Going off strictly height, Pat Kelsey scored his biggest Louisville basketball commitment by way of the NCAA transfer portal to date Saturday.
That's when Gabe Dynes, a 7-foot-5 native of Independence, Kentucky, announced he's coming home to spend his fourth collegiate season with the Cardinals in an Instagram post, collaborating with On3's Joe Tipton.
Dynes is coming off a junior season at USC that saw him appear in 30 of the Trojans' 32 games (six starts) for an average of 12 minutes per. His final stat line: 2.9 points on 78.8% (41-for-52) shooting, 2.3 rebounds and a block per contest. He broke double digits in three games, with a season-high 16 coming on 8-for-10 shooting across 22 minutes of a Dec. 21 win over UC Santa Cruz.
In total, Dynes finished 2025-26 with 31 swatted shots — good for third on a team that, per KenPom.com, ranked ninth nationally in block rate (14.9%). He had five games with three or more. His season high? Four on two occasions.
Prior to USC, Dynes spent two seasons at Youngstown State after committing to the Penguins out of Simon Kenton High School. He was a member of the Horizon League All-Freshman Team in 2023-24 and made two appearances on the conference's All-Defensive Team. His 3.1 blocks per game (104 total) as a sophomore in 2024-25 ranked third nationally.
Dynes was unranked on 247Sports.com as a senior at Simon Kenton despite averaging 12.6 points and 9.8 rebounds and boasting the No. 2 field-goal percentage (74%, 179 for 242) across the commonwealth.
At UofL, Dynes is likely to back up former Kansas big man Flory Bidunga, the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, at center. He is Kelsey's sixth commitment of the cycle; joining Bidunga, former Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras, former Arkansas wing Karter Knox, former Dayton guard De'Shayne Montgomery and former Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad.
Two members of Kelsey's 2025-26 roster are running it back with Louisville in 2026-27: former NBA G League guard London Johnson, who redshirted the remainder of the season after joining UofL in December, and Adrian Wooley, one of only four guys who appeared in all 35 games of the campaign.
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: Gabe Dynes commits to Louisville basketball via NCAA transfer portal