Kentucky basketball offers scholarship to high school teammate of Aaron Bradshaw, DJ Wagner

Just hours before Kentucky men’s basketball team helped quiet some concerns of the present with a rivalry win over Louisville, the Wildcats made another move for the future.

On Friday night, class of 2024 shooting guard Billy Richmond reported a scholarship offer from the Wildcats.

Ranked in the 247Sports Composite as the No. 160 overall player in the class of 2024, Richmond plays his high school basketball at Camden High School in New Jersey, a particularly fruitful recruiting pipeline for the Wildcats.

Richmond is a high school teammate of a pair of UK signees in the class of 2023: Aaron Bradshaw and DJ Wagner.

“He just called and talked about how he loved my game and wanted to give me a full scholarship,” Richmond told Zagsblog about getting a scholarship offer from UK head coach John Calipari.

Richmond also holds scholarship offers from Louisville, Memphis (where Richmond is originally from) and Mississippi State.

247Sports lists Richmond as 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, and the high school junior recently gained attention for an impressive dunk while playing with Camden at the John Wall Holiday Invitational tournament this week.

UK continues heavy recruitment of Tri-State area

Kentucky basketball has made it a point in recent years to recruit the Tri-State area hard.

Current Wildcat Lance Ware is a Camden alumnus, and next season the Wildcats are set to bring in Bradshaw and Wagner as well as Justin Edwards, a five-star small forward from Philadelphia.

Also currently on the UK roster is junior guard Kareem Watkins — an older brother of Wagner — who is from Camden, but played his high school basketball at Kingsway Regional High School in Woolwich Township, New Jersey.

In addition to Richmond, Kentucky has several scholarship offers out in the class of 2024 to players based in the Tri-State area, including New York City-based recruits Boogie Fland and Ian Jackson, as well as point guard Tahaad Pettiford from Jersey City, New Jersey.

Calipari was able to get an up-close look at some of these players just a few weeks ago, when Kentucky played in New York City as part of the CBS Sports Classic.

Following Kentucky’s loss to UCLA in that event, Ware was asked about Kentucky’s penchant for recruiting players from this region, and why it’s usually been successful.

“Probably because guys like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, him having success, and other guys obviously being here, like Isaiah Briscoe and people from Philly,” Ware said, citing past success stories of Kentucky recruiting the region. “Through those guys, they’re really close, and the guys all know each other and tell good things about it.”

Ware even provided a specific example related to the recruitment of Wagner, who is currently the No. 1 player in the class of 2023 according to the 247Sports Composite.

“Kareem could tell his brother what it’s like on a day-to-day basis,” Ware said.

Kentucky’s recruiting outlook for 2024 class

Here’s a complete look at the class of 2024 players that hold a scholarship offer from Kentucky.

None of these players have committed to a college basketball program or a professional pathway yet.

▪ PG Tahaad Pettiford

▪ PG Travis Perry

▪ SG Tre Johnson

▪ SG Ian Jackson

▪ SG Isaiah Elohim

▪ SG Billy Richmond

▪ CG Boogie Fland

▪ SF Karter Knox

▪ SF Airious Bailey

▪ SF Amier Ali

▪ C Flory Bidunga