Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Where Does Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Go After 5-Star PG Darius Acuff Jr. Commits to Arkansas

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Where does Bill Self and Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball turn to after 5-star class of 2025 point guard Darius Acuff Jr. commits to Arkansas Razorbacks and John Calipari. All aboard the Darryn Peterson hype train and what it all means for KU.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

On today's bonus episode of Locked On Jayhawks, Darius Acuff Jr., five-star point guard in the class of 2025 is a Razorback. What it means for Kansas, all in on Darren Peterson. 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.

Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every one of our shows. You wouldn't want to miss it. We had Phil Steele on with us earlier this week talking a little KU football, but some KU basketball news today that we're going to get into on this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Darius Acuff Jr., who is a five-star point guard, is picking Arkansas. So we'll get into that, what it means for KU, and where they go from here for the class of 2025.

So Acuff is a 6'3", 180-pound point guard. He is a five-star recruit and a top five national recruit by 24-7 Sports. He had Kansas in the final three, but he decided to go to Arkansas to play for John Calipari. Not that that is a huge surprise that, hey, five-star recruit wants to play for John Calipari. We that that is a huge surprise that, hey, five-star recruit wants to play for John Calipari. We've seen that a time or two before. So where does KU go from here?

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With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or tie, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay Guaranteed Fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back. Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need at the prices you want it's easy to make your car the mvp and bring home huge wins keep your ride at eye live at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply ebay guaranteed fit only available to u.s customers so who is dari zakoff jr if you didn't know he plays at img academy right now he's a class of 2025 player, which means not obviously this upcoming season. It would be next season, 2025-26, when he would be a freshman.

6'3", 180-pound point guard. He is rated as low as 18th by on three, where he's the number two point guard. That one seems to be the outlier. The other three main sites all have him as a top 10 recruit. ESPN has him 10th with the second point guard. Rivals has him ninth, but the fourth point guard, that's because they're counting guys who are more combo guards as point guards. And then 24-7 Sports is the high watermark.

They have him fourth overall in the class and the number one point guard in the class. Darren Peterson, who we're going to talk about later, is listed as a combo guard for what it's worth, though Peterson would be higher than him if you're just talking combo guard slash point guard all in one same breath. But this is an elite recruit. He is somebody who is a Detroit native, and I think we had an episode earlier in the offseason. If you're in every day, you would have caught that. He is somebody who is really good first step. He's able to get guys on his hip really well, drive into the lane and finish at the rim because of that quick first step that allows him to kind of just keep you there on his hip with that good combination of things. Showed an ability to shoot the basketball. I guess he has a good wingspan.

He's like almost a plus five in terms of the wingspan. Good feel on kind of the pick and roll. He can score the basketball. He is the prototypical like Bill Self. You think of like one of those point guards that could score. That would be Darius Acuff Jr. Not that he can't pass. He is a good passer, but I think the scoring is definitely

the more notable part of his game. And he's not like this uber athlete. He's not like John Wall, Kyrie Irving type speed. But again, that first step is very, very good. And he just is an overall really good scoring guard. And so he would have kind of brought you back. Kansas is going to be losing to Juan Harris at the end of next season or this season, I guess, whatever you want to refer to.

And there's going to be a sizable hole at the point guard position. And KU was in it strong for Darius Acuff for a little there, it seemed like. And honestly, there was a point where it seemed like maybe that was the lean. I think he had a visit with Kansas back in, I guess it would have been the spring when he visited Kansas and seemed to, things seemed to be kind of going well there. I guess he was in on Michigan for a while when Juwan Howard was there, obviously being a Detroit native, you know, kind of kept him around there. And he was in on Kentucky for a while when John Calipari was there. Now that Calipari goes to Arkansas and obviously Calipari has the track

record of putting guys in the NBA. Now we can have the argument all day long about, well, any coach would have put, you know, name the point guards that he's had, right? John Wall or, I don't know, I guess if you want to, I don't know why I thought of Marquise Teague second, just maybe because that has the kids crossover, because that's not the second most point guard. But you're talking about the Harrison twins, right?'re looking at tyrese maxie what he's doing

with the 76ers you can talk about that those guys would have gone to any college and worked their way into the first round or been a one and done and i think there is a little bit of truth to that but at the end of the day perception is reality and so if these recruits see these guys are going to play for this coach and go into the nba and're like, hey, if it ain't broke, why fix it? And we can talk about, well, John Calipari hasn't been the best college basketball coach over the past handful of years. And again, fairness to that. But like, guess what? Recruits, a lot of them, especially if you're Darius Acuff, like they do care more about that NBA stuff. Even if it is perception over reality, that is the reality when it is the perception. So that's what ends up kind of happening there.

And so for Kansas, I think it seems like all the way along, they've been going hard after Acuff and hard after Darren Peterson. And there had been kind of some talk, scuttlebutt, that maybe the ACUF side, the ACUF party, I guess you could say, has been certainly a, I don't know, circus has too negative of connotations. I don't want to use that word, even though I just brought it up. But it's been a little wild to work with that party. And I'm sure that's the case for a lot of high-level recruits when you're, especially now, factoring in NIL and all this stuff that you have to factor in

and recruiting. But Acuff would have been a really good player for KU. And it's, it's not necessarily a big loss because in recruiting, you don't necessarily lose someone. You still have an opportunity to go out and get somebody else who's really good. I think in an ideal world,

Kansas would have loved to have been able to say, Hey, let's get Acuff and Peterson. But I don't know if either of those players would have been on board with that. And so from that perspective, if you are choosing between Acuff and Peterson, notice that Bill Self has been – and maybe this was just an indication that he felt like Acuff was leaning toward Arkansas. I don't know. But Bill Self has been at, like like Darren Peterson's games at whatever,

like AAU events he's been at recently. It's like every game. He's like watching the full game. It seems like Kansas is doing the full press on Darren Peterson. So, again, where does that kind of lie between the two? To me, I'm a little bit more of a Peterson guy over an Acuff guy, but Acuff is still an outstanding player, and you would have loved to have him and then tried to convince Peterson to come too.

So let's talk more about that. Where does KU go from here when you're talking about the future point guard for the Jayhawks? This episode, though, is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. I love sports. I love them so much. I never want them to stop, but as the playoffs wind down, we get fewer games and the sports aren't sporting like I want them to. But FanDuel lets me keep the sports going whenever I want.

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So where does KU go from here? No Darius Acuff Jr., and we talked about this earlier in the week, if you're an everydayer, you tuned into it. Who's going to be the future point guard for KU basketball come 2025 to 2026? DeJuan Harris graduates, Zeke Mayo graduates, Shaquille Moore graduates. Those are your three ball handlers from this year's team. Marco Jackson will be back, and he'll have experience in the system, one year of play, one year of

play, one year of sitting basically with the injury, and at least you would hope absorbing a lot mentally from what Bill Self wants and the scheme and system and everything like that. But that's going to be a big question coming off a big injury. If Elmarco would have played this season, maybe he would have been the favorite next season. Maybe he'll still be the favorite. We'll see how he comes back from that injury but that kind of remains a question because of the injury unfortunately then you have the transfer portal which is still out there you have the rest of high school recruiting and there's some other good point guard recruits that are still out there i've mostly made this a darius acuff and darren peterson conversation there are

other really good point guard recruits that are out there the ku is offered the ku is interested in etc etc uh but darren peterson is the big one because Peterson, he's listed as a combo guard. Seems like to me, based on some of the quotes he's given, that the idea would be for Bill Self to kind of play him at the point guard. Now, I think that would be viewed in the same light as you would get another ball handler to play with him. That could be El Marco Jackson, where maybe you play both and they can kind of alternate bringing the ball up the floor, initiating the offense, whatever, or somebody else you bring on. But it is kind of all aboard the Darren Peterson train now who is ranked third on 24, seven spots or sports one spot ahead of Darius Acuff Jr. They're a little bit different games, but you know, they're both really good

players. I don't mean to take away from one to, you one to boost up the other, but yeah, I do lean to be more of a Peterson guy than an Acuff guy. So if you're not landing Acuff is partially because you are the favorite to land Peterson and you do end up landing Peterson, it works out okay. Where it gets sticky is that what if the Peterson thing, what if one of his upcoming visits to, I think he's visiting like Ohio State and I forget where else, like what if the Peterson thing, you know, what if one of his upcoming visits to, I think he's visiting like Ohio state and I forget where else, like what if he just, they knock it out of the park on one of those visits and he ends up staying at home and go to Ohio state or picking one of these other schools, then all of a sudden you're in a different situation.

And Kansas is still going to be okay because they're, like I said, are other really good point guard commits and recruits still available out there. And the transfer portal, we know there will be point guards and scoring guards and combo guards that are available out there that are ready to have a big impact. So Kansas will, but when you're talking about option one, when you're talking about option 1A, it was Peterson or Acuff.

Those were your 1A and 1B in some order. Seems like for KU, Peterson might have been 1A. So we'll see where that goes from here. But certainly you would have loved to have Acuff, so you just had that one ready and available, and then you could go all aboard Peterson. But again, that might not have ever been a possibility for both those kids. They might not have, you know, wanted to play with each other.

Not that, you know, they don't get along, but they just might have both wanted to be the lead ball handler, and you can't have two of those guys come in, right? So that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back on Monday to talk a little more KU basketball, the top five strengths for KU hoops in the 2024 to 2025 season. We'll have plenty more KU football content. Make sure you're subscribed anywhere you get your podcasts,

including on our YouTube page. See you next time with LOJ.