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Julian Richardson, a 6'2" 175 lb. shooting guard from Woodland Hills, CA and plays at El Camino Real High School. He plays his AAU ball for Cali Supreme, where he put up 11 ppg and 2.8 apg at the Nike Peach Jam. Richardson just reported a host of new offers, including one from Villanova.
Cal Supreme 2014 Julian Richardson tells me new offers from Long Beach St, Weber St, Grand Canyon, USF Minnesota, Villanova @IamRich_24
— Corey Pegram (@CoreyPegram) July 23, 2013
Dating back to his first offer from Fresno State in late April, Richardson has mostly been viewed as a mid-major prospect, clocking in at a 2-star rating from both ESPN and Scout, while not yet being rated by 247sports. With that in mind, there are a couple of ways to look at those latest offers from USF, Minnesota and Villanova.
At Minnesota, Richard Pitino has been making loads of offers to elite players as he looks to cement a banner class in his first year as coach. Richardson could be a more realistic target. The same goes for Villanova, which is in intense recruiting battles for players like Ja'Quan Newton, Phil Booth and Robert Johnson. Is the Richardson offer an indication that Jay Wright is moving to plan B?
Then again, reports from the Nike EYBL circuit suggest that Richardson shot the ball extremely well for Cali Supreme, and he could be the type of sniper that many schools look to bring in to augment the offense. As we know, Villanova hasn't had a sniper since Corey Stokes, and outside shooting has been an element that has been quite the eye-sore in recent seasons. Perhaps Richardson has played his way onto the high-major scene and he's due for a bump in the rankings. Keep in mind that Robert Johnson was listing VCU as his top school a month ago - now Indiana and North Carolina are hard after him.
Food for thought - time to debate!
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