Minnesota banks second official visit for 4-star guard from Texas

Chase Richardson is a consensus top-100 recruit in the national Class of 2027.

4-star Texas high school recruit Chase Richardson with Minnesota head coach Niko Medved. | Chase Richardson via Instagram

Chase Richardson, a 4-star recruit from Texas, visited the University of Minnesota over the weekend.

It was an official visit for the fast-rising point guard, who is considered among the best in the national Class of 2027. Rivals/On3 has Richardson ranked No. 50 in the nation, while 247Sports puts him at No. 76 in its composite rankings.

Competition for Richardson is already steep, and his inbox will likely get more crowded as he plays out his high school years with two more seasons of basketball.

Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Iowa, Miami, California, Virginia, and Xavier have all offered a scholarship to Richardson. Richardson grew up a Notre Dame fan, and the Irish were his first official visit on Sept. 12. Minnesota appears to be his second official visit.

"After a great conversation with [Niko Medved] and [Aaron Katsuma], I am excited to announce an offer from The University of Minnesota. Thank you to the Gophers coaching staff!" Richardson announced in mid-September.

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As a sophomore at Friendswood High School in the Houston metro area, Richardson averaged 14.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2.2 steals while shooting 43% from the field.

The Gophers have three commitments in the Class of 2026, but none yet in the 2027 cycle, though head coach Niko Medved has sent formal offers to in-state standouts Ty Schlagel of Cretin-Derham Hall and Baboucarr Ann of Maple Grove.

The Gophers held a scrimmage over the weekend, serving as a tune-up for Thursday's exhibition opener against North Dakota State University. The game will be available only on B1G+. It's the first of two exhibitions — the second is Oct. 25 against North Dakota — before the nonconference schedule begins Nov. 3 at Williams Arena against Gardner-Webb.

This is Medved's first season at Minnesota, and he's working with an entirely new roster. The only returnees from last season's team are Isaad Asuma and Grasyon Grove. Asuma averaged just over 5 points per game while playing 24 minutes on average, while Grove redshirted as a true freshman.

During the weekend scrimmage, there were rave reviews about the pace of play and ball movement in Minnesota's offense. That's exactly what Medved said fans should expect to see.

"Spacing, ball movement. I think you'll see a team that off the ball, you don't see a lot of standing around," Medved said when fall camp opened last month. "When the ball's moving and people are moving, I think that's been a staple of what we do. It's one thing to do it in the summer. It's a lot different thing to do it as you start getting up and down, you get fatigued, and there's another opponent across from you."