After leaving Kentucky to become the new head men’s basketball coach at Arkansas, John Calipari has reportedly succeeded in getting a major recruit to flip from the Wildcats to the Razorbacks.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, forward Billy Richmond has decided to play at Arkansas after originally committing to Kentucky in December and later de-committing.
Per 247Sports, Richmond is a 4-star recruit.
Richmond marks the fourth player who has flipped from Kentucky to Arkansas since Coach Cal departed Lexington earlier this month.
Per ESPN’s Jeff Borzello and Paul Biancardi, Calipari’s departure and subsequent replacement with Mark Pope led to the de-commitment of five of the six recruits who had committed to Kentucky as part of the 2024 class.
Richmond joins guard Boogie Fland and forward Karter Knox as recruits who have jumped ship from Kentucky to Arkansas. Also, forward Zvonimir Ivišić transferred from Kentucky to Arkansas after playing under Calipari last season.
Joe Tipton of On3.com reported on Richmond’s commitment to Kentucky in December, noting at the time that Richmond had a significant link to Calipari.
His father, who is also named Billy Richmond, played for Calipari at the University of Memphis, and Richmond made it clear at the time that Calipari’s presence at Kentucky had a lot to do with his decision.
“The reason I chose Kentucky [is] because it felt like this where I need to be,” Richmond said. “[It] felt like home basically.
Great coaching staff, a lot of family ties which made it comfortable and confident for me to pick Kentucky, and just Cal always keeping it real with me.”
The addition of Richmond and other former Kentucky commits is huge for Calipari given the state of Arkansas’ roster when he first took over.
During Calipari’s introductory press conference at Arkansas, he made it clear that he had a lot of work to do, saying: “I met with the team, there is no team. … We gotta get a roster together.”
At the time, On3.com’s Barkley Truax reported that there were no scholarship players from last season remaining on Arkansas’ roster since they all either entered the transfer portal or the NBA draft.
Calipari is far from done in terms of shaping his roster for the 2024-25 season, but Richmond and the other former Kentucky commits give him a solid base of talent on which to build upon.
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