Chucky Hepburn commits to Louisville basketball, Pat Kelsey via transfer portal

Chucky Hepburn was so loyal to Wisconsin men’s basketball that he got a badger tattooed on the inside of his left arm.

Now, the veteran guard may be looking for a spot to put a cardinal.

Hepburn, who made the Big Ten’s All-Defensive Team this past season, committed Thursday via an Instagram post to spending his final year of eligibility playing for Louisville and new head coach Pat Kelsey during a visit to the 502.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound junior is Kelsey’s eighth addition through the NCAA transfer portal this offseason.

CBS Sports as of Thursday considered Hepburn the 19th-best transfer on the market. The Athletic had him at 39th overall.

After his pledge, the Cards’ portal haul ranked 11th on 247Sports’ national leaderboard.

An Omaha, Nebraska, native, Hepburn has started all 103 games of his collegiate career to this point. In his third season at Wisconsin, he averaged 9.2 points on 42.9% shooting while going 37 for 115 (32.2%) from 3-point range across 33.2 minutes per contest.

Hepburn finished the 2023-24 campaign second in the Big Ten with a 3.2 assist-turnover ratio and 2.1 steals per game. Those marks ranked 14th and 37th across Division I, respectively.

He was twice an All-Big Ten honorable mention and, this season, a member of the conference’s all-tournament team. That’s because his best game of the year scoring-wise was when he dropped 22 points during an upset win against national runner-up Purdue in the semifinal round.

“He has the ability to take a game over and to make plays,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said after a win over Western Illinois in November. “That’s the luxury of having a mature point guard.”

The Badgers finished the 2023-24 season with a 22-14 (11-9 Big Ten) record and reached the conference tournament championship game. They earned a spot in March Madness but fell as a No. 5 seed in the first round to No. 12 James Madison; which featured new Louisville commit Terrence Edwards Jr., a redshirt junior wing.

For his career, Hepburn is averaging 9.8 points on 39.5% shooting (36.5 from 3), three assists against 1.3 turnovers, 2.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals across 32.1 minutes per contest.

In a statement posted to Instagram announcing his transfer portal entry, Hepburn said the decision to do so “is not a reflection of anything lacking at Wisconsin. Rather, it’s an opportunity for me to explore new possibilities and continue my journey in pursuit of my dreams.”

A few days later, when asked about the departures of Hepburn and fellow all-conference guard AJ Storr, Gard chalked it up to the ever-changing name, image and likeness (NIL) landscape.

“The earning power window is really small,” he said, according to a video from Karley Marotta of WKOW 27 News in Madison, Wisconsin. “When they have those type of opportunities in front of them, that’s hard to say ‘No’ to. So I don’t begrudge them at all for that.”

Joining Hepburn and Edwards on U of L’s 2024-25 roster are Aboubacar Traore, a junior forward from Long Beach State; Koren Johnson, a sophomore guard from Washington; J’Vonne Hadley, a senior guard from Colorado; and two players who were members of Kelsey’s final team at Charleston, junior guard Reyne Smith and freshman forward James Scott.

Kelsey has also secured a commitment from Aly Khalifa, a junior center from BYU; but the 6-11, 270-pound Egyptian plans to redshirt during the 2024-25 season while rehabbing a knee injury.

As of Thursday, all of Louisville’s scholarship players from the 2023-24 season had entered the portal, which is open through May 1.

At the time of publication, seven had found new homes:

Chucky Hepburn highlights: Watch Louisville basketball transfer portal commit

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Chucky Hepburn commits to Louisville basketball, Pat Kelsey via portal