UK basketball is targeting top guards in recruiting. Some are playing locally this weekend.

A couple weekends ago, Louisville was home to a showcase high school basketball event featuring top Kentucky basketball recruits.

Class of 2025 stars AJ Dybantsa and Jasper Johnson, as well as top-ranked 2026 prospect Tyran Stokes, were all in action in front of Kentucky coaches at the Derek Smith Invitational in the Derby City.

Now, it’s Northern Kentucky’s turn to host some of the top-ranked college basketball recruits in the country, including several players who are serious Kentucky targets.

The 2023 Griffin Elite Classic features a loaded field playing at the Griffin Elite Sports and Wellness complex in Erlanger on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The main attractions will be a pair of five-star, class of 2025 guards: Darryn Peterson of Huntington Prep (West Virginia) and Darius Acuff Jr. of IMG Academy (Florida).

Also in action will be class of 2026 guard Tay Kinney, who plays for Newport High School and was a visitor in October to UK’s Big Blue Madness.

Here’s what you need to know about each player, their current recruitment by Kentucky and how to watch them this weekend.

Darryn Peterson

Peterson was the first class of 2025 prospect to earn a scholarship offer from the Wildcats when he did so in August 2022.

Formerly a standout player in his native Ohio at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Peterson transferred last offseason to Huntington Prep in West Virginia. That’s the same basketball powerhouse that helped produce past college stars Andrew Wiggins (Kansas), Thomas Bryant (Indiana) and ex-Cat Keldon Johnson, among others.

Peterson (whose father, Darryl, played at the University of Akron and is one of the top scorers in that school’s history) previously played for the same Nike EYBL program (New Jersey Scholars) as current Wildcats Aaron Bradshaw and D.J. Wagner, but now he plays travel basketball on the Adidas 3SSB circuit.

Peterson recently made headlines by becoming the first high school athlete to sign a Name, Image and Likeness deal with Adidas. He also signed a multi-year deal with Fanatics Trading Cards, which made him the youngest athlete to have a deal with a trading card company.

It should be noted that Kentucky is a Nike school while plenty of other colleges that have extended a scholarship offer to Peterson — including Kansas, the perceived leader in Peterson’s recruitment — are Adidas schools.

Listed as a 6-foot-5, 195-pound shooting guard, Peterson is a consensus five-star recruit across all the major recruiting services: ESPN, On3, Rivals and 247Sports.

While Peterson’s offer list is long, the high school junior is still yet to take an official visit. Peterson took an unofficial visit to UK for Big Blue Madness in October.

Peterson has previous relationships with several players that will either become Kentucky Wildcats, or that the program is also actively recruiting.

Peterson was part of the United States national team that won a gold medal over the summer at the FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship. Other players on that team included 2024 UK signee Jayden Quaintance and the aforementioned duo of Dybantsa and Stokes.

In September, Peterson announced a list of his top-16 schools, which included Kentucky. The full list was: Auburn, South Carolina, Baylor, Oregon, Ohio State, Louisville, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, North Carolina, Kansas, Texas, UCLA, Arkansas, Kansas State and Indiana.

Huntington Prep’s lone game at the Griffin Elite Classic will be at 9 p.m. Friday against Newport (Kentucky), which won the 9th Region title in the spring and reached the Sweet 16 state tournament at Rupp Arena.

Darius Acuff Jr.

Another prolific guard who will be playing in Erlanger this weekend is Acuff, who also transferred this offseason from Detroit’s Cass Tech High School to the renowned IMG Academy in Florida.

The 6-foot-2, class of 2025 guard is a five-star prospect according to ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports.

Acuff took an official visit to Lexington in October for Big Blue Madness. The high school junior’s only other official visit was to Michigan in September. Acuff is also set to visit Rutgers in February.

The recruiting world took notice of Acuff this past summer when he played up an age level on the Nike EYBL circuit. He earned his Kentucky scholarship offer in April 2023, when he was still a sophomore.

“I just want to learn about college more, like practices and all of that. I just want to go down there and get the college experience. Hopefully it will be great,” Acuff told the Herald-Leader in October ahead of his official visit.

Acuff and his IMG Academy team will play twice in Erlanger: At 7 p.m. on Friday, IMG will play Elder (Ohio) and at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, IMG will play Lloyd Memorial (Kentucky).

That Lloyd Memorial team features power forward EJ Walker, a four-star prospect in the class of 2025 according to the 247Sports Composite who holds scholarship offers from the likes of Purdue, Texas A&M and Wisconsin, among others.

In addition to Acuff, IMG is bursting with top college basketball talent this year. A quartet of IMG players — power forward Khani Rooths (Michigan), power forward Donnie Freeman (Syracuse), small forward Chase McCarty (Houston) and center Olivier Rioux (Florida) — have already committed or signed with colleges.

Rioux, a 7-foot-6 center from Canada, is considered the tallest male teenager in the world.

Tay Kinney

While Tay Kinney doesn’t yet hold a Kentucky scholarship offer, he remains one of the most promising young players in the commonwealth.

A point guard for Newport, the 6-foot Kinney is a class of 2026 prospect who starred for the Wildcats as a freshman and helped lead the school to a 9th Region title and an appearance in the Sweet 16 state tournament.

Kinney took an unofficial visit to UK in October for Big Blue Madness.

At this early stage of his recruitment, Kinney already holds scholarship offers from Cincinnati, Illinois, Louisville and Xavier, among others.

Newport will play just one game at the Griffin Elite Classic, at 9 p.m. Friday against Huntington Prep (West Virginia).

Other top prospects set to play in Griffin Elite Classic

In addition to the players detailed above who have interest from the Kentucky program, other high-level recruits will be playing this weekend in Northern Kentucky.

This includes a trio of top class of 2025 prospects from Indiana-based La Lumiere School (small forward Jalen Haralson, combo guard Darius Adams and shooting guard Jerry Easter), none of whom are committed yet.

Point guard Eli Ellis of Moravian Prep recently committed to South Carolina, as did Kentucky-based small forward Trent Noah from Harlan County.

According to the 247Sports Composite, Noah is the second-best prospect in Kentucky in the 2024 recruiting class, trailing only UK signee Travis Perry.

Griffin Elite Classic schedule

Here is the complete list of scheduled games for the Griffin Elite Classic this weekend.

All games will be played at the Griffin Elite Sports and Wellness complex in Erlanger.

Tickets can be purchased online by visiting GEBC2023.eventbrite.com for $10 per game. Additionally, the games will be shown on a livestream that costs $10 per game.

Tickets will also be available at the door for $15 each, while availability lasts. Visit griffinelite.com for more details.

Friday

7 p.m.: IMG Academy (Florida) vs. Elder (Ohio)

9 p.m.: Newport (Kentucky) vs. Huntington Prep (West Virginia)

Saturday

5 p.m.: Harlan County (Kentucky) vs. DeSales (Kentucky)

7:30 p.m.: IMG Academy (Florida) vs. Lloyd Memorial (Kentucky)

Sunday

12 p.m.: Kings (Ohio) vs. DeSales (Kentucky)

2:30 p.m.: Cooper (Kentucky) vs. Legacy Charter (South Carolina)

5 p.m.: Centerville (Ohio) vs. Moravian Prep (North Carolina)

7:30 p.m.: Covington Catholic (Kentucky) vs. La Lumiere (Indiana)