Noah Waterman & Reyne Smith sign pro-basketball contracts overseas
Over the weekend, Louisville basketball alums Noah Waterman and Reyne Smith signed deals to play overseas.
Waterman will join the Yamagata Wyverns, a second-division team in Japan’s B-league, for the 2025-2026 season.
The 6-foot-11 forward spent his sixth season of college ball with the Cardinals, and in 20 games, he averaged 6.1 points and 3.7 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game. Throughout Waterman’s time in Louisville, he struggled with his jump shot, but mostly because of a thumb injury he sustained in December.
Waterman broke his shooting hand thumb on December 21 at Florida State, but battled his way through Louisville’s next five games with pins in his thumb. The Savannah, New York, native hit the game-winning layup against Eastern Kentucky just a week after his initial injury — a play that many remember to be a turning point in the season, and the Cards went on to beat their next nine opponents.
The stretch big had his best offensive performance when he dropped a season-high 16 points against Indiana at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Against Kentucky and his former coach, Mark Pope, he brought down 12 rebounds and parlayed them into 12 points.
Despite missing several games during the conference slate, Waterman had plenty of big moments. He was able to play in front of 30-plus family and friends at Syracuse, and scored his 1,000th career point against Pittsburgh. Waterman was a critical piece in Louisville’s “Reviville” season.
Smith will be headed back to his home country of Australia after signing a two-year contract with the Cairns Taipans of the NBL, according to ESPN’s Olgion Uluc. The 6-foot-2, sharpshooter not only etched himself as one of the most prolific knockdown shooters in the nation last season, but as one of the best in school history.
The Aussie tallied 18 starts in 31 games last season, averaging 13.1 points and connecting on 3.45 3-pointers a contest. Smith’s 107 makes from distance last season are the second-most ever by a Cardinal in one year — behind Taquan Dean’s 122 in the 2004-2005 final four season.
Smith shot 37.9 percent from beyond the arc last season and shot 94.4 percent from the foul line, missing just three freebies. He even set the Cards’ single-game 3-point record at SMU, where he netted 10 triples for 30 points.
However, his senior season ended in heartbreak. Smith sprained his ankle in the last week of the regular season and missed Louisville’s run to the ACC title game against Duke, and after attempting to gut it out against Creighton in the NCAA Tournament, he rolled that same ankle and did not return.
Smith did play for the Denver Nuggets in the NBA’s Summer League, playing in the final contest of the “season”. He scored 17 points, shooting 5-of-13 from 3 in 26 minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers. Then, the next day, the Ulverstone native got a phone call from the Washington Wizards asking if he could play for them later that night. Smith accepted the challenge and played 18 minutes and scored five points.
The NBL season begins on September 18.
Louisville didn’t have any players drafted in its first year under Pat Kelsey, but two fan favorites will get to continue their basketball careers at the professional level.
