By ADAM ZAGORIA
After getting his release from Duke last week, Boogie Ellis began a visit to Memphis on Thursday, sources confirmed.
The news was first reported by Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com.
The 6-foot-2 Ellis is ranked No. 36 by ESPN.com in the Class. He has no other visits currently planned, sources said.
Memphis assistant Mike Miller has a strong relationship with Ellis and was expected to be strongly involved for him.
Memphis is involved for both Ellis and R.J. Hampton, the guard from Little Elm, Texas,who recently reclassified to 2019 from 2020. His father, Rod, told FloHoops.com the two guards could coexist at Memphis.
“Without a doubt, without a doubt,” Rod Hampton said by phone. “Boogie’s a natural scorer and he’s scorer in a point guard body. But I think he handles the ball well enough that they could complement each other. But Boogie can actually get a bucket.”
The No. 4 overall prospect in the class, Hampton is also considering Kansas, Kentucky and Texas Tech.
Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said he has four scholarships left and is looking to add some major pieces. Memphis is involved for Hampton, Ellis, No. 16-ranked Precious Achiuwa, No. 18-ranked Trendon Watford and No. 79 Lester Quinones, who is down to Indiana and Memphis and will announce on Friday. Memphis’ class already features James Wiseman, the No. 1 prospect in the class and the projected No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, and No. 24-ranked D.J. Jeffries.
“We really want to finish this class off with our last four scholarships being studs, and hopefully we can do that,” Hardaway said Saturday for this story on Forbes Sports Money. “And then the expectations go way high because you give yourself an opportunity to be mentioned in the breath of one of the teams that’s up and coming and in the right direction.”
If Memphis were to land some combination of Hampton, Achiuwa, Watford and Quinones along with Wiseman, the Tigers could have multiple lottery picks in 2020.
“I think that we want the pressure,” Hardaway said. “Being in the position that all of us, me, Mike [Miller] and Sam [Mitchell], we had pressure to get to where we got to, to get to the league. So the pressure of having really players and then putting that on us, and say, hey you need to get here, we understand what that means and we want that. That means that you have a great team and you have the opportunity to win a national championship when they start putting that type of pressure on you.”
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