Austin Nichols was one of the top recruits in the 2013 class as ESPN had him ranked the 15th best prospect in the class. He chose to go to Memphis out of high school and played there for two seasons and had some nice individual success, but now after a long legal battle Nichols has been given the right to transfer to any school he would like.
Nichols reportedly asked in writing for his release from Memphis at first but they didn't grant it in time so he hired a lawyer to possibly take the case to court but Memphis eventually gave in and granted his release with no restrictions on where he can transfer.
Nichols reportedly has a visit with Virginia scheduled for this upcoming weekend and they are the favorite to land the Eads, Tennessee native according to Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com. Virginia isn't the only school interested in the former 5-star recruit though as Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, and Tennessee are among many schools that want the transfer.
When Nichols made his decision to attend Memphis in 2013 he chose them over Duke and his hometown school Tennessee among others. Virginia did not originally make his list of top six schools to attend. Along with Virginia being Nichols' top option to transfer to Parrish also reports that Kansas is at the top of the list as well.
In his two seasons at Memphis Nichols averaged 11 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while shooting 54 percent from the field. At 6 foot-8 he is undersized for a power forward but he held his own on the glass in the American Athletic Conference. Nowadays 6 foot-8 is the size of small forwards in college and the pros but Nichols doesn't have much of a perimeter game and he is best with his back to the basket on offense.
The main knock on Nichols coming out of high school was that he was too thin and wouldn't be able to handle bigs at the college level but since committing to Memphis in 2013 he has put on close to 30 pounds as he is now listed at 228 pounds.
Wherever Nichols decides to transfer to he will have to sit out the 2015-16 season due to NCAA rules and will be first eligible to play in the 2016-17 season. After he does return Nichols will have two more years of college eligibility.
Nichols was once a top recruit and is coming off a very good year with Memphis so the team that adds him will be getting a very skilled power forward to add to their 2016 recruiting class. Virginia is reportedly the prohibitive favorite right now but don't count out anything as the big schools are coming after him hard as well.
