Louisville lands Florida sharpshooter Noah Locke

The good transfer news rolls on.

Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Chris Mack continued to address Louisville’s outside shooting concerns by landing Florida transfer Noah Locke. Locke confirmed the news Sunday morning.

Locke chose the Cards over Kansas, Indiana, North Carolina and UCLA, among many others who expressed interest.

Known as an outside assassin, the 6’3 Locke started 79 of the 92 games he played in for Florida. His 217 made three-pointers over the last three seasons are the ninth-most in the history of Gator basketball. He leaves the school just 77 points shy of joining its 1,000-point club.

As a sophomore in 2019-20, Locke shot 48.0 percent from three in SEC play, tying for the highest outside shooting percentage in league play since 1996 (minimum 50 attempts). He has shot better than 40 percent from three overall in each of the last two seasons, and 68 percent of his shot attempts for UF came from beyond the arc.

Locke’s numbers have been remarkably consistent over the past three seasons, which I guess can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you want to look at it.

See for yourself:

The knocks on Locke are that he struggles to create his own shot, doesn’t do enough off the bounce, and goes through stretches where he is a subpar on-ball defender. A lack of athleticism, not a lack of effort, are at the heart of these deficiencies.

With David Johnson and Carlik Jones both being able to beat defenders off the dribble at will, Locke’s outside shooting would have made him an invaluable asset on this past year’s team. As long as El Ellis is as good as advertised (or if Jones ultimately comes back for one more year), Locke’s deadly outside shot should still get a workout inside the KFC Yum Center next winter.