Young scoring guards back in style for UK basketball. That’s good news for this recruitment.

Scoring guards — and young ones at that — are firmly back in fashion for the Kentucky men’s basketball team.

This has largely been true with John Calipari in town: The UK head coach has had a freshman guard lead his team in scoring six times during his tenure in Lexington.

UK’s high-scoring exploits this season have served as a timely reminder of the offensive success freshman guards have had under Calipari: Reed Sheppard’s 32 points on Tuesday night in a comeback road win at Mississippi State was the latest example of a callback to first-year scoring guards of the past like John Wall, Jamal Murray and Malik Monk.

In fact, two different Kentucky freshman guards (Sheppard and Rob Dillingham) have reached the 30-point mark this season.

A look to the NBA landscape also shows how backcourt players have used their brief time at Kentucky as a springboard toward fruitful professional careers.

And it’s clear that Kentucky recruits have been encouraged by the Wildcats’ fast-paced style this season: UK ranks sixth in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency and 18th in the country in adjusted tempo, both per KenPom.

In terms of a current college basketball prospect that would seemingly thrive in this playing style, one Kentucky recruit comes to mind.

Class of 2025 five-star guard Darius Acuff Jr. exploded in the recruiting world last summer as a volume-scoring backcourt presence.

Originally from Detroit, Acuff put up gaudy offensive numbers while playing for The Family on the Nike EYBL circuit. The Herald-Leader was in attendance for the Nike EYBL stop in North Texas and watched Acuff score 30 points on 8-for-16 shooting on 3s.

Just a few months later at the season-ending Nike EYBL Peach Jam event in South Carolina, Acuff continued to flash his scoring prowess, but also showed signs of a more refined offensive game: He averaged 5.2 assists across five games.

Acuff — who made the offseason move from Detroit’s Cass Tech High School to the renowned IMG Academy in Florida — has further blossomed into the kind of dynamic offensive threat that college coaches crave.

“He’s crazy talented offensively, there’s no question about it,” IMG Academy head coach Sean McAloon told the Herald-Leader at January’s Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Listed by IMG at 6-foot-3, Acuff showed his scoring brilliance at Hoophall: He had 28 points (and nine assists) in a win and followed that with a 25-point outing in a loss during which IMG only managed 49 points as a team.

“... He’s got such an array of shots around the rim,” McAloon said. “... He can shoot the 3, and he can get to the lane. He’s got a floater. All sorts of offensive arrays. And he’s tough.”

When speaking to reporters at Hoophall, McAloon didn’t mince words when discussing the process and progress that has come since Acuff joined IMG. Specifically, McAloon cited the strides Acuff needed to make as a defender and a leader.

“He takes accountability. He’s hard-headed, there’s no question about it, he’s a hard-headed kid: He’s from the east side of Detroit. He’s got some stuff to him,” McAloon said. “But it’s about him understanding that it’s a long-term goal. Like, anybody can score on any level, but do you do the rest at 6-foot-2. Are you bringing everyone else along with you?”

Darius Acuff in early stages of major college recruitment

Acuff has ascended to become, in a short span of time, one of the most pursued prospects in the 2025 recruiting class. He’s a consensus five-star recruit and is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 9 overall player in his class.

Unsurprisingly, big-name schools such as Alabama, UConn, Houston, Kansas and Kentucky all have scholarship offers out to him.

The list of schools that have gotten Acuff on campus, though, is much smaller, but it still includes the Wildcats. Acuff has only taken two official visits: To hometown Michigan last September and to UK last October on Big Blue Madness weekend.

While those two schools are currently viewed as the favorites at this still-early stage of Acuff’s recruitment, the potential of a coaching change at Michigan could easily leave the Wildcats in the driver’s seat: Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard is overseeing a dreadful 8-20 season and has under-performed in recent years in Ann Arbor.

The attention fixed on Acuff as a top-tier basketball prospect probably won’t slow down anytime soon. In addition to the interest from college coaches, he’s also on the radar for USA Basketball. Acuff took part in a junior national team minicamp last fall in Colorado.

While at that camp, Acuff told the Herald-Leader about Kentucky’s recruiting pitch to him, and how it centered around bringing him to “the next level” as a player.

And as part of his high-profile college recruitment, Acuff will also have to continue to mature on and off the court.

“His growth needs to be in leadership, being more vocal, not letting small things grow into big things,” McAloon said. “... He’s very coachable, it’s just a matter of getting him over the hump.”

Acuff continues to pursue offensive growth

McAloon referred to Acuff as “a professional scorer,” setting in stone what everyone already knows.

But, even Acuff acknowledged that college recruiters and professional scouts want to see more growth in his overall offensive game.

“People think, like, I’m just a scoring guard,” Acuff said at Hoophall. “I want to show that I’m more of a point guard too. So just doing more (passing).”

“The reason why we really wanted him is because he was a good passer. It was just a matter of him trusting it. That was the main thing,” McAloon added. “I saw him make some passes in the summer (that) I thought were elite. As far as point guards are concerned, in his class, I don’t think anyone can pass the ball like him. In my personal opinion. And score. But now everyone’s starting to see the passing because he never had to (before). But he’s got great vision.”

Continued trust in this passing ability could take Acuff into a tier of his own as a prospect.

“Acuff is in a great place developmentally where he can really go in any number of realistic growth curves to take himself to the next level as a prospect,” Zach Welch, an analyst for Pro Insight Basketball, told the Herald-Leader. “The big key overall is striking more balance in his offensive approach: This could be improving his ability to play on or off the ball, making his scoring approach more consistently diverse or looking to integrate creating for himself and others together even better.”

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