BOL Preview: Pair of highly ranked basketball recruits set to officially visit Alabama

For the first time this month, Alabama’s basketball program will welcome prospects in town for official visits.

Nates Oats and his staff are gearing up to roll out the red carpet for two of the top uncommitted prospects in the 2024 class. Those are Memphis (Tenn.) Camden’s Billy Richmond and Grovetown (Ga.) Prolific Prep’s Derrion Reid, who are each top-10 small forwards on the On3 Industry Rankings. Both prospects have visited Bama at least once prior to their upcoming visits.

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This is a crucial weekend for the Crimson Tide as they look to add another piece to a class that currently has just one commitment: Five-star Aiden Sherrell.

BamaOnLine takes a look at Alabama’s upcoming visitors and where things stand with them.

Could Alabama add another top prospect from Prolific Prep?

There is understandably a lot of optimism as it pertains to the Tide’s pursuit of Derrion Reid.

Reid, who visited Alabama back in June 2022, has long been on the program’s radar. The No. 16 overall recruit in this class collected an offer from Bama back in October 2021. The staff has made numerous visits to go see him play in person, most recent of which being for the Top Flight event in Las Vegas this past weekend.

As such, there’s already a good amount of familiarity between Reid and the Tide heading into this multi-day visit.

Also, Reid included Alabama in his top three just under a month ago. The Peach State native put Florida State and the Georgia Bulldogs in his final group as well. In a conversation with BOL this week, Reid hinted that a decision could arrive soon as he said he’ll be narrowing his list down after the visit.

“They’ve really been rocking with me since last year. All three of my schools have been rocking with me since last year, so the bond has been there,” Reid told BOL. “With Bama, I’ve seen what [Coach Oats] can do with his players. I’ve talked with older players that have played under him. Just the connection with the coaching staff and seeing what he can do for me. Seeing I can immediately make an impact over there.”

Another factor working in Alabama’s favor in their pursuit of Reid is the possibility of him being able to team up with a couple of players he is familiar with.

They’ve only been teammates at Prolific Prep for less than three months, but Reid regularly hears from Aiden Sherrell about making the move to Tuscaloosa. Uncommitted Five-Star Plus+ big man Asa Newell also recently told BOL that he and Reid have discussed the possibility of teaming up with each other at the next level. Newell has a final group of Alabama, Georgia, Gonzaga, and Texas, so the only two options for them to play together would be Bama and UGA.

ICYMI: Five-Star Plus+ PF Asa Newell talks latest with Alabama

Speaking of the Bulldogs, the program hosted Reid for an official visit two weekends ago. Florida State got him on campus for an official in early September.

The timing of Reid’s visit to Alabama certainly bodes well for the Crimson Tide as a decision could potentially be on the horizon. Reid’s mother, grandfather, and grandmother are set to join him on the trip to T-Town. The visit is expected to wrap up early Sunday morning.

BOL will look to catch up with Reid or one of his family members after the conclusion of this visit.

Bama to welcome Richmond back for a second time this fall

Alabama jumped into the mix for Billy Richmond Jr. back in May of this year.

Even though this offer occurred later in the process than it did with Reid, Bama has put in the work for Richmond. Richmond has stated in multiple interviews since his offer that the Tide are one of the programs pushing the hardest in his recruitment. Not only that, the No. 9 small forward in the 2024 class has said that Oats has been actively involved in their pursuit of him.

Bama has done enough to this point to make it past two rounds of cuts for Richmond and land in his top four. The other finalists in his recruitment are Kentucky, LSU, and Memphis. BOL has yet to catch up with the 6-foot-6 prospect, but Richmond had the following to say about Alabama in the summer.

“I like how Alabama plays,” Richmond previously told On3. “A lot of big guards come from there like Brandon Miller. The game style is there for me, and it’s a great coaching staff.”

Also worth noting is that Richmond took a surprise unofficial visit to Alabama the first weekend of September, so this will not be his first time stepping foot on campus.

Of course, there are a couple of big players in this recruitment.

Kentucky has the big lead for Richmond on the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine at 87.6 percent. He officially visited the program in the middle of September, and returned to the school last week. His father, Billy Richmond, played for Kentucky head coach John Calipari at Memphis.

Speaking of which, the Tigers are another program high on the Memphis native’s radar. He is close with head coach Penny Hardaway, and took his official visit to the program three weeks ago.

That said, Alabama is still in the race for Richmond, and could potentially be the final visit in his recruitment. A decision date is not yet known.

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