R.J. Hampton, a scoring point guard who would have been one of the top five players in the 2020 class, announced today that he is reclassifying to the class of 2019.
RJ Hampton reclassifies to 2019 and has cut Duke from his list. Kid is a special talent.
RJ, James Wiseman, and Penny Hardaway bringing Memphis back to national relevancy will be the biggest story in College Basketball next season. pic.twitter.com/EpPpfY7qz9
— The Brotherhood (@The_Brothrhood) April 30, 2019
Earlier in April, Hampton talked about his top four schools, and the list at that time included Kansas, Memphis, Kentucky, and Duke.
But with the reclassification, things have changed.
“It’s going to be Kentucky, Kansas, Memphis and we took off Duke and added Texas Tech,” Hampton’s father told 247 Sports.
Tre Jones’ decision to come back as point guard for another year at Duke no doubt played a key role in this decision by Hampton, and Duke may not have any more scholarships to give for 2019 even if Hampton was willing to play alongside Jones (Marques Bolden and Javin DeLaurier are both testing the NBA but likely to return to Durham). Texas Tech, meanwhile, continues to ride the wave with Chris Beard after the run to the NCAA Championship game and is now in the mix for one of the top point guards in the country, who also happens to be a Texas native.
