Next month will be a big one for the Memphis basketball program.
2024 4-star recruits Curtis Givens III and Billy Richmond III will both take official visits to the Tigers in September. Givens will visit from Sept. 22-24. Richmond, who took an unofficial visit to Memphis in March, will be on campus from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.
Givens and Richmond—two Memphis natives—are both ranked as top 60 players in the class of 2024. Givens is No. 33 on On3, No. 53 on 247Sports and No. 39 on ESPN. Richmond is No. 37 on On3 and 247Sports, and No. 20 on ESPN.
Both players also have prominent family ties to Memphis’ business scene. Givens’ father, Curtis Jr., is a notable businessman and philanthropist in the city. Richmond’s father, Billy Jr., played for John Calipari at Memphis from 2002-2004. He also played for Vanderbilt in 2001 and is the founder of The Wing Guru, a popular chicken wing franchise in Memphis.
Despite this, both Givens and Richmond are playing high school basketball away from their hometown. Givens, a former star at MUS, is entering his second season at Monteverde Academy (Fla.). Richmond, who previously played at East High, will play his second season at Camden High (N.J.).
Memphis’ Chances for Givens and Richmond?
Givens wasn’t too productive in his first season at Monteverde last year. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 4 points and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 45% from the field in 2022-23.
His true talent, however, was fully on display this summer during the Nike EYBL season. Givens averaged 15.2 points and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 41.8% from the field and 30.6% from three-point range for Mokan Elite.
He recently took a visit to LSU earlier this month, and also plans to visit Texas, Indiana and Villanova. Memphis will be Givens’ last visit, and is the assumed favorite to land him as of now.
Richmond averaged 11.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last season at Camden. He played alongside 2023 5-stars DJ Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw, who are both going to Kentucky.
The 6-foot-5 guard also impressed on the EYBL circuit this summer. He averaged 15.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting 55.7% from the field for the NJ Scholars.
Richmond released a top 8 schools list today. It includes Memphis, Kentucky, Miami, Texas, Louisville, LSU, Alabama and Kansas. He has also scheduled five official visits, including Memphis. He’ll also visit LSU from Sept. 8-10, Kentucky from Sept. 15-17, Kansas from Oct. 6-8 and Alabama from Oct. 20-22.
Memphis is pushing hard for Richmond, but is not expected to land him at this point. Kentucky is the heavy favorite to sign Richmond as of today.
