Can 6 freshmen, 6 veterans and a grad transfer lead Louisville to a national title?

When the Jack O' Lantern Spectacular at Iroquois Park comes down after Halloween, Louisville basketball takes over as the biggest show in town. And it's been a while since the spotlight was this bright.

You know coach Chris Mack by now, just like you know preseason ACC player of the year and AP All-American Jordan Nwora. You know about the six freshmen, and the Louisville kid Dwayne Sutton playing for his hometown in his final college season, and the top-5 preseason accolades.

You know the names and the numbers, and you know this is the team Mack's been building since he took the job in early 2018. Now, it's time to see how it all looks on the court.

It's been six years since the Cardinals were ranked this high coming into the season, and that year, they were coming off a national title. Louisville was ranked No. 5 in the country this month in the Associated Press top 25, the program's best preseason ranking since coming in at No. 3 in 2013.

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The ACC will be tough and looks to be wide open at the top. No one, Mack said, is sweeping all conference games this season. But the Cardinals have been penciled in by experts as a potential frontrunner – and they've heard about it, too.

"I don’t think anybody in the league is going 20-0," Mack said earlier this month. "I could be wrong, but the league is so difficult and challenging, we just have to get our team ready to go, be ready – more ready than we were a year ago."

You can tell Mack has had some sleepless nights thinking about some of his team's tougher losses last season. And he's probably not alone.

The Cardinals wilted in the spotlight in last February's collapse against Duke, and didn't look much better in overtime losses to Florida State and Pittsburgh. Louisville's 86-76 defeat against No. 10-seed Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA Tournament left a foul taste in the mouths of plenty of people around the program.

This is a new season, though, and a new team. With six high-rated freshmen and a grad transfer point guard taking the keys to the offense, expect a different brand of basketball, even if some of the faces are familiar.

St. Joseph's transfer Fresh Kimble should make an impact in his lone season with the Cardinals, while each of the six freshmen – Aidan Igiehon, David Johnson, Josh Nickelberry, Quinn Slazinski, Samuell Williamson and Jae'Lyn Withers – have a chance to play significant minutes as well.

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Ryan McMahon, Louisville's wily redshirt senior sharpshooter, said the Cardinals have started to form an identity over the summer.

"Last year, everybody was new to Coach Mack," McMahon said after a recent scrimmage. "We didn’t really know how his practices went, what he was expecting in terms of intensity and physicality.

"When you have six returning guys that are setting the tone every day in practice, when you have freshmen who are bought in, they’re going to do nothing but follow your lead. From day one, when we were having small practices over the summer, they kind of realized ‘all right, this is what college basketball is like.’"

The freshmen will be key, but expect big things from those six returning players.

Nwora is a star but has a big target on his back, with preseason accolades rolling in from all over the country, including Associated Press preseason All-American honors. Sutton can do it all and will be asked to do even more in his final season. McMahon is a shooter who changes everything about the game when he's on the court.

Darius Perry could be looking at a make-or-break junior season and will be a key contributor. Steven Enoch and Malik Williams (when he returns to the court in November) are do-it-all impact centers with all the potential in the world.

There's talent at every position, and lots of it. Now, it's on Mack and the Cardinals to prove they're worthy of the hype.

"We know what we can be," Perry said. "We know that our ceiling is very high and we just want to be able to reach whatever potential that there is for us to reach."

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach. Support strong local journalism and subscribe: www.courier-journal.com/lucasa.