal additions.

The high school class includes Dennis Evans, Trentyn Flowers, Ty-Laur Johnson, Caleb Glenn and Curtis Williams Jr. The transfer portal group includes former five-star recruit Skyy Clark, Tre White and Danilo Jovanovich. As of publication, Davis was set to join his new teammates on campus. He's been able to take a glance at what the roster should look like this upcoming season. He believes this group can be the start of something special.

“I think it's going to be a big change from last year. We plan on winning, everybody is focused on winning so we can't go wrong,” Davis said. “Everybody wants to win so we got to do what it takes to win. Most of us got a chip on our shoulder from last season. People think we aren't going to be good because they had basically one of the worst records. But we all have a chip on our shoulders so I feel like we're going to do good.”

Before leaving for Louisville though, Koron Davis could be found playing in the famed Drew League in Los Angeles. Every season the summer pro-am attracts some of the top professional, college and even high school basketball talent in the country. Davis was playing for a team coached by former NBA All-Star point guard Baron Davis. A perfect lead guard to learn from before he took off for Louisville. With the reputation that the Drew League has, Davis knows his strong play there can translate to the Cardinals next season.

“Getting tougher, I want to get tougher. This is like street ball, basically,” Davis said. “I just want to get tough from playing in this and hopefully it carries on to playing at Louisville.”