Five-star senior Precious Achiuwa announced his commitment to Memphis on Friday, giving coach Penny Hardaway and the Tigers the No. 1 recruiting class in the country.
Achiuwa, who is Memphis’ fourth commitment in the past week, chose the Tigers over Kansas, although he also took an official visit to North Carolina.
A 6-foot-9 forward from New York who attends Montverde Academy (Florida), Achiuwa is ranked No. 17 in the ESPN 100. He slots in as the No. 5 power forward in the country but will likely play small forward at the next level.
Achiuwa is a high-level athlete with long arms, agile feet and good positional size. He has tremendous value on the defensive end of the floor, where he is capable of guarding the pick-and-roll, moving his feet laterally on the perimeter and even serving as a secondary rim protector. On offense, Achiuwa is most effective in transition, where he runs the floor extremely well, is quick off his feet as a finisher and can play through contact.
He earned McDonald’s All American honors this season and was the most productive player in March’s game with 22 points and nine rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench. He also averaged 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game for New Heights on the Under Armour Association circuit last spring and summer.
Hardaway now has the No. 1 class in his first full recruiting cycle as Memphis coach. Achiuwa joins a loaded group that includes No. 1 overall prospect James Wiseman, five-star forward D.J. Jeffries (No. 25), ESPN 100 four-stars Rejean “Boogie” Ellis (No. 38), Lester Quinones (No. 81) and Malcolm Dandridge (No. 100), and local four-star prospect Damian Baugh.
Memphis also landed Little Rock graduate transfer Rayjon Tucker, who was ranked No. 2 in ESPN’s transfer rankings.
The Tigers are now likely out of scholarships for the 2019-20 season, but they had been in the mix for elite guard R.J. Hampton (No. 5) and five-star forward Trendon Watford (No. 19).
ESPN recruiting analyst Adam Finkelstein contributed to this report.
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