5-star forward Billy Preston eyeing October visit to Kansas

By Matt Tait     Sep 16, 2016

Kansas University basketball recruiting

The 2017 recruiting tour continued on Friday for the Kansas men’s basketball staff, which made its way down to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia on Friday to check in with five-star forward Billy Preston.

Preston, (6-foot-9, 220 pounds, ranked No. 8 by Rivals in 2017 class) who recently trimmed his list to five finalists, including Kansas, told Rivals.com’s Krysten Peek that he planned to make an official visit to KU “sometime in October.”

“I talk to Coach (Bill) Self and Coach (Kurtis) Townsend on a regular basis,” Preston told Peek. “I’m taking an official visit to Kansas sometime in October and I’m just going to take a deeper look into the program and what the relationship is like with the team.”

As of Friday, Preston’s only scheduled visit was to USC, which he will visit on Oct. 8. Indiana, North Carolina State and Maryland round out the finalists for Preston, who told Peek he was still unsure about whether he would take his other three visits.

“USC, Kansas and Maryland have consistently stayed in the mix from the beginning,” wrote Peek. “It will be interesting to see if he decides to set any other visits after USC and Kansas. Preston is in no hurry to make a decision and is taking his time with the process. USC is the perceived leader right now, but things could change after the Kansas visit and open back up if he decides to take his other three official visits.”

Rivals.com’s Eric Bossi reported Friday that Oct. 13 was a tentative date for Preston’s visit to Lawrence but that there also was some talk of Preston considering moving the date to Late Night on Oct. 1.

Bossi and Peek were two of four Rivals recruiting analysts asked to predict the destinations of the remaining uncommitted five-star players in the 2017 class. All four had Preston picking USC.

Of the 19 five-star prospects for which they made predictions, only three were pegged as Kansas-bound, with none of them being considered a clean sweep.

Peek sees Kansas landing Oklahoma point guard Trae Young. Bossi believes Georgia point guard Collin Sexton ultimately will sign with Kansas. And Dan McDonald has Las Vegas wing Troy Brown becoming a Jayhawk.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.