Resilient.
ground-breaking.
UncontainablE.
Prior to LuHi on November 9, 2020, during Covid-19, at a practice while at IMG Academy, after a steal and a break-away dunk; Lou’s body momentum carried him forward and his body was parallel to the ground 8 feet in the air. His hands slipped off the rim, and he put his left arm down to break a head-first-fall. The middle of both his radius and ulna bones (in his forearm) in between his left elbow and left hand snapped in half, puncturing his muscle and his skin, and he began to bleed out. The IMG team trainer quickly pushed the double compound fracture and both bones back into Lou’s skin and stabilized the bleeding, so Lou could be rushed to the hospital by an ambulance for trauma surgery. After a 5.5-hour trauma surgery, Lou was told he would not be back for at least 6 to 8 months or more. They cancelled practice for two days and brought therapists in for his teammates and his coaches.
After getting out of the hospital Lou told everyone that would listen, “I am going to come back stronger and better than I would have otherwise been, I am going to make it to be drafted into the NBA.” He worked relentlessly with the Gatorade Performance and Sports Science Institute on IMG’s campus, and to everyone’s shock (college coaches, doctors, trainers, physical therapist, players, teammates, IMG coaches, teachers, friends, family members), within 10 weeks (2.5 months) Lou was back at practice (full contact) with a special brace, and after 16 weeks (exactly 4 months) after the injury he was released with no brace as 100% physically healed by both the Surgeon and the Gatorade Science Center physical therapist. Lou was and is uncontainable by faith, he has unshakeable belief in God, and tremendous mental toughness. Lou had missed his entire Junior year on IMG’s National Team, transferring to Long Island Lutheran (LuHi) for a very impactful and successful Senior year. At LuHi, Lou committed to play college Basketball at the University of Rhode Island to continue his journey to achieve his dream to play in the NBA.
Lou began his college career as the first and only true-Freshman recruit for the then new University of Rhode Island (URI) head Basketball Coach Archie Miller. In the third game of the season and Archie’s first win, Lou came off the bench for the team Captain a sixth year Senior who was injured to score 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, 2 steals, guarding 4 positions, and grabbing three rebounds against Stony Brook. Coach Miller had insightful and encouraging comments and predictions about Lou prior to the game, and very positive comments about Lou during the press conference after the game. Lou credit’s Coach Archie for giving him a strong foundation for future success at the beginning of his college career.
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​At the end of Lou’s Freshman season at URI, Coach Archie decided to “go much older with the team” for the following year. Lou was the second youngest on the roster. The vast majority of players (80%) on the URI roster either graduated or entered the transfer portal. Lou entered the portal extremely late, and transferred to Charleston Southern University to play for Coach Barclay Radebaugh. Lou loved Coach Radebaugh’s faith filled tough coaching approach. During the pre-season Lou’s grandfather with whom Lou was extremely close died quickly and unexpectedly from cancer. After Lou started the first 7 games at Charleston Southern, Coach Radebaugh abruptly resigned, Lou’s grandmother had a mini-stroke, and 4 additional family members died, all within 60 days. Lou reluctantly redshirted for the remainder of the year; transferring to Grambling State University.
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At Grambling during the SWAC Conference Tournament Semi-Finals with 11 minutes left and Grambling down by 17, Lou came in and completely disrupted the game imposing his will on defense guarding 5 positions, scoring 9 points, with 2 critical assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 3 clutch 3’s under duress, and 1 in overtime to help seal the victory upsetting Southern who was the #1 seed in the SWAC Conference Tournament.
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​Hailing from a tremendously athletic family, Lou's father was a Division I tennis player at the George Washington University. His aunt was a basketball star and the 6th all-time leading scorer at Clemson University (Clemson Hall of Fame), his uncle played Division I football, and he has more than a dozen cousins, aunts, uncles, and grand-parents who have played Division I sports. Serious in the classroom as well, both of Lou's parents have doctoral degrees, while his sister Naya – who performed for Fordham's elite Alvin Ailey dance program – recently finished 2 undergraduate degrees and a master's degree all from Fordham University at 22 years old.