4-star '24 SF Billy Richmond begins official visit to Kentucky today

Last weekend, it was five-star point guard Boogie Fland. This weekend, it’s four-star small forward Billy Richmond.

Richmond, who is considered the No. 26 overall high school senior in the country by the On3 Indursty Rtanking, begins his official visit to Kentucky today (Friday, September 15). The 6-foot-6, 200-pound wing will stay in Lexington through Sunday where the Kentucky men’s basketball staff members will roll out the red carpet for one of the team’s top targets.

This will be Richmond’s second official visit so far during his senior year. He was at LSU last weekend and has upcoming OVs scheduled for Memphis (9/29), Kansas (10/6), and Alabama (10/20). Richmond has been to UK before though, taking an unofficial visit back in February.

Weekend Visit Preview: Kentucky, Duke, Texas and more have big weekends ahead with four and five-star prospects visiting programs throughout the country 🎯

Read The Latest Information: https://t.co/nS2QTBdKWh pic.twitter.com/R0B4ejkDbK

— Jamie Shaw (@JamieShaw5) September 14, 2023

For multiple reasons, Richmond is an important recruit for Kentucky in the class of 2024. For starters, his father, Billy Richmond II, played under head coach John Calipari when the latter was leading Memphis back in the early 2000s. Nearly 20 years later, Calipari’s relationship with the Richmonds is paying dividends. Kentucky offered Richmond on New Year’s Day and has been in heavy contact with him ever since.

“It’s a cool relationship, we text from time to time,” the standout wing recently said of Coach Cal. “He likes how aggressive I am and their guards and forwards, they play aggressively. They attack and they like how I attack.”

But the close connections go beyond his father. Richmond is a former high school teammate with a pair of current Kentucky freshmen: DJ Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw. The three played multiple years together at Camden (NJ) High before Wagner and Bradshaw came to UK from the 2023 recruiting class. Richmond also played his final year of grassroots basketball with the NJ Scholars (EYBL), the same program that produced Wagner and Bradshaw.

“You can’t go wrong with Kentucky,” he previously told KSR. “Big Blue is one of the best schools in basketball history, and there’s a great coaching staff there.”

It was actually Richmond’s performance on the AAU stage that pushed him into the conversation of being a top-ranked 2024 recruit. He went from a borderline Top 100 prospect back in the spring to a top-end four-star talent with offers from all of the country’s biggest schools heading into the fall. With the NJ Scholars, Richmond averaged a team-high 18.0 points on 54.0 percent shooting while adding 6.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.4 steals during the regular season, then 13.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game at Peach Jam.

Kentucky has long been considered one of the two frontrunners to land Richmond of his services, the other being Memphis and that program’s obvious ties to him and his family. That being said, he pushed back an initial commitment timeline of mid-summer to this coming fall. He continues to take more official visits too. Richmond going through with all of his visits over the next several weeks could indicate he’s seriously weighing all of his options. He told KSR’s Jack Pilgrim in July that Alabama was right there with UK and Memphis.

“Kentucky, Memphis, and Alabama,” he told KSR. “They are (pushing for me the hardest).”

For those unfamiliar with Richmond’s game, know that he’s one of the more respected perimeter defenders in the entire class. He is a large, physical defender with enough quickness to hold his own against smaller guards who can also dig in and guard larger, frontcourt players. On offense, there is work to be done with his outside shot, but his aggressiveness in getting to the rim is a clear strength. He’s a superior athlete who can get to the rim at will.

So far, Kentucky has just one commitment for the 2024 class in four-star center Somto Cyril.