Arizona Basketball: Recruit Billy Preston down to his final 4

Class of 2017 junior power forward Billy Preston has his list of schools down, Arizona Basketball made the list, now he’s talking about his final four.

Five-star power forward junior recruit Billy Preston cut his list down to four on March 10th: Arizona, Kansas, Maryland, and USC. He cut his list down from a whole lot down to four because he didn’t feel it was fair to the other coaches. Already like him.

Preston is a Los Angeles native who recently transferred high schools to play at Advanced Prep International. The same high school as 5-star Arizona commit Terrance Ferguson! Preston stands 6-foot-10, weighs 230-pounds and is ranked No. 7 in ESPN’s Class of 2017 Top 60.

Preston isn’t only close to Ferguson, he is also close to Kobi Simmons, we assume they all get to know each other at showcase events. He also has a relationship with former Arizona Wildcat Stanley Johnson!

Preston publically professes that Johnson is one of his favorite athletes.

Billy has bounced around a bit in high school transferring twice in two years, from St. John Bosco in Bellflower, Calif., to Redondo Union High School, in California and then to Prime Prep in Dallas which closed down. He finally landed at Advanced Prep International also in Dallas, Texas. He is on the National radar, so the bouncing he’s doing on the court is doing the talking.

Zona Zealots recently caught up with Billy at Redondo Union’s regional CIF Playoff game last month. His presence is substantial, his hand enveloped mine, palming a basketball has to be no problem for Preston.

Terrance Ferguson is trying to recruit Preston to join him at Arizona according to Chris Cirillo of SNY.TV.com. Arizona 2016 class Is top-notch, and that has to be a draw for Preston. “He’s been recruiting me early before he was even committed,” Preston said. “So, I talk to him about that all the time.” 

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Arizona’s 2016 class includes Ferguson, Rawle Alkins, Kobi Simmons, and Lauri Markkanen, which is going to rank in the top 10 in the nation if not the top five. Many fans are happy that Alkins signed his NLI today, what a relief! This 2016 class has to have Preston thinking harder about Arizona more now than on March 10th when he narrowed his list.

Preston already took a few unofficial visits to Maryland and plans to make an official visit. He also plans on visiting Kansas and Arizona; he’s been to USC several times will log his official visit with the Trojans this week.

The current Crystal Ball prediction from 247Sports is 90% chance for USC, and 10% for Arizona. Experts are banking on the Pac-12 for Preston, the disparity in predictions between these two school is huge!

John Gershon of Scout.com recently caught up with Billy at the EYBL and he mentioned how he felt about coach Sean Miller, “Coach Miller is definitely a Players coach. He thinks I am a very versatile, he’s not going to make me play in any certain position.”

Catch the full interview below:

Billy visited Arizona unofficially on December 20, 2016, and plans another visit, so things could get interesting even though it seems USC is high on the list. Since the Trojans have significantly improved and made the NCAA tournament, it’s hard not to want to make a splash as a star at USC.

Next: Arizona Basketball: Getting to know Arizona Target Timmy Allen

When talking about his schools, you notice he wants to play for a coach who will not box him into a corner with one position, the key word he uses is a ‘versatile’ player, and he wants to be coached as such. Last season, Miller tried every combo of player and position, so that’s not a problem at Arizona. After all, Arizona is A Players Program, and that’s not lost on Preston. BearDown Billy!