Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Class of 2025 Five-Star PG Darius Acuff Jr. Visits Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + Latest News

Starting point is 00:00:01 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas finishes a weekend with visits from Rylan Griffin and Darius Acuff Jr., the number one point guard in the class of 2025. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:42 we're going to be discussing the weekend visit that just happened for KU, Ryland Griffin and Darius Acuff Jr. visiting for KU. Talk a little bit about Darius Acuff Jr., what he would bring to the table, how he'd fit into KU, as we've already done our deep dive on Ryland Griffin, and some other notes that are kind of going on with KU related to, I don't know, Liam McNeely, KU Duke stuff, KU women's basketball, bringing in another transfer. So we'll get to all that on today's edition of the show. First, these days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager

Starting point is 00:01:12 for your small business. That's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollegetermsandconditions. Apply. So we're going to start here with the visit. Rylan Griffin, who we already did a deep dive on on that episode,

Starting point is 00:01:29 so you can find that from last week, our Rylan Griffin deep dive. But obviously him coming in town to visit could be pretty prevalent for KU and everything. The other big one, though, is Darius Acuff Jr. And Darius Acuff Jr. is a five-star recruit. He is the number one point guard in the class of 2025. So this would be a player that you'd be looking to join next year. Now, obviously, you never know nowadays. Kids reclassify all of the time.

Starting point is 00:01:55 We'll get to that coming up in our next segment. But he visited KU this past weekend. I guess Curtis Townsend coached Darius Acuff Jr.'s dad. So I guess Darius Acuff Sr. when he was in college or something like that. And if you're looking at what Acuff brings to the table, at the 2023 Nike Elite 100, he measured 6'1 barefoot with a 6'5.5 inch wingspan. That would have been when he was like a sophomore in high school. So, I mean, you're talking about clearly he could have grown even more.

Starting point is 00:02:25 And obviously you play basketball in shoes. So, you know, realistically probably ends up being closer to 6'2", 6'3", and that's before if he even grows anymore. And obviously you know there that that is a plus wingspan, right? DeJuan Harris is what, like 6'1"? I think he's listed maybe 6'2", but probably maybe more like 6'1", or something like that. Has like a 6'6 wingspan.

Starting point is 00:02:44 You know, that's a solid wingspan, kind of similar here for Acuff Jr. The scouting report on Acuff Jr. has a very first quick step, or a very quick first step. You go and watch some of the videos and the highlights and everything, feels like he was able to get a lot of guys onto his hip, because he was able to have a good quick first step I don't know that he's like an overall like he's not like a John Wall Kyrie Irving type of explosive just straight line speed blur by you but the first step is so good and then he gets you on his hip and that's something that like we've seen some KU guards I bring up the name like Frank Mason he was basically as good as that as anybody that that i've seen in my time watching ku of once he got past you initially and got you on his hip

Starting point is 00:03:30 you weren't getting back in front he knew how to handle that and keep you there and be able to leverage that into turning into points and it seemed like darius acuff jr uh was somebody who is really good at that already through the high school age, really knew how to change speeds well from kind of the videos I watched, really liked him driving to the rim. He finished with both hands, like really good driver of the basketball. He even showed kind of a nice counter with kind of good behind the back moves where like he would put the brakes on immediately when a team would overemphasize, hey, you're running fast, like you're going to go to the rim. And then he would just put the brakes on immediately when a team would overemphasize hey you're running fast like you're gonna go to the rim and then he would just put the brakes on really good change of speed

Starting point is 00:04:07 and then shoot a jump shot or shoot a three or something like that kind of about step back when you over pursued that that quick step he didn't shoot well on floaters that's something that he he did you can go watch a decent amount of highlights where he made them but i think uh he only shot like 22 or something like that on theater. So it wasn't like a really good shot for him. He did shoot well on catch and shoots. He shot well on spot ups and hit some deep threes, solid ISO score because he's got that, that first step ability that can get you on your hip and finish there and

Starting point is 00:04:35 driving game. This is what a on three said on Darius Acuff said, Darius Acuff steps on the court with a swagger. He has long arms and purposeful handle. He's capable score from multiple levels, showing deep range off the bounce or the catch. He's comfortable pulling up in the mid-range. He's more quick than fast.

Starting point is 00:04:52 Good first step getting to his spots, but he needs to continue to work on his burst around the basket. Solid passer, making reads and distributing passing on target. Needs to get getting stronger passing off movement. He can also get shot happy. While he has put up big scoring totals, he does so mainly with a lot of shot attempts at this point. His over-dribbling can kill the flow of an offense.

Starting point is 00:05:11 Efficiency is a big thing with Acuff. His totals can be inefficient. He is quick-handed when guarding the ball in the open floor. He seems to be competitive fire, and his cousin plays Division I basketball as well. So that's what On3 said. Here's what 24-7 Sports' Adam Finkelstein had to say. Akoff's scoring and playmaking present was a constant for IMG this week.

Starting point is 00:05:29 This was at one of their tournaments in December. He has good positional size, strong frame to absorb contact, and a ton of craft to his game. Changes pace extremely well and has a soft floater game, good dexterity, and a ton of wrong-footed finishes and passes in his game. He was also a consistent shooting threat from behind the arc with good touch and rotation. There were times when the ball got stuck in his hand, but he showed pinpoint passing at

Starting point is 00:05:48 all times. He threw lobs as well as anyone. So clearly somebody who, you know, when you're looking at Acuff, obviously you're talking about a five-star kid that probably is going to profile into being a one and done. He is the top point guard in the class for 2025. Like he's somebody who you figure can come in right away and be good enough to start for your program. And I think that becomes a pretty interesting for Kansas because at the end

Starting point is 00:06:12 of this year, guess what? A guy who's been starting for you for the last four years with the one Harris is going to be graduating. And so, or gosh, it's been three years. It's been four years with one side,

Starting point is 00:06:23 either way. He's going to be graduating. That's going to be big one side. Either way, he's going to be graduating. That's going to be big shoes to fill in terms of who's going to be that guy, right? Could that be El Marco Jackson? If he has a good year this year and takes that step, could that be a guy like LeBaron Phylon, who seems like there's been some rumors around there about, oh, could he, you know, open up his recruiting and reconsider?

Starting point is 00:06:40 I did see there was something where he like commented on some Instagram post about that and was posted the blue hat emoji basically saying, this is cap. That's not real. So who knows what to think there, but you know, I've heard good things about Phylon and like his leadership abilities and that they would portray themselves to a guy like Devante Graham, like that style of leader with, with Kansas. So, you know, could that be the future point guard? One of those two guys? Yeah, absolutely. Could it be Darius Acuff Jr. You know, for, could that be the future point guard? One of those two guys? Yeah, absolutely. Could it be Darius Acuff Jr., you know, for that year? Or, I don't know, Kansas playing multiple guards

Starting point is 00:07:10 where it's one playing next to the other. Either way, this would be a big deal because he's top 10 recruit. And as you're moving away from the NCAA stuff, we've seen Kansas be able to reel in some five stars and some McDonald's All-Americans. But they haven't really gotten the Josh Jackson, Andrew Wiggins types, especially as consistently since the NCAA stuff started.

Starting point is 00:07:32 Like when you look at some of the recruiting rankings, the highest ranked guys that they they've kind of gotten in that, that stance or, you know, like Grady Dick was obviously awesome as a one and done for Kansas. He wasn't even ranked. And I guess it depends where you look, but he wasn't ranked like in the top 15.

Starting point is 00:07:48 You know what I mean? Like Quentin Grimes was obviously a very high level guy, but he wasn't like, you know, one of your top five type of recruits. And I know Acuff, if you look at some sites, he might be ranked in that like five to 10 range, but he's the number one point guard. And it seems like in a lot of those rankings, like I remember the year Markel Fultz was like coming out of a high school. I think Markel Fultz was ranked like somewhere between like six to 10, same kind of area that Acuff was, but he was the number one point guard.

Starting point is 00:08:12 Markel Fultz obviously ended up being the number one pick in the NBA draft. And I remember him coming out of high school and immediately people were like, yeah, this guy could possibly be the first overall pick in the next year's draft, which he obviously ended up being. I was like, well, why was he ranked like ninth in the recruiting rankings? If that is the case, it feels like there is a, I don't know, maybe bias a little bit to big men and maybe a little bit to wings, maybe deservedly so there because the NBA is constantly looking for wings, but that, you know, a lot of times the number one point guard is going to check in around, you know, number eight or number 10 or something like that, as opposed to being like number one. I don't know why that is. It just kind of is how it goes. Maybe it is the potential of if

Starting point is 00:08:50 you get a good wing is more prominent and important than getting a good point guard. I don't know, but either way, point being that I'm trying to get to here is that yes, Kansas is still recruited at a very high level with Bill Self through the NCAA stuff. But yeah, they haven't had, you know, that top five level recruit, which for all intents and purposes to me, the number one point guard in the class basically is, which you would kind of be getting back to here, right? Because it's a different thing when you're like,

Starting point is 00:09:13 it's such a big deal. Hey, we were able to get Bryce Thompson here and we were able to get even Devon Dotson. Like that's a guy who's ranked around the 20s or Doak was ranked around 30s. And I'm not saying there's anything right or wrong with bringing in – like those guys worked out just fine.

Starting point is 00:09:27 Kansas had a ton of success. I'm just saying that I think maybe in Bill Self's mind, the ideal roster is like that 2016-17 team, not necessarily in terms of how they played or what they had or whatever, but in terms of, hey, you were led by a veteran in like Frank Mason and Devontae Graham, and you filled it out with good role players and stuff, and then you had that extra talent boost with the Josh Jackson coming in. And could that be like a Darius Acuff Jr. next year?

Starting point is 00:09:52 I don't know. Let's talk more about how his fit would be with KU on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, we were brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team

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Starting point is 00:10:49 That is linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. So how would Darius Acuff Jr. fit in with Kansas? Obviously, you know, Rylan Griffin visiting along this weekend as well. And again, check that out, the Rylan Griffin Deep Dive. Thank you to the everydayers who already did tune into that in each and every episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:11:08 And if we get some Rylan Griffin news, at some point we'll have another show on that. But, you know, there's the talk of, oh, well, could he be a reclass? I mean, I guess this is entirely possible, but I'm not going to get into that because I don't think that would be the idea here with Darius Acuff Jr. It doesn't sound like there's been anything from like his side of things that's made us believe that. So if that is something that if he ends up committing to KU,

Starting point is 00:11:32 and then all of a sudden we find out he is going to reclass, we'll talk about what that means if it does happen. And we'll cross that bridge if we get there, because it feels like to me, the idea would be for this kid to be in 2025. So let's just go down that avenue of what it would mean for Kansas to get this kid for 2025. Well, first of all, as you kind of heard me talking about before the break, I think this would mean something in terms of how Bill Self would like to get back to bringing in guys like Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid and Josh Jackson who were one-and-dones, the premier of the premier talents,

Starting point is 00:12:05 even if they're not building it like, you know, John Calipari, where it's just, or what John Shire's doing, where it's just a bunch of them all at once, just to have that one guy mixed into a team with a bunch of veterans, I think can be very, you know, I don't know, of a very profitable way of playing and building a roster in college basketball right um but so you look at 2025 it becomes almost a tryout year here in in 2024 to 25 before Acuff would join for Elmarco Jackson and LeBaron Filon and hypothetically if Elmarco Jackson and LeBaron Filon both ball out in whatever their specific role wants to be, I guess there's not even a guarantee that Acuff would come in and be a starter at that point in time, right? But given what we

Starting point is 00:12:51 saw in year one from Marco Jackson, given that, you know, Acuff is on kind of another level of where his recruiting rank kind of comes in as, I think you would expect Acuff would be a starter. And Bill Self uses two guard lineups all the time, right? So it could be something as simple to say that whoever wins that battle between Omarco and LeBaron Phylon this year, whoever ends up earning the trust of Bill Self more this year, earning more minutes or playing better, whatever,

Starting point is 00:13:16 will have the leg up for one of those two starting guard spots the next year. And then Darius Acuff would be the guy for the other guard spot. And I think that would become very interesting in that does the other guy, whoever kind of loses out on that competition over the course of this season, offseason, the regular season, whatever, between El Marco and LeBaron Phylon, do they transfer at the end of the year should you land Phylon?

Starting point is 00:13:38 But either way, I think that gives you more of a clear vision for who the starting point guard post to Juan Harris would be right. Because right now, as much as it is, you can still point to both those guys on Marco Jackson and LeBaron file on and be like, okay, the plan is for one of those two to be the starting point guard the year

Starting point is 00:13:56 after next year, when DeJuan Harris is gone, it's one thing to point to that and be like, that's the plan. It's another thing to actually see it come through because what happens if Marco Jackson looks very similar to, if not the same guy that we saw this past year, where, yeah, there were the occasional flash, like the big dunk that he had in the Big 12 tournament, or some of the defense that he was providing for KU, or some of the mid-range shooting where he was one of the best mid-range shooters by efficiency on the team,

Starting point is 00:14:29 that you saw some of the flashes, but you didn't see it consistently. If you have that same guy, how great are you going to feel about that coming into the year? What if LeBaron Filon isn't playing a lot because you have DeJuan Harris and Zeke Mayo and El Marco Jackson and some of these other guys that you brought in who can play the two or the three like a Riley Kugel, right? What if he's just not getting a ton of minutes? How comfortable are you going to feel going into that season at that point that that would be your next point guard, even though right now it's easy to say, oh, well, with another year under their belt, like you'll feel better about it. You might not in a year, right?

Starting point is 00:14:56 And then you might be going into the transfer portal. If you bring on Acuff and you get him, you know, to commit to your team and now you can kind of plan ahead for that before you even get to next year, that is such a leg up for Bill Self in evaluating Elmarco Jackson and LeBaron Phylon into the following season. And knowing once you get to that following offseason that you do or don't have to recruit a transfer portal point guard to kind of bring into the system. So I think certainly without seeing Phylon at the collegiate level yet in the one season we did see of El Marco Jackson,

Starting point is 00:15:31 even though I am usually hesitant on freshmen, because, I mean, if we look back, especially recently, you know, every year you're going to have at least one freshman if you're bringing in, say, three, four, five guys, you're going to probably have, I'd say, at least one guy who's not going to live up to the recruiting ranking right like mj rice um i mean we can go back and over this whether it's you know there's different extents of this right like quentin grimes uh maybe it was a bit underwhelming but also he still did play a lot like more in like the wayne selden role whereas you have the different level of it of like the MJ Rice or the Sheck Diallo, though there was the NCAA stuff, which that certainly impacted it too.

Starting point is 00:16:10 But like with those guys, like just basically weren't in the rotation, right? So there are different levels of that and everything. But point being, it is, I think, better to be hesitant on what you're going to get from a freshman coming in. That said, based on kind of the recruiting rankings scouting report the draft prospects all you could have coming back like I think if you do land a cuff you are thinking that yeah come 2025 to 2026 he's going to be the starting point guard along with one of those two guys with Marco Jackson or LeBaron Phylon and right now I almost would feel better that he would be a starter than one of those two guys oddly enough just because because if you have to pick with one of those two, with Elmarco and Phylon, it's like you don't know which one it would be.

Starting point is 00:16:52 Whereas with Acuff, it's like, yeah, I feel like that would kind of be the case, that he would be one of those starters. So obviously it would be a big deal for Kansas and for a team that this next year they're loaded up, or they are loading up, I guess is another way of putting it. But they're going to lose a lot of players after this next year they're loaded up or they are loading up, I guess, is another way of putting it, but they're going to lose a lot of players after this next year too, right? DeJuan Harris is gone just at this point guard position specifically. You're going to lose Zeke Mayo, who's going to factor into this kind of combo guard, ball handling guard as well, right? That's another player that you're going to be losing. You're going to be losing KJ Adams. And if Hunter Dickinson comes back, you'd be losing him at the end of this year for sure right and even with a guy like AJ Storr or Riley Kugel possibly or if you land Rylan Griffin possibly like even though those guys could have multiple years left any of them could transfer any of them could go pro after the year so it would be a big step up if you can land this

Starting point is 00:17:40 commitment now and feel like you have something pretty special coming in tow for the following season in addition to what you've already done pretty excessively and at a very high level in the transfer portal for this next year. Let's continue on here with other notes for KU, the lack of noise on Liam McNeely, KU Duke being scheduled, and a KU women's basketball another transfer on this episode of the show. It's playoff time in the NBA and NHL. Baseball's in full swing. FanDuel is your place to bet on every game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed.

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Starting point is 00:19:01 offseason primer with Transfer Portal Part 2 and whatever else is going on here and also a little NFL draft KU football talk later in the week on our football Friday but um first of all I wanted to talk a little bit about Liam McNeely because that was one where when he decommitted from Indiana certainly there was a lot of I would say talk smoke whatever you want to talk rumors that Kansas was going to be short to follow that they were like the runner-up when he committed talk, rumors that Kansas was going to be short to follow. They were like the runner up when he committed to Indiana and that it was going to be a natural fit for him to come in, especially with, you know, Johnny Furphy possibly going to the

Starting point is 00:19:32 NBA draft, which right now he's declared for. And that Kansas is looking for shooting, Kansas is looking for wings. But then you get to the offseason and who knows, for whatever reason, whether it's something else or whether it's just the decision to say, hey, you know what, look at all these good wings that are in the portal. AJ Store entered the portal. Rather, Kugel entered the portal. Some of these guys where it's like, oh, man,

Starting point is 00:19:55 this guy's proven at the college level. And as much as we think McNeely is going to be or is a good shooter in his profile, that doesn't always translate in year one to college basketball. Like what Grady Dick did and even kind of Johnny Furphy this year was a bit more of the outlier. Like honestly, the shooting and the consistency, those are things that typically go up like some of the most as you get older year in and year out. Like Wayne Seldon came into college and he was thought of as being like a good shooter in high school. And it really didn't come around until year three, like Andre Stojakovic, who's the son of Peja Stojakovic, like one of the greatest three-point shooters in NBA history. And his

Starting point is 00:20:33 profile was coming into college. Like he was a five-star recruit, went to Stanford last year, three-point shooter, shot 32.7% from three. So like, you know, you look at McNeely, as much as we think he's a great shooter, he could come in this year and shoot 33.5% from three so like you know you look at McNeely as much as we think he's a great shooter he could come in this year and shoot 33.5 percent from three which would be fine but like sometimes it's almost better to go with the more proven commodity where it's like it's an AJ store it's like oh okay you know he shot 32 percent last year at college so if that's the baseline you can get up to 35 36 percent this year okay we're golden right so i i think you take the guy that you know and who's kind of done it in college if that ended up being the kind of

Starting point is 00:21:10 conversation here but uh maybe it's not something that i mean he hasn't committed yet so who knows maybe it is something that kansas if the griffin thing doesn't work out or if uh johnny furphy ends up staying in the draft or i don't know some other scholarship opens up and kansas like you know what maybe we could still make this work then. Yeah. Nothing against that. But certainly you can understand if it did come down to, from Kansas's perspective, Hey, like, do we go for AJ store? Do we go for Liam and Neely? Like I get that a hundred percent. By the way, K who's going to be playing Duke. So that'll be cool.

Starting point is 00:21:42 Neutrosite game. I wish it was a home and home. You know, they're going to be doing the home and home with North Carolina, which that's be cool. Nutri-Site game. I wish it was a home and home. They're going to be doing the home and home with North Carolina, which that's really cool. I thought it would have been really cool to do the Duke ones as well. And it sounded like they were talking about doing it. Ended up settling for a non-conference game in Las Vegas. But the KU non-con is loaded as usual. So lots of tough games for KU.

Starting point is 00:22:00 And then the last one here, KU women's basketball landed a transfer in Brittany Harshaw. She's a transfer from Creighton. six foot one guard from Andover, Kansas. So another local kid coming back home along with Sinai Copeland. She played about five and a half minutes per game, 27 games played as a freshman at Creighton. So we'll see what her role ends up being, whether it's just building the depth because KU had a lot of scholarships to fill, whether it's eventually to come in as a starter, but building it with local kids can't hurt. And yeah, I mean, they've got a lot of work to do because, you know, they're going to be trying to certainly,

Starting point is 00:22:33 I don't know, I guess, fill out the roster the best way they can around Samaya Nichols, who could be a burgeoning star in the game, but they have a lot of work to do. And certainly they need probably a big impact center still in the transfer portal coming in. Obviously, they'll have some freshmen coming in, and we'll see if they can pick up where they left off with this nice run over the last three years where they've made two tournaments and won the Women's NIT. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:22:57 You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Class of 2025 Five-Star PG Darius Acuff Jr. Visits Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + Latest News

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