Montrezl Harrell makes Louisville a Final Four contender

The Tweet Heard 'Round Louisville just drastically changed Louisville's 2014-15 season outlook.

Montrezl Harrell's tweetnouncement that he'll return to Louisville for his junior year changes the Cardinals from a first-weekend NCAA tournament team to a Final Four contender. Yes, it's that important.

Read: Harrell returns for junior year

I spent the past two weeks pestering everyone I know who knows Harrell, and there were a few things they all seemed to agree on:

(1) If he came back, and improved at the rate he progressed over this past season, Harrell could play his way into the top 10 of the 2015 NBA Draft.

(2) The NBA folks who communicate with Louisville indicated that the 6-foot-8 forward would be a late first-round draft pick, and that he'd likely have to spend some time in the NBDL. The guaranteed contract would be there for Harrell, who said that was the most important factor if he were to leave, but there was concern that if he left early and was drafted by a playoff team, his likely lack of playing time would hurt his earning potential for a second contract.

Read: How Montrezl Harrell's game has evolved

Harrell's return will likely make him a co-captain alongside Wayne Blackshear, and it gives Louisville a fifth returning player with a lot of experience.

He was the second-leading scorer on the team and the top rebounder. The 6-8, 240-pounder was also 35th in the country in effective field-goal percentage and one of the top offensive rebounders, by percentage, in the nation.

Here's Louisville's likely starting lineup with Harrell back:

PG - Chris Jones

SG - Terry Rozier

SF - Wayne Blackshear

PF - Montrezl Harrell

C - Mangok Mathiang

Louisville also gets Akoy Agau and Anton Gill back, and both players are expected to play larger roles this season, especially Gill.

With those core seven back, and walk-on David Levitch, Louisville has 53.7 percent of its scoring, 56.4 percent of its rebounding, 45.4 percent of its assists, 54.1 percent of its steals and 74 percent of its blocks coming back.

Louisville already faced high expectations from national media before Harrell's decision was announced. Joe Lunardi listed Louisville as a projected 3 seed in his "Way Too Early Bracketology," and most media outlets projected Louisville as a top-20 team. His return makes U of L a preseason top-10 team, in my opinion, and suddenly the evolution of a few key players becomes even bigger.

"I'm ready to get back in the gym with my team and with my coach," Harrell said. "We lost a lot of pieces, but if the young guys come in prepared to work, we still have a good core group of guys."

If Terry Rozier and Chris Jones take year two leaps, that'll sure up the backcort. Gill should get better physically and defensively to back up Rozier, and incoming freshman Quentin Snider will be a solid backup for Jones.

Then Blackshear's progression could make or break his status. He was named co-captain of the 2014-15 team with Harrell on Monday, but if he doesn't become the player Pitino hoped he'd be when he signed him three years ago, freshman Shaqquan Aaron is college-ready.

Harrell's return up front eases the need for Mathiang to blossom quickly. Instead, he will grow without the pressure of needing to be "The Guy" in the post. His length and increasing confidence are both going to help next season.

The incoming freshmen big men, particularly Jaylen Johnson and Chinanu Onuaku, will fight with Agau for backup minutes, and that's another benefit for Louisville by having Harrell return: The young freshmen big men won't have to produce as quickly as originally thought.

Blackshear said Harrell's return puts national contention back into the conversation for Louisville. I agree.

"He definitely put that back on for us," Blackshear said. "It's great that he made the decision to come back to school because he's a great player."