{"id":715696,"date":"2026-04-22T07:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715696\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T07:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:54:16","slug":"former-iowa-forward-alvaro-folgueiras-commits-to-louisville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715696\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras commits to Louisville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alvaro Folgueiras<\/a> has committed to Louisville out of the NCAA transfer portal<\/a>, On3\u2019s Joe Tipton has learned. Folgueiras will make his way to the Cardinals via the Iowa Hawkeyes<\/a>. Head coach Pat Kelsey<\/a> has been incredibly active on the open market already this offseason. Making an addition like Folgueiras only adds to the quality heading to Louisville for the 2026-2027 season.<\/p>\n

This will be the third school of Folgueiras\u2019 career, likely having just one year of eligibility remaining. Folgueiras started out at Robert Morris<\/a> and turned into one of the league\u2019s best players. The Horizon named him the Player of the Year for the 2024-2025 season. This came after averaging 14.1 points and 9.1 rebounds, while shooting 54.8% from the field and over 40% from three.<\/p>\n

Entering the transfer portal last offseason brought a slew of offers. In the end, Iowa won out, and new head coach Ben McCollum saw the investment pay off. Folgueiras was a key piece for the Hawkeyes coming off the bench, adding 8.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. But it\u2019s in the NCAA Tournament where the numbers really showed up.<\/p>\n

Folgueiras was in double-figures in three of Iowa\u2019s four March Madness games. Clemson<\/a> and Florida<\/a> watched him score 14 points, while Nebraska<\/a> gave up 16 during the Sweet Sixteen matchup. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe coming back after two years and seeing where I am right now, and how much I worked to be where I am right now, for her, it\u2019s a great feeling because she sent a 16-year-old kid to America without knowing any English,\u201d Folgueiras said of his mother, who was in attendance for the Nebraska game. \u201cWithout anything but dreams and hunger. And this one is for her and my dad. He\u2019s watching up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of his commitment, Folgueiras was the No. 54 player to enter this cycle, per the On3 Industry Transfer Portal Rankings<\/a>. He comes in at No. 13 when just looking at the small forward position. Certainly a quality add for Louisville.<\/p>\n

Which has quickly become a recurring theme. Kelsey is putting together quite a group for his third season at Louisville. The Cardinals made some postseason progress by winning an NCAA Tournament game this year. But the standards are only growing and at some point, a run is going to be expected. Maybe it\u2019s with the players Kelsey is acquiring for Louisville ahead of the \u201926-27 season. Folgueiras figures to play a key role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alvaro Folgueiras has committed to Louisville out of the NCAA transfer portal, On3\u2019s Joe Tipton has learned. Folgueiras…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[52402,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-715696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-alvaro-folgueiras-23-dme-academy","9":"tag-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116447285375593199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}